Emory Douglas
Emory Douglas was born May 24th, 1943 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has been a resident of the San Francisco Bay Area since 1951. Douglas attended City College of San Francisco, where he majored in commercial art. He was politically involved as a revolutionary artist and then Minister of Culture for the Black Panther party, from February 1967 until the early 1980’s. A graphic designer who worked as the Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party from the 1960-80s, Douglas created iconic images that represented the struggles and celebrations of African Americans. His art and design concepts were frequently seen on the front and back pages of the Black Panther Newspaper, reflecting the politics of the Black Panther Party and their advocacy to address the needs of the community.
Douglas’s work has been displayed at the Biennale of Sydney in Australia in 2008; The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco; The African American Art & Cultural Complex in San Francisco; The Richmond Art Center in Richmond, CA; and The Station Museum of Contemporary Art in Houston. A retrospective of Douglas’ artwork was published in Art in America, PRINT Magazine, American Legacy Magazine, and the American Institute of Public Arts. A retrospective of Douglas’ graphic artwork was published in 2007 titled: “Black Panther, The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas.” It provided a comprehensive collection of Douglas’ graphics from the 1960’s and 70’s.
On The Artwork
The ‘Father’s Love’ graphic is a deeply felt visual acknowledgement for the patience and tolerance that many young fathers have for their children whether they be the biological parent, extended family parent, or a mentor to the child. The graphic concept is something I played with off and on over some extended periods of time, doing a few pen and ink line art drawings, sometimes applying colored markers, watercolor paints, or color pencil applications to the ink drawings until the published version of the graphic you see now. I also remixed the work as a black and white line ink drawing that I played with in Photoshop on my computer, integrating the background pattern into the graphic, and creating the art color scheme you see.
