CHARLES WHITE (1918 - 1979) Love Letter #1 (Angela Davis).
Color lithograph on handmade cream wove paper, 1971. 762x567 mm; 30x22¼ inches (sheet), full margins. Presentation proof, aside from the edition of 25. Signed, inscribed "presentation proof" and dedicated "To mon ami Serge" in pencil, lower edge. Printed by William Law III, Los Angeles. Published by Tamstone Group, Los Angeles. Gedeon Ea26.
Note Another impression was exhibited at the traveling exhibiton, "Now Dig This!: Art and Black Los Angeles 1960–1980," Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; MoMA PS1, Long Island City; Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts; October 2, 2011- December 1, 2013. It is featured in the accompanying book, K. Jones, Now Dig This!: Art and Black Los Angeles, 1960-1980, Prestel, New York (cover). Another impression has also been published in S. Kelly Ohler and E. Adler, Charles White: A Retrospective, cat. 80, pl. 101.
This significant lithograph was created in response to the arrest of political activist Angela Davis. Charles White authorized this imagery to be reproduced on postcards by The National United Committee to Free Angela Davis and All Political Prisoners as part of their letter-writing campaign. These postcards were signed by supporters and sent en masse to then-Governor Ronald Reagan, calling for the release of Davis and other political prisoners.
