Financial History Issue 113 (Spring 2015) | Page 10
THE TICKER MUSEUM NEWS
Museum Displays “Legal Tender” Exhibition
Featuring Currency Flag Paintings of Artist Emily Erb
On April 1, the Museum opened “Legal
Tender,” an exhibition featuring the work
of Philadelphia-based artist Emily Erb.
The solo exhibition consists of large-scale
flag paintings depicting US paper currency
produced from 1862 through the present.
In 2012, Erb began to examine the subject of money through her painting practice. Pulling a dollar out of her pocket
and photocopying the front and back at
18 times its original size, the artist then
layered silk fabric over the enlarged photocopy and trace-painted the two sides of the
giant bill. The result was an enlarged replica that the artist hung like a flag in various public spaces throughout Philadelphia.
In “Legal Tender,” Erb ironically offers
up 12 representations of metaphorically
counterfeit money as a luxurious creative medium of exchange in silk paintings installed from flagpoles. Conflating
American currency with patriotic symbols
of national identity, the artist initiates a
dialogue on what constitutes the nation’s
collective value system.
“Legal Tender” was curated by the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts’
Gretchen Hupfel Curator of Contemporary Art, Maiza Hixson. It will be on view
through August 31, 2015.
Artist Emily Erb employs the ancient Indian
technique of silk painting to reflect a global
perspective on the history of American money.
Shown here are the fronts of three of the
12 flags in the “Legal Tender” exhibition.
JUN 2
1987
President Reagan taps an economic
consultant named Alan Greenspan to
replace the renowned Paul Volcker as
chairman of the Federal Reserve.
8 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Spring 2015 | www.MoAF.org
JUN 6
1964
The Securities Exchange Act — which
created the US Securities & Exchange
Commission (SEC) — is signed into law
by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.