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Prophet II
Prophet II

Prophet II

Primary (Chicago, Illinois, 1918–Los Angeles, California, 1979)
Printer
NationalityAmerican, North America
Date1975
MediumColor lithograph and screenprint in four colors
DimensionsSheet: 24 1/2 × 35 1/2 in. (62.3 × 90.1 cm)
Image: 24 1/2 × 35 1/2 in. (62.3 × 90.1 cm)
Credit LineBlanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Gift of Susan G. and Edmund W. Gordon to the units of Black Studies and the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin, 2014.96
Collection AreaPrints and Drawings
Object number2014.96
On View
Not on view
Label Text
During the mid- to late 1970s, Charles White began to move away from his characteristic black-and-white palette and explore color. The sepia-toned figure in "Prophet II" is thought to be a composite of White’s aunts, Harriet and Hasty Baines, who both lived in the South. The red handprint that appears in the top register of the green band boldly signifies the violence experienced by countless African Americans. Hovering uncannily beneath the handprint is the letter “X.” From the 17th to early 20th century, African American sharecroppers and tenant farmers who could neither read nor write used this single letter as a signature on contracts. The “X” may also refer to the Nation of Islam’s use of the letter as a symbolic replacement for the surname that slaveholders gave enslaved Africans in an act of claiming ownership.
Exhibitions