Charles White, Artist
Wanted Poster #6
, 1969
Medium
Oil wash on board
Dimensions
59 3/4 x 39 15/16 in. (151.8 x 101.4 cm)
Credit Line
Private collection. Photo by Tim Nighswander/IMAGING4ART
Charles White began the Wanted Poster series after winning an award from the Tamarind Lithography Workshop, widely regarded as one of the leading graphic workshops in the United States. Wanted Poster #6 is an interrogation into the representation of the African American body on runaway slave posters, which usually pictured anonymous figures in neutral poses. With Wanted Poster #6, White borrowed the formal constructs of the slave poster, interlacing it with contemporary representations of the African American female body, a theme for which the artist would become known.