While Some are Trying to Get Whiter

Barbara Jones-Hogu, While Some are Trying to Get Whiter, 1969, screenprint on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by the American Art Forum, 2021.26.3, © 1969, Estate of Barbara Jones-Hogu
Copied 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

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
  • Figure group
  • African American
Object Number
2021.26.3
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/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."