05/05/2021
Our current exhibition is featuring works inspired by a living legend - Emory Douglas. But who is he?
Emory Douglas was a member of the Black Panther Party from 1967 until the Party disbanded in the 1980s. As a revolutionary artist and the Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party, Douglas created iconography to represent black-American oppression.
The culture minister is typically responsible for cultural policy, which often includes arts policy (direct and indirect support to artists and arts organizations) and measures to protect the national heritage of a country and cultural expression of a country or subnational region.
Douglas developed iconic images that branded the BPP: the depiction of policemen as bloodied or hanged pigs, as protest against police brutality of African Americans, and imagery in line with the Party's 10-Point program. Douglas illustrated BPP's social services and decent housing
San Francisco Chronicle reporter, Jessica Werner Zack, wrote that "he branded the militant-chic Panther image decades before the concept became commonplace. He used the newspaper's popularity (circulation neared 400,000 at its peak in 1970) to incite the disenfranchised to action, portraying the poor with genuine empathy, not as victims but as outraged, unapologetic and ready for a fight." (Source: Wikipedia)
The second installment of the ‘Inspired By Series : Emory Douglas’ will run through Saturday, May 29th.
