Description

Williams, Walter Henry. Fighting Cock #3 (1964). Original woodcut in three colors: black, orange and red. 20 in x 24 ½ in (image) 29 in (sheet). Signed “Walter Williams 1964 imp.” This woodblock print is number 94 from an edition of only 200. IGAS Series No. 62, January 1965. Walter Williams (1920 – 1988) was an African-American painter and print maker, born in Brooklyn, New York, where he attended the Brooklyn Museum Art School, studying with Ben Shahn, Gregorio Prestopino, Reuben Tam and Victor Candell. Williams held a Whitney fellowship 1955-1956 and, in 1960, he received the National Institute of the Arts and Letters Grant. He said of Fighting Cock #3, “I did similar prints in 1957 and 1959 under the title Fighting Cock. Being an American negro artist this subject has haunted me for obvious reasons. I have used this composition again for a new block with different colors and have therefore titled this print Fighting Cock #3. As for what this print stands for, I would like to repeat: ‘ Let each man who looks at this print decide for himself its meaning.’” Unframed, without a mat, in fine condition, traces of hinging tape remain on the upper margin, otherwise a bright fresh image, with a searing social history, created in 1964, the landmark year when the Civil Rights Movement culminated in the Civil Rights Act.