From its invention, printing has been fundamental to the spread of scientific information and ideas connected to social debates, even helping to foment political revolutions. By appealing to the eye and the emotions, illustration, hand in hand with text, has served as a powerful tool of persuasion. This section highlights contemporary illustrated books that offer social commentary and critique. The illustrators seen here are renowned artists and the books were produced as limited edition, fine press collaborations. Under these circumstances, republishing a socially oriented document can be seen as a sign of cultural acceptance. At the same time, the artists\u2019 skill and passion for the subject enhance the power of the text. The work of these illustrators can be seen as extensions and components of their identities as socially and politically engaged artists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Faith Ringgold (American, b. 1930) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Faith Ringgold (American, b. 1930) This print was produced in conjunction with a children\u2019s book written and illustrated by Faith Ringgold, a celebrated African American artist. The book bears the same title as the print seen here, and tells the story of Henry Ossawa Tanner, one of the most important African American painters of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Tanner studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and, later, moved to France and exhibited his paintings at the Paris Salon. This print shows him at thirteen years old in Philadelphia\u2019s Fairmount Park, observing a painter for the first time. This encounter planted the seed for his future career. The text that encircles the scene recounts events leading from that moment to the time when Tanner would become an internationally celebrated artist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Phoebe Beasley (American, b. 1943) This print is from a set of silkscreens made to accompany a book published by The Limited Editions Club<\/em>. For the book, writer Maya Angelou (1928 – 1914) was asked to choose eight poems by celebrated poet Langston Hughes (1902 – 1967). In addition, artist Phoebe Beasley created six silkscreen prints as illustrations. The silkscreens were also released as a separate set. The print seen here bears the title of one of Hughes\u2019 best-loved poems, \u201cMother to Son,\u201d published in 1925 in his collection The Weary Blues.<\/em> In the poem a mother recounts how she has maintained her optimism in the face of life\u2019s hardships (\u201cLife for me ain\u2019t been no crystal stair\u2026\u201d). By presenting a woman taking part in a political demonstration, Beasley\u2019s print evokes a dimension that is not explicit in Hughes\u2019 poem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elizabeth Catlett (America, 1915-2012) Elizabeth Catlett (America, 1915-2012) These are the first and last of the six lithographs that Elizabeth Catlett made to illustrate Margaret Walker\u2019s 1937 poem \u201cFor My People.\u201d In 1992, the Limited Editions Club produced a special volume with Catlett\u2019s illustrations to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Walker\u2019s anthology also titled For My People<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Singing Their Songs<\/em> alludes to the first two powerful lines of the poem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor my people everywhere And, A Second Generation<\/em> references lines from the last stanza of the poem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLet new earth rise, Author: Paul Laurence Dunbar (American, 1872-1906) [UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Author: Paul Laurence Dunbar (American, 1872-1906) When Malindy Sings<\/em> is one of a series of six books of Dunbar\u2019s poetry illustrated by the Hampton Institute Camera Club. Dunbar is often associated with his dialect poetry, which employed an artificial linguistic style to represent the speech and lives of rural African Americans. The title poem of the volume praises the moving and melodious singing of Malindy, an African American female servant, by humorous contrast with the earnest efforts of \u201cMiss Lucy,\u201d a white child studying piano in the same household. The Hampton Institute Camera Club was made up mostly of white Northerners on the faculty of Hampton Institute, an African American institution of higher learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Author: Tyehimba Jess (American, b.1965) [UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Author: Tyehimba Jess (American, b.1965) Author: Martin Luther King, Jr. (American, 1929 \u2013 1968) [UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Author: Martin Luther King, Jr. (American, 1929 \u2013 1968) [UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Authors: John Hersey (American, 1914 \u2013 1993); From its invention, printing has been fundamental to the spread of scientific information and ideas connected to social debates, even helping to foment political revolutions. By appealing to the eye and the emotions, illustration, hand in hand with text, has served as a powerful tool of persuasion. This section highlights contemporary illustrated books that offer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":47,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-exhibition.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-51","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhibitions.lib.udel.edu\/drawing-connections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhibitions.lib.udel.edu\/drawing-connections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhibitions.lib.udel.edu\/drawing-connections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhibitions.lib.udel.edu\/drawing-connections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhibitions.lib.udel.edu\/drawing-connections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":48,"href":"https:\/\/exhibitions.lib.udel.edu\/drawing-connections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1036,"href":"https:\/\/exhibitions.lib.udel.edu\/drawing-connections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51\/revisions\/1036"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhibitions.lib.udel.edu\/drawing-connections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/47"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhibitions.lib.udel.edu\/drawing-connections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Here Come Moses, 2014
color serigraph on paper
Museums Collections,
Gift of Experimental Printmaking Institute,
Lafayette College<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Henry Ossawa Tanner, His Boyhood Dream Comes True, 2010
color serigraph on paper
Museums Collections,
Gift of Experimental Printmaking Institute, Lafayette College<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Mother to Son, 1998
From Sunrise is Coming After While<\/em>, Langston Hughes
color silkscreen on paper
Museums Collections, Gift of Paul R. Jones<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Singing Their Songs, 1992
27\/99
lithograph on paper
Museums Collections, Gift of Paul R Jones
<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Second Generation, 1992
27\/99
lithograph on paper
Museums Collections, Gift of Paul R Jones<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
singing their slave songs repeatedly;
…\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Let another world be born.
Let a bloody peace
be written in the sky.
Let a second generation
full of courage issue forth; …\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Illustrator: Hampton Institute Camera Club (American, dates unknown)
When Malindy Sings. New York: Dodd Mead, 1906.
Special Collections<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Illustrator: Hampton Institute Camera Club (American, dates unknown)
Down by de road de shadders grows
photograph on paper<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Illustrator: Jessica Lynne Brown (American, dates unknown)
Olio. Seattle and New York: Wave Books, 2016.
Special Collections<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Illustrator: Jessica Lynne Brown (American, dates unknown)
Jubilee Blues
line block drawing on paper<\/strong>
In minstrel shows of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Americans absorbed racist caricatures as a form of entertainment. Performers in blackface played the parts. \u201cOlio,\u201d the title of this Pulitzer prize-winning volume, refers to the middle part of the shows, when singers and other side performers took the stage. In poems, letters, newspaper articles and other types of texts, Jess\u2019s book imagines the lives of important African American artists and performers such as Scott Joplin, Siserietta Jones, Paul Laurence Dunbar and others. All the performers given voice in Olio<\/em> performed during both during and after the slave era. The author has remarked that his book is meant to present African American characters in place of caricatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Illustrator: Faith Ringgold (American, b.1930)
Letter from Birmingham City Jail. New York: The Limited Editions Club, 2007.
Special Collections<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Illustrator: Faith Ringgold (American, b.1930)
Cotton Picking
seriagraph print on paper<\/strong>
Martin Luther King\u2019s famous letter was written during the most intense period of civil rights protest in the South. It is illustrated with a series of eight prints by renowned artist Faith Ringgold. The images depict key moments from the Civil Rights Movement. Each one fills an entire page, with no text appearing on the facing page. Thus, the image creates an autonomous experience for the viewer, while still supporting the text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Robert Penn Warren (American, 1905 \u2013 1989)
Illustrator: Jacob Lawrence (American, 1917 \u2013 2000)
Hiroshima. New York: Limited Editions Club, 1983. Authors\u2019 and
illustrator\u2019s autograph copy.
Special Collections
silkscreen on paper<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"