Playing Jacks- - c.1955, Linoleum cut.

Edition unknown but small. Unsigned, possibly a proof impression.

Image size 10 15/16 x 14 1/16 inches (278 x 357 mm); sheet size 12 x 16 inches (305 x 406 mm).

A fine, richly-inked impression on cream wove paper; with margins (3/8 to 1 1/8 inches), in good condition. Very scarce.

$3600.

Emma Lazarus- - 1956, Linoleum cut.

Edition unknown but small. Signed, and titled in pencil. Initialed in the block MTB, lower right.

Image size 12 x 8 inches (305 x 203 mm); sheet size 17 1/2 x 11 5/8 inches (445 x 295 mm).

A superb, richly-inked impression on cream wove paper; the full sheet with margins (1 3/4 to 3 inches); slight skinning 3/8 inch into the four sheet corners, recto, apparently where previously tape mounted; skinning 3/8 inch into the bottom sheet edge, verso, apparently where previously tape mounted; otherwise in very good condition.

Annotated in pencil (partially skinned), bottom sheet edge, verso, Tibbs Estate and with the inventory no. MTB - 010.t —most probably an impression from the Evans-Tibbs Collection. Thurlow Evans Tibbs was a Washington D.C. gallerist, collector, and advocate for African American art whose extensive archive documenting the art of the African diaspora as well as the social history of African Americans and racism in the United States is now held at the National Gallery of Art.

From the very rare suite of linocuts Celebrating Negro History and Brotherhood: A Folio of Prints by Chicago Artists, printed by the Seven Arts Workshop, Chicago. The portfolio included a printed introduction by the sculptor Marion Perkins and pencil signed impressions of 6 linoleum cut portraits. Works included were: MARGARET BURROUGHS – Harriet Tubman, Emma Lazarus, W. E. B. Du Bois. BERNARD GOSS – Frederick Douglass. JOYCE GOURFAIN – Harriet Beecher Stowe. PETER GOURFAIN – John Brown.

Burroughs’ portrait of poet Emma Lazarus depicts the writer of the sonnet “The New Colossus.” While Lazarus, a Jewish New Yorker, passed away decades before Burroughs was born, she was obviously inspired by the poet’s words which appear on a plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty and include the line “A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles.”

Burroughs also created a later linoleum cut portrait of Lazarus in 1963 of similar composition but executed with considerably less precision.

Collection: Library of Congress.

SOLD

Black Venus- - 1957, Woodcut.

Edition 50. Signed, titled and numbered in pencil. Initialed in the block, lower right.

Image size 14 x 11 1/8 inches (356 x 283 mm); sheet size 18 7/8 x 15 1/8 inches (479 x 384 mm).

A fine, black impression, with full margins (1 3/4 to 2 3/4 inches) on heavy cream Japan paper, in excellent condition.

An important print by this influential African American artist.

SOLD