?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 5,000
HERB BRUCE We're Tired of Grinding.
Mixed media and newspaper collage on Strathmore illustration board, circa 1968-70. 1016x686 mm; 40x27 inches. Signed in acrylic, lower left.
Provenance: the Johnson Publishing Company, Inc., Chicago.
With its Black Panthers imagery, Herb Bruce's We're Tired of Grinding is a wonderful example of the artwork inspired by the political consciousness of the time, and the Black Arts movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Its composition and balance of collage and paint has similarities to the work of Kay Brown of the Weusi Art Collective and Jeff Donaldson of AfriCOBRA. Unfortunately, little is known today about this talented graphic artist and illustrator. Bruce worked in the art department of C.B.S. at the time he made this painting. His drawings appeared as illustrations in the March and December 1969 issues of Ebony. His portrait of Chester Himes appeared on the March 1972 the cover of Black World which lists him as a contributing artist.
