Birthday Party
Linoleum cut, 2002, edition 10 plus later proofs. 16 1/8 x 19 3/8 in. Signed, dated and titled in ink. This is a good impression printed on a sturdy wove paper. The margins are narrow along the top and bottom but this appears to be the full sheet as printed. The condition is fine. This large and charming image was created in 1960 and printed in an edition of only ten impressions. This is a later printing from 2002. Margaret Burroughs was a pioneering African American artist, writer and activist. She co-founded the Ebony Museum in Chicago which is now the DuSable Museum of African American History. An impression of this print is in the Art Institute of Chicago. Burroughs also produced a 1986 etching of the same subject.
SOLD

Mexican Girl
Linoleum cut, 1998, edition unknown. 21 1/2 x 13 3/4 in. Initialed in the block, lower left. Signed, titled and dated in ink. This is a superb impression printed on white wove paper. The margins are probably full and the condition is fine. (There's a small bent corner, lower right, and a smudge on the bottom center margin.) This large, dynamic print relates to an earlier and smaller version of the same subject. (An impression from the Melvin Holmes Collection of African American Art measures 13 3/4 x 8 3/4 in. It's dated 1953 and the edition was only five impressions.) Dr. Margaret T. Burroughs was a visual artist, writer, educator and founder of the DuSable Museum of African American History in Hyde Park (Chicago). Burroughs spent a brief time in Mexico where she studied printmaking under the direction of Leopoldo Méndez at the Taller de Gráfica Popular. As a leader of the Black Arts Movement in Chicago, her works focused on community and the social empowerment of art.
$3,500

Phyllis Wheatley
Linoleum cut, 2002, edition only 4. 14 1/8 x 11 in. Signed, dated, numbered and titled in ink. This is a fine impression of this very rare work. The paper is a smooth white wove and the condition is fine. (The bottom margin is substantial but apparently trimmed.) Phyllis Wheatley was the first African American woman to publish a book of poetry. She was a slave living with the Wheatley family in Boston and and they taught her to read and write. In 1773, she made a trip to London with Mr. Wheatley's son and she met some prominent people who became patrons of her work. George Washington admired her writing and she was emancipated by the Wheatleys after the publication of her book published in 1773. The artist, Margaret Burroughs, both artist and writer, published several books of poetry herself in addition to her work as an educator and arts organizer.
SOLD