To accompany the exhibition, Christen Sveaas Art Foundation: The Unseen Selected by Hurvin Anderson, 20 May – 7 August 2022, Hurvin Anderson has created two special silkscreen prints especially for Whitechapel Gallery.
Drawing on the American writer Ralph Ellison’s celebrated novel Invisible Man (1952) as a source inspiration for both the show and the edition, the work references the narrator's almost hallucinatory fantasy involving Louis Armstrong’s performance of “(What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue” on multiple gramophones simultaneously and the resulting permeation of the vibrations. With the song itself a well-known protest at racial injustice, Anderson’s subject matter for the work is situated within the artist’s ongoing exploration of experience and identity.
Anderson approached the print much like illustration, making numerous preparatory drawing to capture of the filmic qualities within Ellison’s text. The editions, depict the same image, printed in two black and blue colour variants. While the colours of the work were suggested by the song title, the variation occurred as a result of the creative print making process. Much like a painting, the making, remaking and variations that evolved opened up the potential for possibilities and offer a nod to the improvisation of jazz.
Hurvin Anderson - Black and Blue - 2023
Medium: Screenprint on Somerset Velvet White 300gsm
Size: 59.4 x 42 cm
Edition of 25
Signed and numbered
Price: £ 750
Hurvin Anderson - Blue and Black - 2023
Medium: Screenprint on Somerset Velvet White 300gsm
Size: 59.4 x 42 cm
Edition of 25
Signed and numbered
Price: £ 750
These limited edition Hurvin Anderson silkscreens are available at Whitechapel Gallery.