Wanted Poster #6, Charles White, 1969

Medium: Oil wash on board
Dimensions: 59 3/4 x 39 15/16 in.
Credit Line: From the Edmund W. and Susan G. Gordon Private Collection donated to the Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin © The Charles White Archives

This image can not be reproduced without the permission of the Charles White Archives

Charles White began the Wanted Poster series after winning an award from the Tamarind Lithography Workshop, widely regarded as one of the leading graphic workshops in the United States. Wanted Poster #6 is an interrogation into the representation of the African American body on runaway slave posters, which usually pictured anonymous figures in neutral poses. With Wanted Poster #6, White borrowed the formal constructs of the slave poster, interlacing it with contemporary representations of the African American female body, a theme for which the artist would become known.