The Visual Rage of Emory Douglas
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/bookpatrol/archives/130376.asp?from=blog_last3
From the 1967 until the early 1980's when the Black Panther Party
disbanded Emory Douglas was their Minister of Culture. During that
time he produced hundreds of pieces of graphic art to accompany the
Panther message.
The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles is hosting an
exhibition of Douglas's work titled Black Panther: The Revolutionary
Art of Emory Douglas. The exhibit, curated by Sam Durant with MOCA
Chief Curator Paul Schimmel, presents almost 150 examples of Emory
Douglas's work.
From the Press Release:
"At a time when political unrest, war protests, and social inequality
have again reached a boiling point, but where artistic responses are
not as easy to find, the work of Emory Douglas serves as a powerful
reminder of the efficacy of visual art to communicate and push
forward a political agenda."
Douglas's "work gave potent visual form to the plight of urban
mothers and to the humanitarian work undertaken by the Black Panthers
to bring social services to their communities."
The influence of Emory Douglas extends to the work of numerous
contemporary black artists including Public Enemy and Spike Lee.
MOCA has a great online exhibition to accompany the show featuring
numerous examples of Douglas's work which includes his commentary on
each piece. Durant has also assembled a healthy selection of links,
books, articles, audio, and video related to the exhibit. If you are
in LA head on over to the Pacific Design Center and have a look. The
show runs through February 24th.
Rizzoli will be publishing a monograph on Emory edited by Durant due
to be released in February. The book contains a preface by Bobby
Seale, a foreword by Danny Glover and contributions by Kathleen
Cleaver and Amiri Baraka.
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