LEFT Walter Henry Williams, Sunflowers, 1959, color woodcut on thin imitation Japan paper, 13 9/16 × 19 7/8 in. Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Miriam H. and S. Sidney Stoneman Acquisition Fund; 2024.34.
"Sunflowers"
MICHAEL HARTMAN, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art
Printed in 1959, Walter Williams's Sunflowers engages with themes of escapism and tranquility by inviting us into its display of childhood innocence. A young boy sits in a field and holds a rooster while surrounded by blooming sunflowers, flittering birds, and delicate butterflies. Relaxed and fully immersed within the landscape, his body emerges from the grass, imbuing the scene with a sense of his belonging.
Sunflowers is part of a larger commission that Williams received from the International Graphic Arts Society (IGAS). Printed in an edition of 210, the first ten proofs were reserved for the artist. Of the remaining 200, half were sold in the United States and the other half in Europe, an arrangement that helped American artists gain an international following.
Each color of this print was created using a separate block of wood. Williams inked each woodblock and overlayed the colors, a process that demonstrates his immense technical skill. This print is one of the first ten proofs, making it particularly rare. It is the third print by Williams to enter the museum's collection.
Williams—whose maternal grandfather was born in the Danish West Indies—began traveling to Denmark in the 1950s. As a Black artist from Harlem, Williams grew up in an urban environment and later stated that his first encounter with a rural landscape occurred during his Danish travels. His prints responded to this experience while also interrogating the southern landscapes left behind by African Americans during the Great Migration out of the Jim Crow south. Focusing on children surrounded by birds, butterflies, and sunflowers as symbols of rebirth, resurrection, flight, and freedom, Williams imagined the possibilities of a better world.
Williams became a Danish citizen in 1979, a decision made in response to the continued racism he experienced as a Black man in the United States in an interracial marriage with a Danish woman. The following year, his studio was destroyed by fire. It is unknown how many works were destroyed, making this woodcut particularly rare. Williams stopped making art around 1983, and his last solo exhibition was at the 1985 International Art Fair in Tokyo, Japan, where he represented Denmark, not the United States.
Click here to view this object's catalogue entry.