Bidspirit auction | Jeff Donaldson 'Portrait of a

Jeff Donaldson 'Portrait of a Woman' Watercolor & Ink on Paper - Signed and dated by the artist in the lower right.  Date: 1959   Image: 19” x 9 1/2”  Frame: 25” x 15 1/2”    Condition: Some undulation and toning to the paper; otherwise, the piece is in good condition.   Artist Bio: Jeff Donaldson (1932–2004) co-founded the Chicago visual workshop that produced the 1967 Wall of Respect, generally credited with igniting the American community mural movement, and in 1968 co-founded AfriCOBRA — the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists — with Wadsworth Jarrell, Jae Jarrell, Barbara Jones-Hogu and Gerald Williams. He is credited with the 1969 manifesto ”Ten in Search of a Nation.” The AfriCOBRA aesthetic he articulated calls for high-keyed unmixed ”Kool-Aid color, ” shine, free rhythmic symmetry, integrated lettering, and ”mimesis at mid-point” — representation held between likeness and abstraction — in service of positive, dignified images of Black people. He also championed a transAfrican aesthetic uniting the art of Africa and its diaspora, and served as dean of Howard University's College of Fine Arts from 1985 to 1998.