Antonio Frasconi
American, born Argentina, 1919 - 2013Homage to George Jackson, 1971
Not on view
Woodcut on paper
Dimensions35 7/8 × 70 7/8 in. (91.1 × 180 cm)
Gift of Mr. Jack B. Pierson in memory of Mr. Robert Martin Purcell, 1980.60
Antonio Frasconi found inspiration in comic books, as well as the artwork of the Old Masters, and repeatedly addressed war, racism, and poverty. In addition to this work relating to the death of African American political activist George Jackson, he created a series of woodcut portraits of people who were tortured and killed under the military dictatorship in Uruguay. He also created works on the subject of Vietnam and the 1970 Ohio National Guard’s killing of four students at Kent State University. On his choice of subject matter, he explained in a 1994 interview: “A sort of anger builds in you, so you try to spill it back in your work.”
Frasconi was born in Argentina to Italian parents. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to Uruguay where, as a teenager, Frasconi drew political cartoons for the weekly publication Marcha. Frasconi came to the United States in 1945 to study at the Art Students League in New York City. In 1953, Time magazine called Frasconi “America’s foremost practitioner of the art of the woodcut.” His mastery of this technique exerted considerable influence on the tradition of printmaking in the United States.
