Generations (Three generations of Black Women)

Date 1977
Technique Lithograph
Price $495.00
Exhibitor Stone and Press Gallery
Contact the Exhibitor 504-251-3124
ann@stoneandpressgallery.com
Buy From / See At This Exhibitor's Site

b/w lithograph

1977

13 5/8 x 9 1/2

edition: 250,

signed in pencil.

Associated American Artists publication


"Generations" is one of the few original prints by Henry Casselli. It was issued by Associated American Artists and is cataloged as 1975.005. Casselli has done official portraits of many famous Americans but when he creates his watercolors, blacks are often the focus. Against a quilt-like background, Casselli has created a loving family portrait of three generations of black women. Casselli’s life and art intersect inexorably with that of New Orleans. Born in the racially mixed Ninth Ward near the French Quarter, he has a firm grasp of the realities that permeate the daily experiences of ordinary people, particularly in that section of the city. His work has taken him far afield, such as his involvement with the NASA "Artistry in Space" project, but his attachment to his roots in New Orleans remains at the heart of Casselli’s abiding concern as a painter whose primary focus is fixed on the qualities that he finds in his encounter with the life around him. These concerns for the human experience are essential to his work and form its dominant character. Casselli began his studies in New Orleans at the McCrady School of Fine and Applied Arts in 1964. John McCrady (1911-1968) was an influence on Casselli’s direction, certainly; but, McCrady’s principal function as a teacher was largely to affirm the rightness of Casselli’s natural inclinations. As early as his second year at the McCrady School, Casselli’s mentor was confident enough to invite him to join the faculty as an assistant instructor. Casselli matured at the McCrady School through sheer application to work and, as he says, from learning from "every piece of art I’ve ever seen," which included reproductions he found in books.