Betye Saar

L.A. - The Way We Were

1980

This is a rare print, #46 in an edition of 96 that Gwendolyn (Gwen) Knight created while visiting Philadelphia's Brandywine Workshop with her late husband, the artist Jacob Lawrence. It is signed, titled, and dated along the lower edge. The print itself measures 22" x 30" and is professionally framed in a contemporary dark wood frame with muted green and gold double mats under UV protective glass. Framed measurements are 29.5" x 38". This print can also be found in the permanent collections of: - Washington State Arts Commission - Telfair Museums - David Driskell Center, University of Maryland - Seattle Art Museum and many private collectors. Gwendolyn Knight was born in Barbados in 1913. When she was seven, her widowed mother entrusted her to close friends who brought her with them to the United States. In 1926, Knight moved with her foster family from their first home in St. Louis to Harlem, where her developing interest in the arts flowered in the creative atmosphere of the Harlem Renaissance. In Harlem, Knight became a daily participant in the workshop of sculptor Augusta Savage, in whom Knight found a mentor, and Savage's studio became a second home. Through Savage, Knight first came into contact with Claude McKay...

"Future III" is a Bauhaus-inspired monotype and collage (work on paper) reminiscent of the aesthetic of Le Corbusier. It is part of Bouton’s "Habitat and Urban Matter" series, which is inspired by the straight lines of modernist architecture and hard-edged geometrical forms of the urban environment. Bouton, a French printmaker from Paris who has also lived in London, Myanmar, Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Turkey, creates work that responds to her experiences during her travels and the cultures she encountered. Since settling in the Philadelphia area, she has been inspired by the urbanism of the city, whether a sleek, new apartment block, an abandoned warehouse, or a half-demolished home. Her latest works are interpretations of these buildings, with both broad street views and focused details from single structures –- the pattern of the skyline, a patchwork of broken windows, an industrial color palette. She is drawn to the history of the spaces and lives lived within these buildings, as well as their intrinsic beauty of the structures, whether that beauty emerges from design or degradation, or some combination of the two. Signed and dated. Bouton is a French artist living and working in the Philadelphia area whose boundary-pushing printmaking and paper works exhibit influence from living and working in international cities across the globe. Bouton earned her BFA in Painting and Printmaking and her MFA in Arts and Textile Design from the prestigious ESSAA Duperré in Paris, France. Since leaving Paris 15 years ago, Bouton has lived and exhibited her work internationally in Paris (France), London (UK), Philadelphia (USA), Rangoon (Burma/Myanmar), Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Dakar (Senegal) and Istanbul (Turkey). She has presented solo exhibitions at the Biennale de l’Art Africain...