ANDREA BOWERS
"Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas" (moca Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles) Former minister of culture for the Black Panthers and art director of Its paper from 1967 until 1980, Douglas applied the ethos of his party's motto - "A thing is only good when it brings real benefit to the people" - to his art. Committed to social justice, he represented the poor with dignity while aggressively attacking their oppressors through his aesthetically compelling and formally innovative illustrations, collages, posters, and drawings. Exhibited at this moment in our history when an African American stood poised to win the presidency of a country at war not only abroad, but against its own citizens' constitutional freedoms - Douglas's output seems as relevant and politically astute today as it must have during the momentous and contradictory times that produced it.
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