Peter Saul Shicago Justus lithograph 1971 (from Conspiracy: The Artist as Witness):
Bold, bright hand-signed Peter Saul lithograph from 1971 picturing the activist Bobby Seale subdued by injections labeled "SHICAGO" and "JUSTUS."
Seale (born 1936) co-founded the Black Panther Party with fellow activist Huey P. Newton. While Seale was on trial as a defendant charged with conspiracy and inciting a riot in the wake of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, one of the "Chicago Eight" defendants, he repeatedly claimed he was denied his constitutional right to defend himself and he was found in contempt of the court. Seale was then handcuffed, leg-cuffed to a chair and a tape was placed around his mouth to stop him from talking in the court. Though he was never convicted in the case, on November 5, 1969, the judge sentenced him to four years in prison for 16 counts of contempt.
Lithograph in colors 1971.
15.75 x 23.75 inches. Artist's proof, aside from the edition of 150.
Very good overall vintage condition. A fine, well-preserved example with bold, bright colors.
Signed, dated and inscribed "Artist's proof" in pencil, lower margin, and with the artist's copyright ink stamp on the reverse.
Printed by Bank Street Atelier, New York, with the blind stamp lower right.
Published by David G. Godine Publishers and the Center for Constitutional Rights, New York.
Literature/References:
Allison Carey, A Space for Dialogue 99, When Art Intersects History, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2020.
Peter Saul is a contemporary American painter known for his genre-defying paintings satirizing American culture. Influenced by the cartoonish style of MAD Magazine, Saul uses Day-Glo color and lush forms as a foil for his nightmarish content. One of his most famous works, Saigon (1967), embodies the chaos and deformities that typify Saul’s scenes, offering the viewer a feverish candy colored vision of the Vietnam War. “I enjoy finding a low subject and bringing it up high,” he has said. “I think with strong technique, you can glamorize certain things. You can make the imagery sharper, rounder, and basically better looking.” Born on August 16, 1934, in San Francisco, CA, he studied at the California School of Fine Arts before receiving a BFA from Washington University in St. Louis in 1956. After finishing school, he lived in Europe where he met the Surrealist painter Roberto Matta, and the American art dealer Allan Frumkin, who went on to represent him for three decades.
In 2008, a retrospective of his work was held at the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach, then traveling to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia and finally the Contemporary Art Center in New Orleans. In 2010, he was elected to the American Academy of Art and Letters. Today, Saul’s works are held in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Center Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, among others.
Related Categories:
Black Panthers. Protest art. Activist art. 60s Pop Art. 70s Pop Art. Tom Wesselmann. Black Art. Comic Cartoon art.
