Margaret Taylor Burroughs "Paul Leroy Robeson 1952" Woodcut.
This piece like many Margaret did represent the African American struggle with civil rights and liberty.
This piece depicts an African man holding a bird being freed and broken chains just above his head.
The piece is signed and dated and currently unframed.
23" high x 17 1/2" wide
Margaret Burroughs was born in St. Rose, Louisiana, on November 1, 1917, and moved with her family to the South Side of Chicago in 1922. Burroughs studied at Englewood High School and also attended George Neal's art classes.
Her earliest involvement in political activism began when she and classmate Gwendolyn Brooks joined the NAACP Youth Council. She studied at Chicago State and became an art teacher at DuSable High School. She married fellow artist Bernard Goss in 1939, and their coach-house flat became a social center, dubbed “little Bohemia,” for a wide and interracial circle of friends and colleagues.
Burroughs worked tirelessly to establish the South Side Community Art Center which opened in 1940 and became the youngest member of its board. She also studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and received her MFA in 1948. During her travel to Mexico she studied at the Esmerelda School of Art and Taller de Grafica under Leopoldo Mendez, a prominent printmaker of the Diego Rivera circle.
The Mexican muralists use of social commentary inspired her work. Burroughs worked in many mediums, showing special facility in water colors and linocut print-making. She is also an accomplished poet and author of children's books. In 1961, with second husband Charles Burroughs, she founded the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago.
Excellent original condition, the piece is currently unframed.
Number of items: 1
Woodcut—occasionally known as xylography—is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges.
The areas to show 'white' are cut away with a knife or chisel, leaving the characters or image to show in 'black' at the original surface level.
The block is cut along the grain of the wood (unlike wood engraving where the block is cut in the end-grain). In Europe beechwood was most commonly used in Japan, a special type of cherry wood was used.
The surface is covered with ink by rolling over the surface with an ink-covered roller (brayer), leaving ink upon the flat surface but not in the non-printing areas.
Creator: Margaret Taylor Burroughs
406 N La Cienega Blvd
West Hollywood, CA, 90048
Ref. : U1112068817487