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 printmaker, 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.
The artist’s signature and the date in pencil.
Slavery Debate in British Parliament 1806 with Fold-out Slave Ship Illustration
Five American Civil War Letters 1862 – 1864
Libby Prison Carte de Visite Photograph circa 1863
RICHMOND 1865 Vicksburg Fort Donelson GENERAL U.S. GRANT “I WILL FIGHT IT OUT ON THIS LINE.”
Leonard Baskin Woodcut Frightened Boy and His Dog 1955
