![[Americana.]](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg2.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%252Flive%252F2006-09%252F22%252F7332891-4-1.JPG%26width%3D650&w=2400&q=75)
Darren Sutherland
Specialist
This auction has ended. View lot details
You may also be interested in
Lot 1087
WADDY, RUTH GILLIAM. 1909-2003. The Children. [Los Angeles]: n.p., 1973.
6 – 13 December 2018, 10:00 EST
New YorkUS$800 - US$1,200
Looking for a similar item?
Our Books & Manuscripts specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
WADDY, RUTH GILLIAM. 1909-2003.
The Children. [Los Angeles]: n.p., 1973.
Folio (455 x 304 mm). 8 linocut prints on thick artists paper, each signed in the print dated 1973, and then re-signed by Ruth Waddy (in an unsteady older hand), with 7 of the 8 re-dated 1987, "Friday's Child" is further inscribed by Waddy, "Happy Birthday Somalia, and many happy returns." Housed in a white card portfolio titled "The Children" to upper wrapper.
A striking collection of linocuts by African-American artist Ruth Waddy, comprising each of the seven days of the week "Monday's child is fair of face ... and the child that's born on the Sabbath Day is bonny and blythe and good and gay," with an eighth image of all seven days on one sheet, and signed and inscribed by the artist. Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Willana Ruth Gilliam was raised in Minneapolis. Her father worked as a waiter on the railroads, but died when she was 13. She attended the University of Minnesota, briefly, but left school to work as a domestic in Chicago, to help support her family during the Depression. She married William Waddy in the 1930s, and moved with her young family to Los Angeles, becoming a riveter at the Douglas Aircraft Corporation after the war, and working as an intake clerk at LA County Hospital. In the late 1950s, she turned to a career in art, specializing in linocut printmaking. In 1962 she founded Art West Associated, a society for Black artists in Los Angeles, and in 1966 travelled to the Soviet Union for an exhibit of African American Art. Throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s she pushed for proper recognition for African American artists, edited "Black Artists on Art" (Los Angeles, 1969). She went on to receive a host of awards from Compton College 1972, League of Allied Artists 1981, and her Honorary Doctorate from Otis Art Institute in 1987, has a citation, "Your strong graphic images strike us with aesthetic, emotional, and social power, and your dedication to seeking out the distinctive experience of black artists in America has widened that power". In the Los Angeles Bicentennial celebrations 1981, she was one of only 12 African American artists to be honored. Her papers are now at Tulane University, and her work to be found in Howard University, Metropolitan Museum, and Oakland Museum.
Folio (455 x 304 mm). 8 linocut prints on thick artists paper, each signed in the print dated 1973, and then re-signed by Ruth Waddy (in an unsteady older hand), with 7 of the 8 re-dated 1987, "Friday's Child" is further inscribed by Waddy, "Happy Birthday Somalia, and many happy returns." Housed in a white card portfolio titled "The Children" to upper wrapper.
A striking collection of linocuts by African-American artist Ruth Waddy, comprising each of the seven days of the week "Monday's child is fair of face ... and the child that's born on the Sabbath Day is bonny and blythe and good and gay," with an eighth image of all seven days on one sheet, and signed and inscribed by the artist. Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Willana Ruth Gilliam was raised in Minneapolis. Her father worked as a waiter on the railroads, but died when she was 13. She attended the University of Minnesota, briefly, but left school to work as a domestic in Chicago, to help support her family during the Depression. She married William Waddy in the 1930s, and moved with her young family to Los Angeles, becoming a riveter at the Douglas Aircraft Corporation after the war, and working as an intake clerk at LA County Hospital. In the late 1950s, she turned to a career in art, specializing in linocut printmaking. In 1962 she founded Art West Associated, a society for Black artists in Los Angeles, and in 1966 travelled to the Soviet Union for an exhibit of African American Art. Throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s she pushed for proper recognition for African American artists, edited "Black Artists on Art" (Los Angeles, 1969). She went on to receive a host of awards from Compton College 1972, League of Allied Artists 1981, and her Honorary Doctorate from Otis Art Institute in 1987, has a citation, "Your strong graphic images strike us with aesthetic, emotional, and social power, and your dedication to seeking out the distinctive experience of black artists in America has widened that power". In the Los Angeles Bicentennial celebrations 1981, she was one of only 12 African American artists to be honored. Her papers are now at Tulane University, and her work to be found in Howard University, Metropolitan Museum, and Oakland Museum.