Lot 21
Muhammad Ali (1942-2016)
5 October 2021, 13:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$16,562.50 inc. premium
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Muhammad Ali (1942-2016)
America The Big Jail, 1967
Felt pen on translucent paper
Signed "By Muhammad Ali"
Framed
This drawing was done for an article in Avant Garde magazine, 1967. Ali provided commentary to the works included in the article and about this work, he said Some people ask me how do I feel when I think of the Negro in America 400 years after we were brought over for the first time on a slave ship named "The Good Ship Jesus". I tell them I see the U.S. with lots of bars, a big jail because when you take a man to jail, you change his clothes, you change his name, you change the way he talks. When we were brought here, our clothes were changed from Arabic Eastern clothes to English clothes. When a man goes to jail, his language changes. A room is no longer a room, but it's a cell; a policeman's no longer a policeman, he's a turnkey; food is no longer food, but it's grub and chow. When a man goes to jail, his name is no longer George, William, Robert or Joe. His name is 34567891. When we were brought to America, we had names like Omar, Muhammad, Hassan, Ishamel, Sharif, Shabaz, Karim, Rishime, Jimila, Yasilia, our own beautiful names, and now they're names like Mr. Culpepper, Mr. Roundtree, Mr. Clay, Mr. Washington, Mr. Jones, Mr. Wolfe, Mr. Hawkins. So when a man goes to jail, he changes, and such were we Negroes changed when we were brought to America. We suffered 310 years of physical slavery and they are still beating us and shooting us throughout the country. So in this picture, I have the black man in jail with knots on his head and suffering pain. And here we are, 400 years later, behind these bars, with all these scars, here in this United States jail made up of fifty cells.
Exhibited: Muhammad Ali: World Premier Art Exhibition, Roseland Grand Ballroom, New York, January, 1979.
Provenance: From the Collection of Rodney Hilton Brown, formerly President of Hilton Fine Arts, Ltd., publisher of Muhammad Ali's limited edition silkscreen prints, 1978.
Literature: Avant Garde magazine, Issue One, January, 1968 (illus.)
BROWN, Rodney Hilton, Muhammad Ali: The Untold Story: Painter, Poet & Prophet, Fairhaven, MA: The War Museum Press, 2021, p. 41 (illus.)
Frame: 25 1/2 x 29 1/2 in.
Felt pen on translucent paper
Signed "By Muhammad Ali"
Framed
This drawing was done for an article in Avant Garde magazine, 1967. Ali provided commentary to the works included in the article and about this work, he said Some people ask me how do I feel when I think of the Negro in America 400 years after we were brought over for the first time on a slave ship named "The Good Ship Jesus". I tell them I see the U.S. with lots of bars, a big jail because when you take a man to jail, you change his clothes, you change his name, you change the way he talks. When we were brought here, our clothes were changed from Arabic Eastern clothes to English clothes. When a man goes to jail, his language changes. A room is no longer a room, but it's a cell; a policeman's no longer a policeman, he's a turnkey; food is no longer food, but it's grub and chow. When a man goes to jail, his name is no longer George, William, Robert or Joe. His name is 34567891. When we were brought to America, we had names like Omar, Muhammad, Hassan, Ishamel, Sharif, Shabaz, Karim, Rishime, Jimila, Yasilia, our own beautiful names, and now they're names like Mr. Culpepper, Mr. Roundtree, Mr. Clay, Mr. Washington, Mr. Jones, Mr. Wolfe, Mr. Hawkins. So when a man goes to jail, he changes, and such were we Negroes changed when we were brought to America. We suffered 310 years of physical slavery and they are still beating us and shooting us throughout the country. So in this picture, I have the black man in jail with knots on his head and suffering pain. And here we are, 400 years later, behind these bars, with all these scars, here in this United States jail made up of fifty cells.
Exhibited: Muhammad Ali: World Premier Art Exhibition, Roseland Grand Ballroom, New York, January, 1979.
Provenance: From the Collection of Rodney Hilton Brown, formerly President of Hilton Fine Arts, Ltd., publisher of Muhammad Ali's limited edition silkscreen prints, 1978.
Literature: Avant Garde magazine, Issue One, January, 1968 (illus.)
BROWN, Rodney Hilton, Muhammad Ali: The Untold Story: Painter, Poet & Prophet, Fairhaven, MA: The War Museum Press, 2021, p. 41 (illus.)
Frame: 25 1/2 x 29 1/2 in.