Etching and aquatint printed in blue and black on cream wove paper, 1972. 298x222 mm; 11 3/4x8 3/4 inches, full margins. Signed, titled, dated and numbered 2/15 in ink, lower margin.
This is a very scarce example of an etching by this political artist - only one previous came to auction, sold at Swann Galleries on October 7, 2008.
Willowbrook was a notorious Staten Island mental institution for children where abuse and inhumane conditions were exposed in the 1970s. Kay Brown is best known for her political, large-scale collage work which incorporated images of protest with painting. Brown graduated from City College in 1968 and joined the Weusi artists collective as their only female member. An active feminist, participant in the Black Arts movement and opponent of the Vietnam War, Brown founded the support group Where We At: Black Women Artists in 1971 with Faith Ringgold. Farrington pp. 144-45 and 167-69.
