Kent Bicentennial Portfolio: The Spirit of Independence

WHAT’S HAPPENING AT THE MUSEUM SEE WHAT’S ON AT THE TAUBMAN Alex Katz (American, born 1927), Washington, 1975. Lithograph. Gift of Lorillard, Division of Loew’s Theatres, Inc., 1976.006   The Kent Bicentennial Portfolio, titled “Spirit of Independence,” includes 12 prints made by 12 American artists. The portfolio was commissioned by the Lorillard Tobacco Company in celebration of the United States’ Bicentennial in 1976. The twelve artists represent some of the leading contemporary artists at that time: Will Barnet, Colleen Browning, Audrey Flack, Red Grooms, Joseph Hirsch, Robert Indiana, Alex Katz, Jacob Lawrence, Marisol, Larry Rivers, Edward Ruscha, and Fritz Scholder. Each of the 12 artists included in the commission was free to choose their subject and depict it however they wanted. Their only prompt was, “What does independence mean to you?”, and their only requirement was that the work needed to be either a lithograph or serigraph. The artists were free to choose print size and the printers who produced the editions. The Taubman Museum of Art (then the Roanoke Fine Arts Center) was one of two recipients of the portfolio in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts was the other recipient. The 12 prints in the portfolio were the first 12 works to be accessioned into the Museum’s Permanent Collection in 1976. The portfolio offers a window onto how these contemporary artists thought about the United States and the idea of independence in the 1970s. Exhibiting them in 2026, the Semiquicentennial of the United States, allows for visitors to consider what has changed or stayed the over the past half century. Add to Calendar Driving? Get Directions Share This! Exhibition and educational support for the Taubman Museum of Art’s 75th Anniversary is generously supported in part by the Richard and Caroline T. Gwathmey Memorial Trust, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee. EXHIBITION PREVIEW Marisol (Venezuelan-American, 1930-2016), Women’s Equality, 1976. Lithograph. Gift of Lorillard, Division of Loew’s Theatres, Inc., 1976.007 Jacob Lawrence (American, 1917-2000), The 1920s… Migrants Casting Their Ballots, 1974. Silkscreen. Gift of Lorillard, Division of Loew’s Theatres, Inc., 1976.010 Fritz Scholder (Luiseño, American, born 1937-2005), Bicentennial Indian, 1975. Lithograph. Gift of Lorillard, Division of Loew’s Theatres, Inc., 1976.012 KEEP EXPLORING View All Upcoming Exhibitions Mar 06, 2026 – May 31, 2026 Mindy Lam: Transcendent Beauty View Exhibit Mar 06, 2026 – Aug 16, 2026 75th Anniversary: New Visions for the Permanent Collection View Exhibit Oct 15, 2026 – Jan 24, 2027 American Made: Paintings and Sculpture from the DeMell Jacobsen Collection View Exhibit