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Wednesday, 26 September 2007 | Levent OZLER
Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas
The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) presents Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas, a compelling exhibition that traces the searing graphic art made by Emory Douglas while he worked as Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party from 1967 until its discontinuation in the early 1980s. Douglas's iconic work helped create the identity of the party, defining the trademark visual style of the group's newspapers, posters, and pamphlets. His work also serves as a powerful testament to the efficacy of visual art to communicate a political position. Organized by MOCA Ahmanson Curatorial Fellow Sam Durant, the exhibition will be on view at MOCA Pacific Design Center October 21, 2007 through January 20, 2008 and includes approximately 150 of the artist's most influential works.
MOCA Director Jeremy Strick comments, "Emory Douglas is a seminal, political, contemporary artist whose work MOCA is proud to present 40 years after the artist first made his indelible mark on the Black Panther Party. More than ever, Douglas's work shows how significantly visual art can effect social discourse and political change and mold popular culture-a phenomenon at the heart of MOCA's thinking."
From 1967, the year Douglas joined the Black Panthers, to its discontinuation in the early 1980s, the party cultivated a strong identity that was often described as angry, militant, and incendiary. Douglas's potent visual form illustrated the Black Panthers' concerns in all of their printed materials, including tabloids, pamphlets, newspapers, and posters that were wheat-pasted onto walls from New York to Los Angeles. Inspired by Malcolm X's call to resist violence and brutality by any means necessary, the Black Panthers formulated the iconic image of the revolutionary-black beret, black leather jacket, and rifle-and their protest graphics often utilized an exaggerated cartoon style that excoriated racist politicians, landlords, capitalists, and police, caricaturing them as grotesque pigs and rats. Douglas's work reveals an unmistakable humanism nevertheless, portraying a populace that had been denied access to the American dream, but were emerging from segregation and proudly fighting to assert their rights to equality. He gives visual shape to the plight of urban mothers and the humanitarian work undertaken by the Black Panthers to bring social services to their communities.
Douglas's early development and notable, visual style were influenced by the Black Arts Movement and well-known artists like Charles White, Sargent Johnson, Ruth Waddy, and Elizabeth Catlett. In particular his signature, scathing graphics and collages can be understood in the context of the Soviet avant-garde and the anti-fascist works of George Grosz, Käthe Kollwitz, John Heartfield, and Ben Shahn. Douglas was also influenced by and had an influence on political graphics in China, Africa, and Vietnam, as well as the Cuban graphics collective the Organization of Solidarity of the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America (OSPAAAL). Relationships to Douglas's iconic works can be found in artists as varied as Faith Ringgold, Raymond Pettibon, David Hammons, Kerry James Marshall, and Mike Kelley and his impact on filmmakers such as Spike Lee and popular musicians such as Public Enemy has also left an indelible mark on American culture.
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