Political Artist and Graphic Agitator Emory Douglas to Speak at Otis College of Art and Design
Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) July 09, 2013 -- Artist and activist Emory Douglas will speak to students at Otis College of Art and Design as part of the Graduate Graphic Design program’s Visiting Artist Lecture Series. The lecture will be held Wednesday, July 10 at 12:00 PM in the Ahmanson Forum on the Goldsmith Campus at 9045 Lincoln Blvd, Los, Angeles, CA 90045.
A major force in the American Black Power movement, Emory Douglas was the Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party from 1967 until its dissolution in the early 1980s. His extensive body of work helped define the Black Panther Party’s signature visual style, and is an iconic representation of the Party’s struggles and accomplishments for nearly two decades.
Prolific and politically astute, Douglas created work with powerful impact, serving the Panther’s mission to improve the lives of African Americans by calling for resistance, social change, and community service. Using inexpensive printing technologies—including photostats and presstype, textures and patterns, collaged and re-collaged drawings and photographs —Douglas produced posters, pamphlets, and a weekly, two-color, heavily illustrated, tabloid-style newspaper, The Black Panther.
The work of Emory Douglas demonstrates the efficacy of visual art in political communication. With a distinctive humanism, Douglas galvanized a community ravaged by poverty and injustice by creating a visual projection of power for people who felt powerless and victimized. In contrast to earlier social realist political art, associated with the Work Projects Administration, that portrayed poor people in a helpless state, Douglas projected respect and action through his work, illustrating harsh conditions while underscoring the dignity of an African-American community emerging from segregation and proudly fighting to assert its rights to equality.
This lecture is part of the Otis Graduate Graphic Design program’s annual Visiting Artist Lecture Series, and is co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Political Graphics.
About The Graduate Graphic Design Program
The MFA Graphic Design program at Otis is limited-residency. Students come together for eight weeks each summer. To acquire an MFA they must complete three summer sessions and two on-site or off-site sessions. Design Week kicks off the summer sessions and powers students through the remaining seven weeks of the program.
About Otis College of Art and Design
Founded in Los Angeles in 1918, Otis College of Art and Design prepares diverse students of art and design to enrich the world through their creativity, their skill, and their vision. The College offers an interdisciplinary education for 1200 full-time students, awarding BFA degrees in Advertising, Architecture/Landscape/Interiors, Digital Media, Fashion Design, Illustration, Graphic Design, Product Design, Painting, Photography, Sculpture/New Genres, and Toy Design; and MFA degrees in Fine Arts, Graphic Design, Public Practice, and Writing. Continuing Education offers certificate programs as well as personal and professional development courses. Additional information is available at http://www.otis.edu.
John Axtell, Media Relations, Otis College of Art and Design, http://www.otis.edu, 310-665-6857, [email protected]
Share this article