ART [Signed] Original linoleum cut titled 'Riding the Bus', printed on cream wove paper, with full margins top and bottom. Print titled, dated and signed

Description

BURROUGHS, Margaret. Original linoleum cut titled 'Riding the Bus', printed on cream wove paper, with full margins top and bottom. Print titled, dated and signed by the artist in bottom margin. Edition size unknown. Image size: 35.5cm wide x 28cm high; Sheet size: 41cm wide x 33cm high. Unframed. Condition: A strong image, beautifully executed by a master printmaker at the height of her power, with some browning and soiling to edges of margins and one small offset foxing spot to top right edge; the image itself is clean and in excellent condition. An early, rare and important work by an artist best known for her linocuts, examples of which are held in major museum collections across the United States, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C. Note: An early and rare image showing the interior of a bus shared by black and white passengers dated in this example four years after Rosa Parks refused to vacate her seat for a white man in Montgomery, Alabama. ""People always say that I didn t give up my seat because I was tired, wrote Parks in her autobiography, but that isn t true. I was not tired physically . . . No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in."" In the image Burroughs also introduces a representative of another people by sitting an orthodox Jew next to a black woman emphasising that sadly persecution has many faces and can affect many races. The artist Margaret Burroughs, also known as Margaret Taylor Burroughs, created an impressive body of work as both a visual artist and a writer. She explored various media, including sculpture and painting, but was most prolific as a printmaker. Drawn to themes of family, community, and history, Burroughs crafted striking works on paper usually linoleum block prints that depict both traditional African and African American figures, as well as genre scenes illustrating the community in which she lived. Though primarily concerned with the black experience, she did not restrict herself to that single subject and instead depicted universal scenes that sometimes depicted subjects faces as half black and half white. I wish my art to speak not only for my people, but for all humanity, Burroughs claimed. Her experience as a children s book author including her poetry collection, 'What Shall I Tell My Children Who Are Black?' also impacted her thematic choices. Works by Margaret Burroughs can be found in major museum collections across the United States, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C.