Charles Searles is known as both a painter and sculptor who in the early 1970s led the return to the tribal arts for a more Afro-centric perspective. Born in Philadelphia, he studied at the University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, graduating with honors, and taught at the University of The Arts in Philadelphia for 19 years. This painting was made shortly after the artist's second visit to Africa and the same year he began to create relief works. His work is in the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC and the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, Boston.
