Oakland-based artist Cleveland Bellow made this screenprint in the midst of the Black Power Movement
Oakland-based artist Cleveland Bellow made this screenprint in the midst of the Black Power Movement and organized efforts to combat the United States’ long history of discrimination and racial violence against Black communities. Like all great art, it speaks powerfully to us today. Here Bellow created an image of Black youth in which the meaning is unstable and unresolved: is the boy’s expression one of surrender, protest, resistance, resilience, or joy? One thing is clear: the urgency of racial equity is still with us today, and it falls to each and every one of us to speak out against white supremacy and foster collective action in support of Black lives. Black history matters, Black culture matters, and Black people matter. Our hearts are with George Floyd, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless others, as well as their families and the communities across the country who feel the pain of brutality and abuse. Cleveland Bellow (American, 1946–2009). Untitled, 1968. Screenprint on paper. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of R. M. Atwater, Anna Wolfrom Dove, Alice Fiebiger, Joseph Fiebiger, Belle Campbell Harriss, and Emma L. Hyde, by exchange, Designated Purchase Fund, Mary Smith Dorward Fund, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, and Carll H. de Silver Fund, 2012.80.6. © Cleveland Bellow -- source link
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