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Boy with Sunflowers

1965 (print); 1967 (publication)
Walter Henry Williams, Jr. (American, 1920–1998) Published by International Graphic Arts Society
Walter Henry Williams began making woodcuts that depicted a childhood dreamworld set in a countryside very unlike that of Harlem where he grew up. Layers of sticky ink overlap and challenge each other. Williams’s bright color palette and the use of motifs such as sunflowers convey a certain optimism, but the dark stump at the edge of the composition adds a darker note of promise unfulfilled.

Object Details

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