?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 7,000 - $ 10,000
ELIZABETH CATLETT (1915 - 2012) Flowers for George Jackson.
Color woodcut on thin wove paper, 1975. 438x603 mm; 17 3/4x23 3/4 inches, full margins. Artist's proof, aside from an unknown edition. Signed, titled, dated and inscribed "artist's proof" in pencil, lower margin.
This very scarce impression has not been recorded at auction before. We have located only one other impression at the Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan.
Born on the West Side of Chicago, George Jackson (1941-1971) is best known today for his prison memoirSoledad Brother, documenting his life as a Black Panther and political prisoner. In 1956, his family moved to Los Angeles to escape bad influences in their Chicago neighborhood. In 1960, at 18 years old, he was held on charges of robbing a gas station. Because he had a prior record, Jackson agreed to plead guilty in exchange for shorter prison sentence. The judge instead sentenced him to an indeterminate sentence of one year up to life - essentially turning him into a hostage of the prison system. In prison, Jackson became a revolutionary and leader of the Black Panther Party. Jackson published Soledad Brother, a collection of prison letters which garnered him national applause for his critique of the economic and sociopolitical systems subjecting Black people to oppressive conditions.
On January 16, 1970, Jackson was one of the three Soledad Brothers charged with allegedly murdering a prison guard. On August 21, 1971, days before his trial, Jackson was shot and killed by guards at San Quentin - for allegedly starting a riot with an armed escape attempt. Jackson's death and the controversial events surrounding it led to nationwide outrage--most notably at Attica where more than 800 prisoners protested three weeks later.
Elizabeth Catlett sought to create political solidarity with Black liberation movements in the United States. With prints like Flowers for George Jackson and Malcom X Speaks for Us, she highlighted figures who had become martyrs of the political and social injustice in the United States.
