Mississippi Museum of Art Acquires Four Significant New Works

The Mississippi Museum of Art (MMA) has announced four significant additions to its permanent collection. The centerpiece of the acquisitions is Portrait of Frederick (c. 1840), attributed to C. R. Parker (1799–1849). One of only two known pre-emancipation portraits depicting individuals who were enslaved in Mississippi, the work was purchased in partnership with Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. At MMA, Portrait of Frederick will join Portrait of Delia (c. 1840–1849) by James Reid Lambdin, the only other known formal oil portrait of an enslaved individual in the state.

The Museum has also acquired This Water Runs Deep (2022), an epic mixed-media work by Jamea Richmond-Edwards. Featured in the landmark exhibition A Movement in Every Direction, co-organized by MMA and the Baltimore Museum of Art, the piece explores the artist’s family history along the Mississippi River, interweaving myth and memory with monumental visual storytelling.

Also new to the collection are works by two artists with deep Mississippi roots. Jackson-born, Brooklyn-based photographer D’Angelo Lovell Williams is represented with self-portraiture that examines narratives of Black and Queer intimacy, including the striking Structural Dishonesty (2016). Mississippi-based textile artist Coulter Fussell contributes Hot Water (2022), part of her “River Raft Quilts” series, which reimagines quiltmaking as a form of personal escape and navigation. Fussell’s first museum survey exhibition is scheduled at MMA in March 2026.

“These works represent a storytelling arc from the 19th century to the present,” said Betsy Bradley, MMA’s Laurie Hearin McRee Director. “We are delighted to have acquired these distinctive pieces with ties to Mississippi’s history and contemporary artistic practices.”

Rod Bigelow, Executive Director of Crystal Bridges, added, “Portrait of Frederick is an extraordinary and rare work that offers a deeply human and historically significant view of our nation’s past. We are thrilled to partner with MMA on this acquisition, ensuring this story will be shared with audiences across our communities.”