Acrylic, metal foil, and ribbon on cotton canvas, 1973. 1194x762 mm; 47 1/2x30 inches. Signed and dated in acrylic, lower right.
Provenance: acquired directly from the artist; private collection, Atlanta.
This excellent example of the vibrant canvases of Wadsworth Jarrell is the earliest of his significant 1970s paintings to come to auction. Wadsworth Jarrell was a leading figure of the Black Arts movement and one of the founding members of the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists (AfriCOBRA), the artist collective that he and fellow artists Barbara Jones-Hogu, Jeff Donaldson, Jae Jarrell, Napoleon Henderson, Nelson Stevens and Gerald Williams formed in Chicago in 1969. He is best known for his 1971 iconic painting Revolutionary that was exhibited at the Studio Museum in Harlem in the AfriCOBRA II exhibition from 1971-72 and is now in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum. By the fall of 1973, the collective had their last group exhibition, and each artist pursued their own interests. In the following year, Wadsworth Jarrell began his MFA degree while teaching at Howard University. Douglas pp. 42 - 43.
