Wanted Poster Series #14

Artist Charles White (American, 1918 - 1979)

Publisher Tamarind Institute (founded 1970)

Printer Harry Westlund (American, born 1941)

Date1970

MediumLithograph

DimensionsSheet: 25 × 36 15/16 in. (63.5 × 93.8 cm)

Credit LinePurchased through the John A. Petersen Print Acquisition Fund

CultureAmerican

MarkingsTamarind chop, verso

Inscribed"To my dear friend Serge" (assistant at Tamarind)

PortfolioWanted Poster Series

Catalogue raisonnéEa23

Object numberPC2018.28.01

ClassificationsPrint Collection

DescriptionMonochromatic image of two heads in tondo format against an abstract field. Upper left the date "1619"; upper right "19??". Bottom center a prominent "X". Image is printed full bleed on the sheet, with rough torn edges.
Interpretations In 1970 Charles White embarked on an ambitious and powerful print project, the Wanted Poster series, inspired by antebellum posters advertising slave auctions and runaway slaves. The series, printed at the prestigious Tamarind Lithography Workshop, continued White’s career-long commitment to portraying African Americans with dignity, while evolving towards a larger and more abstract style. In Wanted Poster #14, White portrays the heads of two African Americans—possibly a mother and child—framed in a circular tondo format, set against an almost abstract field of crinkled paper. The date “1619”—the year the first slave ship arrived in Jamestown, Virginia—appears in the upper left, while in the upper right the date “19??” questions whether slavery in the United States ever really ended. The letter “X” marks the center of the composition beneath the two faces, a reference to the symbol used by black members of the Nation of Islam to replace the names assigned to them by white slave owners. - John Murphy, Hoehn Curatorial Fellow for Prints

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