Underneath a bright red parasol held by an attendant, an elegantly dressed woman in white examines textiles for sale. In this bustling linen and vegetable market, enslaved people, free people of color, and white people visit with one another and buy and sell their wares. In this scene, Brunias pays careful attention to textiles, both the linen for sale and the striped and checked cotton worn by women in the market. The ships in the background hint at the global trade networks involved in importing these textiles. Brunias drew on ethnographic images in his work, and here the gazes of the figures reinforce the acts of looking and comparing — heightened by the presence of a woman who surveils the scene from a window. By representing this polite commercial space, Brunias obscures the larger market that drove this economy: the sale of human beings.
Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2025
