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Wadsworth Jarrell and Gerald Williams, Works on Paper: Kavi Gupta | 219 N. Elizabeth St.

Past exhibition
10 July - 11 September 2021
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Wadsworth Jarrell, Revolutionary, 1972
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Wadsworth Jarrell, Revolutionary, 1972
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Wadsworth Jarrell, Revolutionary, 1972
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Wadsworth Jarrell, Revolutionary, 1972
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Wadsworth Jarrell, Revolutionary, 1972
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Wadsworth Jarrell, Revolutionary, 1972

Wadsworth Jarrell USA, b. 1929

Revolutionary, 1972
Screenprint printed in color on white wove paper
33 x 26 in
83 x 66 cm
Edition of 300 + 18 APs + 17 Color Trial Proofs
7284
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Further images

  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 1 ) Gerald Williams, In the Realm of Dreams, 2002
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 2 ) Gerald Williams, In the Realm of Dreams, 2002
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 3 ) Gerald Williams, In the Realm of Dreams, 2002
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 4 ) Gerald Williams, In the Realm of Dreams, 2002
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 5 ) Gerald Williams, In the Realm of Dreams, 2002
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 6 ) Gerald Williams, In the Realm of Dreams, 2002
Revolutionary was one print in a series of prints that AFRICOBRA executed in the early 1970s. In 1970, AFRICOBRA mounted their first exhibition, AFRICOBRA 1: Ten in Search of a...
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Revolutionary was one print in a series of prints that AFRICOBRA executed in the early 1970s. In 1970, AFRICOBRA mounted their first exhibition, AFRICOBRA 1: Ten in Search of a Nation, which debuted at the Studio Museum in Harlem. A poll was taken among attendees of the exhibition, asking them which works in the show they'd most want to own if they had the ability to. On reviewing the votes, AFRICOBRA selected one piece from each artist in the group to have made into a print that would be available at a future date. For Wadsworth Jarrell, the piece was his painting of Angela Davis. When AFRICOBRA II was mounted later, prints were made available for $10. Making the work available to people was crucial to AFRICOBRA's mission to make work "for the people," both conceptually and literally, the literal being its low price, and the conceptual being its content.

The image of Davis is an iconic, enduring image of the Civil Rights movement, and Jarrell frequently created images based on Civil Rights leaders. The painting and print embody all of the key aesthetic goals of AFRICOBRA- the bright "coolade" [sic] colors which complement African skin, the use of text to communicate ideas plainly, the balance of representation and abstraction (to separate the work from Western canon's traditional expectations), the use of "lost and found" lines which carry across the composition, and so forth. The text on Davis is based on one of her speeches, and words found to be empowering. When text can no longer carry through, Jarrell frequently just repeats the letter "B" as a kind of visual texture, and as a flexible variable that could stand for Black, Beautiful, Bad (meaning Good), Boss, and so on.

The prints were made available as part of AFRICOBRA II, based on previous paintings. They've subsequently been featured in a number of exhibitions, including AFRICOBRA: Nation Time, a collateral exhibition of the 2019 Venice Biennale. The total edition was 300, with 18 artist proofs, and 17 color trial proofs. Unfortunately, a large number of the editions has been lost to time.
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Provenance

Artist's Studio
Kavi Gupta, Chicago

Exhibitions

Africobra 50, Kavi Gupta, Chicago, June 2018
Africobra Message to the People, North Miami Moca, September 2018
Africobra Nation Time, Venice Biennial, May 2019

Publications

Africobra Nation Time, Venice Biennial, May 2019.  Published By the North Miami MoCa, Miami, FL
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Kavi Gupta Washington Blvd

835 W. Washington Blvd. Chicago, IL 60607

Hours | Tue–Fri: 11 am–6 pm, Sat: 12 pm–5 pm

Kavi Gupta Elizabeth St

219 N. Elizabeth St. Chicago, IL 60607 
Hours | By appointment only

 

 

Kavi Gupta Warehouse

2108 S. California Ave. Chicago, IL 60608

Kavi Gupta New Buffalo

215 E. Buffalo St. #219 New Buffalo, MI 49117

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