EMORY DOUGLAS
2011-08-15Emory Douglas is a pivotal figure in the development of political graphic art. Appointed ‘Minister for Culture’ for the Black Panthers in 1967, he became in-house illustrator for the quasi-revolutionary civil rights movement’s eponymous newspaper. Douglas’ instantly recognisable graphics filled the incendiary journal and would form its back page, a ‘cut out and paste up’ propaganda poster.
A cornerstone of the Black Panthers until their dissolution in the early 1980s, Douglas was one of the first agitants to use the visual language of the right wing to express the ideas of the left. His powerful pieces swapped hand-wringing for aggression and victim status for insurgency. Using a strong but consistent, simple yet brutal visual style Douglas’ artwork defined the Black Panther’s pride, resourcefulness and charisma. The illustrations’ accompanying battle cries, including ‘all power to the people’, ‘in revolution one wins and one dies’ and ‘seize the times’, entered the lexicon of a generation.
In and out of youth detention as a teen, Douglas kept busy working in the print shop of Ontario’s Youth Training School. Encouraged to draw by social workers, he went on to study commercial art at San Francisco’s community college, where he learned to use collage and what would today be called ‘found media’ to create high-impact pieces using minimal time and money.
Employing a ‘DiY’ ethos to make potent, populist imagery re-enforced by slogans is a defining characteristic of many of today’s heralded street artists.
Exhibition runs from August 18th to September 10th, 2011
The Outsiders
London
Soho
W1D 4DG
