Giclee Price: $1,300 USD
Represented by BlackCommentator.com
What is a Giclee?
A Giclee (pronounced Zhee-Clay) is a very
high end digitally produced archival quality print. Giclees are printed
on archival substrates, such as Arches Cold Press watercolor papers,
Somerset watercolor papers or specially prepared canvases, with archival,
light fast inks, at a very high resolution. Depending on the medium
of the original work, giclees are printed on paper or canvas. Watercolor
paintings render very well on the watercolor papers, and oil paintings
printed as canvas giclees have the rich tonal quality of original
oil paintings. Canvas giclees are also coated with a special finishing
media to protect the surface. Canvas giclees are stretched and framed
as one would display an original oil painting. Watercolor giclees
are typically framed behind glass, as one would do with an original
watercolor painting.
Giclees capture and reproduce the nuance
and splendor of the original work of art. Giclees are now found in
MoMA and The Louvre. Giclees are used when the original painting
is too fragile for exhibition. Giclees render very closely to the
original work of art.
Artist Statement
Since I returned to painting in 1995 I
have wanted to express the beauty in our African heritage. To show
the diversity that the Diaspora gave us in various other cultures
in the world. I have tried to present our culture as seen not only
in the context of the pain and suffering inflicted on us in the days
of slavery but to bring forward those cultural contributions, and
legacies we left in Spain, France, Italy and other places of the
world. Truly, that is what the Diaspora was about... the dispersion
of culture.
When looking at the many histories on
art and researching many of the famous old masters, our image is
present even in medieval times. Anti-Black racism in the modern sense
was unknown in the Middle Ages; Blacks were simply part of the human
race.
In the latter Middle Ages there were even
black saints and one of the Magi was accurately shown as black. Most
literature on Black American artists is approached as though it was
a form of expression separate from the so-called majority culture.
This critical isolation in terms of art comes from the tradition
of classifying people and their culture by race. I feel the crucial
issue is the quality of work and it’s relevance to the society
in which it was created.
As an artist it is not my color that gives
me the inspiration or the capacity to produce a desired result, but
the ability to be sensitive to the various conditions of life that
face all mankind.
My first showing of some of these paintings
was called “Lost Images Found Paintings from the Soul” reinforcing
the importance of our culture in various parts of the world.
Three shows followed after that.
One expanded on cultural isolation and the other specifically was
to present a new approach to Afro-American figurative art merging
the contemporary and the classical forms.
The objective of my vision is to
heighten the awareness of those who view figurative images in my
art and to stimulate one’s thought and imagination. The end
result is a series of paintings and drawings that form cultural
links between our past and our future.