20|21 Art 
27 September 2024
Josesph Diggs, The Cancer- Death of a Baller - Image 1 of 3
Josesph Diggs, The Cancer- Death of a Baller - Image 2 of 3
Josesph Diggs, The Cancer- Death of a Baller - Image 3 of 3
20|21 Art 
Josesph Diggs, The Cancer- Death of a Baller - Image 1 of 3
Josesph Diggs, The Cancer- Death of a Baller - Image 2 of 3
Josesph Diggs, The Cancer- Death of a Baller - Image 3 of 3
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Josesph Diggs b.1958

The Cancer- Death of a Baller

2017
x-ray, photograph, brass screws, and oil on wood panel 20 h × 16 w in (51 × 41 cm)
estimate: $2,000–3,000
result: $4,032
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Proceeds from the sale of this work will benefit the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, Brattleboro, VT.
Signed to lower left ‘Diggs’. Signed, titled and dated to verso ‘2017 Joseph Diggs The Cancer Death of a Baller J. Diggs’.
provenance: Donated by the artist to the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, Brattleboro, VT

This work will ship from Lambertville, New Jersey.

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Addressing Inequality

Joseph Diggs's The Cancer - Death of a Baller

Though Joseph Diggs was born to a military family in Croix Chapeau, France, he spent his childhood on Cape Cod, where he continues to live and work. After earning his MFA at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Diggs experienced a profound turning point in his artistic practice when James Byrd, Jr. was murdered by white supremacists in Jasper, TX in 1998. Since the event, he has regularly grappled with racial inequality while his mark-making has evolved to employ symbols he developed for a painting memorializing Byrd. He has commented that his life and paintings “embody the contradictory dialectic of my existence as a land-owning Black man in America” and in the present work, The Cancer - Death of a Baller, Diggs pays homage to the players of The Negro Leagues while also pointedly reminding viewers of the devastating toll the menthol cigarette industry has had on Black Americans.

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