Confrontation on the Bridge

Signed, dated 1975 and numbered 64/125 in pencil
Color silkscreen
19-1/2 x 25-3/4 inches

Note:
Published by Transworld Art, New York.

This color silkscreen was created by Jacob Lawrence when he was commissioned to produce a print for An American Portrait 1776-1976, a portfolio celebrating the United States' bicentennial. The portfolio consisted of works by 33 well known artists, each of whom was asked to reflect on America's history. For this project, Lawrence chose to depict the violent attack on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965 known as 'Bloody Sunday.' The protestors, led by Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis, were peacefully marching from Selma to the state capitol in Montgomery, Alabama in support of voter rights for African Americans. As they were crossing the bridge, the protestors were viciously attacked by state troopers, symbolized in the print by the snarling dog facing the marchers to the left.

Other impressions are included in the collections of Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, the High Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art, among others.

Provenance:
Private Collection, Brookline