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A new artist is sounding the visual alarm about the American state of affairs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Mark Thomas Gibson, self-dubbed an “American history painter,” has created three new works for the museum’s Banner Project, each of them starkly addressing the country’s political climate.
The Banner Project: Mark Thomas Gibson exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Eunice and Julian Cohen Galleria PHOTO: © MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON
The banners are part of an ongoing “Town Crier” series that Gibson launched in 2021 in response to the political landscape in the United States. Historically, the role of the town crier would be to announce the news of the day in the town square. Gibson’s cartoon-style crier, a Black man dressed in colonial garb and clinging to a horse for dear life, takes matters into his own hands and directly addresses the danger of current legislation.
“I think the ideals of the promise of the United States have been questioned in so many ways,” said Carmen Hermo, the Lorraine and Alan Bressler Curator of Contemporary Art. “Mark felt like a very critical voice, the way the artists can and should remark on what’s going on in our current moment.”
The three 10-foot-tall panels hanging at the MFA are inspired by the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere’s ride. One of the panels reads “They’re here! They’re here! No! Not the British, no, this time it’s an inside job! The greatest threat to American democracy no longer comes from across the pond!” The reverse of the panels shows a painting of the American flag but the stripes are harsh waves that are perhaps drowning the country’s people.
The Banner Project: Mark Thomas Gibson exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Eunice and Julian Cohen Galleria PHOTO: © MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON
Gibson updates the series regularly and posts works responsive to the onslaught of daily news on his Instagram page, @darthgibson. The MFA installation will be on display through June 2026.
The museum has been running the Banner Project since 2019, launched with a trio by artist Robert Pruitt. Since then, many diverse artists have displayed their work in this larger-than-life style. Hermo says the simpler installation style of this project allows the team to be more responsive to current events than with larger exhibitions that take years to plan.
Even still, visitors will notice how much has already changed from when Gibson created these crier panels at the end of May. References to banned books feel like an old battle compared with the new threats to health care and disaster relief. It illustrates clearly just how much is changing and how quickly.
“I think there’s something kind of affirming about seeing this fictional character who in some ways is perceived to be kind of a small dude up against history,” said Hermo. “All of a sudden he’s large. He’s 10 feet tall. And I think people will see that we, too, should speak out.”
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