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Wadsworth Jarrell
Further images
Wadsworth renders Davis's face and hands with phrases and letters inscribed with meaning; B- for "Black is Beautiful," "Revolution," "Resist," "Seize the Time", "Bad," and "She Hipped us to Chuck...He Full of it." Her afro is further composed of words, letters and fragments of the letter B. He layers this language over an orange and yellow background. Davis is wearing a replica of Jae Jarrell's Revolutionary Suit; a tribute to his wife Jae Jarrell, an AfriCOBRA founder and innovative artist and fashion designer. Written on her suit are snippets of a speech Davis delivered in 1970 in California.
In Revolutionary, Wadsworth is playing with language, size and scale in an attempt to emphasize and capture the aura and strength of Angela Y. Davis as an activist and revolutionary. An important example of AfriCOBRA, an aesthetic and collective rooted in the culture of Chicago's Black neighborhoods of the late 60's and 70's at the height of the civil rights, Black power, and Black arts movements, Revolutionary captures the rhythmic dynamism of Black culture and social life. The original painting is currently in the permanent Collection of the Brooklyn Museum.
Provenance
Collection of the ArtistExhibitions
AFRICOBRA II, New YORK, 1971 (original painting)The Freedom Principal; Experiments in Art and Music 1965 to Now, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia, 2015 (original painting)
Soul of a Nation, Brooklyn Museum, 2018 (original painting)
Group Show, Malcolm X Park, Washington, DC, 1972
Solo Exhibition, the Mayor’s Gallery, Washington, DC, 1973.
Drawings, Paintings and Prints by Wadsworth Jarrell, Lambert Gallery, Athens, Georgia, 1978.
Wadsworth Jarrell, Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia, 1987.
Soul of a Nation; Art in the Age of Black Power, Tate Modern Museum, London. 2017.
Soul of a Nation, Art in the Age of Black Power, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AK., 2018
Soul of a Nation, Art in the Age of Black Power, Broad Museum, Los Angeles, CA, 2019.
Soul of a Nation, Art in the Age of Black Power, de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA., 2019.
Soul of a Nation, Art in the Age of Black Power, Museum of Fine Art, Houston, TX., 2020-2021.
AFRICOBRA 50, Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago, 2018
Master Works-Old and New, by Jae and Wadsworth Jarrell, Skoto Gallery, NY, 2019.
Heritage, Jae and Wadsworth Jarrell, Cleveland Museum, OH, 2018-19.
Messages to the People, Miami Museum, North Miami, 2018.
AFRICOBRA Nation Time, Venice Biennale, Venice., 2019