James Denmark

BACKYARD Signed Lithograph, Black Couple, African American Heritage, Quilts

1996

GARDEN ROMANCE by the artist James Denmark is an original hand drawn, limited edition lithograph(not a photo reproduction or digital print) printed on archival Somerset paper using traditional hand lithography techniques. GARDEN ROMANCE is one of Denmark's expressive, colorful collage compositions of everyday African American life - a lovely flower garden scene featuring a romantic black couple, the woman seated amid the blossoming plants wearing a green and yellow paisley print dress and head wrap; her standing male companion with flower in hand, dressed in blue denim jeans, and pastel color patchwork print shirt. Vivid coloration, watercolor patterns, and collage effect textures captivate the eye with visual variety in a striking palette of blues, greens, white, red, orange, magenta, touches of yellow, lavender and dark black - a fine example of the intricacies of hand lithography! Print size - 32 x 21.25 in., archival framing, double mat, excellent condition, pencil signed and numbered - Certificate of Authenticity provided 1 / 15 H.C. by James Denmark, publisher's chop embossed lower left corner Edition size - 250, plus proofs Year published - 1996 Printer - JK Fine Art Editions Co. NJ Publisher - Mojo Portfolio...

GARDEN ROMANCE by the artist James Denmark is an original hand drawn, limited edition lithograph(not a photo reproduction or digital print) printed on archival Somerset paper using t...

THE CONVERSATION is an original limited edition lithograph printed using traditional hand lithography methods on archival Somerset printmaking paper, 100% acid free. THE CONVERSATION...

MORNING is an original limited edition lithograph printed using traditional hand lithography methods on archival Somerset printmaking paper, 100% acid free. MORNING by the African Am...

"Family of Six" is an original black and white lithograph by John Biggers. The artist signed and dated the piece in the lower right and titled and editioned it (AP III) in the lower ...

Kerry James Marshall Keeping the Culture, 2011 Silkscreen and linocut in colors with full margins and deckled edges on Arches paper with full margins and deckled edges 20-1/4 x 30-1/4 inches Hand signed, titled and numbered 79/100 by Kerry James Marshall in graphite pencil on the front Published by Africa House International, Chicago Unframed Kerry James Marshall's 2011 "Keeping the Culture" is based upon the artist's eponymous painting done the year earlier. Marshall, along with his dealer, were voted by ArtReview the top two of the 100 most influential people in the art world of 2018 - even ahead of the #MeToo movement, and ahead of figures like Jeff Koons, Larry Gagosian and Eli Broad! His paintings now sell for tens of millions of dollars - after P. Diddy paid $21 million for a painting. The present work "Keeping the Culture" is an extremely desirable work of art and exemplifies Marshall's style. For a feature profile/article written for Marshall's first retrospective - a blockbuster show entitled "MASRY" at the Museum of Contemporary Art, LA, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Met Breuer in New York, Barbara Isenberg of the LA Times wrote: ." The New York Times called the show “smashing” and its subject “one of the great history painters of our time.” The New York Review of Books and Artforum magazine put large images from the show on their January covers. “I’ve been acutely aware that museums are behind their academic colleagues in terms of thinking of representation and people of color,” MOCA chief curator Helen Molesworth says. “I find Kerry’s paintings ravishing — they are drop dead, great paintings — and they have an extra level of reward for people who hold in their heads a history of Western painting.” Marshall is a compelling storyteller, whether on canvas or in conversation. Talking at length during a visit to MOCA, he is easygoing but eloquent, recalling his neighborhood in Birmingham, Ala., where he was born in 1955, or about growing up black there and in Los Angeles. He remembers the names of teachers who encouraged him. Asked when he first began to notice a lack of black subjects...

Romare Bearden, American (1911 - 1988) - Pepper Jelly Lady, Year: 1980, Medium: Lithograph on Arches, signed and numbered, Edition: 113/150, Size: 26 x 21 in. (66.04 x 53.34 cm...

Samella Sanders Lewis, 'The House of Shango', lithograph, 1992, edition 60. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered '31/60' in pencil. A superb, richly-inked impression, on Arches cream wove paper; the full sheet with margins (1 1/4 to 3 1/2 inches), in excellent condition. Image size 24 x 18 inches (610 x 457 mm); sheet size 30 inches x 22 1/4 inches (762 x 565 mm). Archivally matted to museum standards, unframed. ABOUT THIS WORK “The title of this piece is an unmistakable harkening to African roots. Shango is a religious practice with origins in Yoruba (Nigerian) belief, deifying a god of thunder by the same name. Shango has been adopted in the Caribbean, most notably in Trinidad and Tobago, a fact that underscores the importance of transnationalism to Samella Lewis’s piece. Her work often grapples with issues of race in the U.S., and The House of Shango is no exception. Through a reliance on the gradual transformation of Shango—one that took place across continents and time—Lewis’s piece forms a powerful link between black Americans and their African and Caribbean counterparts. The figure depicted in the piece appears to emerge, quite literally, from the house of Shango. Given the roots and transformative process of the religion, The House of Shango can draw attention to the historical intersections to which black American culture is indebted.” —Laura Woods, Scripps College, Ruth Chander Williamson Gallery, Collection Highlights, 2018 ABOUT THE ARTIST Samella Lewis’ lifelong career as an artist, art historian, critic, curator, collector, and advocate of African American art has helped empower generations of artists in the United States and worldwide, earning her the designation “the Godmother of African American art.” Born and raised in Jim Crow era New Orleans, Lewis began her art education at Dillard University in 1941, transferring to Hampton University in Virginia, where she earned her B. A. and master's degrees. She completed her master's and a doctorate in art history and cultural anthropology at Ohio State University in 1951, becoming the first female African American to earn a doctorate in fine art and art history. Lewis taught art at Morgan State University while completing her doctorate. She became the first Chair of the Fine Arts Department at Florida A&M University in 1953. That same year Lewis also became the first African American to convene the National Conference of African American artists held at Florida A&M University. She was a professor at the State University of New York, California State University, Long Beach, and at Scripps College in Claremont, California. Lewis co-founded, with Bernie Casey, the Contemporary Crafts Gallery in Los Angeles in 1970. In 1973, she served on the selection committee for the exhibition BLACKS: USA: 1973 held at the New York Cultural Center. Samella Lewis's 1969 catalog 'Black Artists on Art', featured accomplished black artists typically overlooked in mainstream art galleries. She said of the book, "I wanted to make a chronology of African American artists, and artists of African descent, to document our history. The historians weren't doing it. It was really about the movement." From the 1960s through the 1970s, her work, which included lithographs, linocuts, and serigraphs, reflected her concerns with the values of human dignity, democracy, and freedom of expression. Between 1969 and 70, Lewis and E.J. Montgomery were consultants for a groundbreaking exhibition at the Oakland Public L designed to create greater awareness of African American history and art. Lewis was the founder of the International Review of African American Art in 1975. In 1976, she founded the Museum of African-American Art with a group of artistic, academic, business, and community leaders in Los Angeles, California. Lewis, the museum’s senior curator, organized exhibitions and developed new ways of educating the public about African American art. She celebrated African American art as an 'art of experience’ inspired by the artists’ lives. And she espoused the concept of African American art as an 'art of tradition', urging museums to explore the African roots of African American art. In 1984, Lewis produced an extensive monograph on Elizabeth Catlett, her beloved mentor at Dillard University. Lewis has been collecting art since 1942, focusing primarily on the WPA era and work created during the Harlem Renaissance. Pieces from her collection were acquired by the Hampton University Museum in Virginia, the world’s earliest collection of African American fine art...