Ard Berge

January-April 2003, oil on linen, 22“h x 18“w.

This imagined encounter of Thomas Jefferson and Nelson Mandela juxtaposes two founding fathers of their respective democratic nations. Jefferson, a slave owner and author of the Declaration of Independence that declares, “All men are created equal,” is depicted reaching out to Mandela, South Africa’s first post-apartheid head of state. In forging a new South Africa, Mandela was a leading exponent of racial reconciliation.