Barbara Jones-Hogu, While Some are Trying to Get Whiter, 1969, screenprint on paper, sheet: 27 7⁄8 × 20 3⁄8 in. (70.8 × 51.8 cm) image: 25 5⁄8 × 20 1⁄8 in. (65.1 × 51.1 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by the American Art Forum, 2021.26.3, © 1969, Estate of Barbara Jones-Hogu
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Artwork Details
- Title
- While Some are Trying to Get Whiter
- Artist
- Date
- 1969
- Location
- Dimensions
- sheet: 27 7⁄8 × 20 3⁄8 in. (70.8 × 51.8 cm) image: 25 5⁄8 × 20 1⁄8 in. (65.1 × 51.1 cm)
- Copyright
- © 1969, Estate of Barbara Jones-Hogu
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase made possible by the American Art Forum
- Mediums Description
- screenprint on paper
- Classifications
- Subjects
- African American
- Figure group
- Object Number
- 2021.26.3
Artwork Description
An early work by Barbara Jones-Hogu, While Some Are Trying to Get Whiter was created while the artist was a printmaking graduate student at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Part of a larger series that protests racism and social injustice, the print depicts Black faces against an abstracted US flag design, with hooded Ku Klux Klan figures standing in for stars.
Jones-Hogu was the only trained printmaker among the original members of AfriCOBRA. Her knowledge of silkscreen was crucial to the collective's success in getting their messages out. Her later work became more brightly colored and uplifting in tone, following AfriCOBRA's aim of "preaching positivity to the people."