Marcus Garvey: Illustration in Context - Printmaking

Rohan Patrick Illustration in Context November 2012 Illustration Assignment Rockwell Kent (1882-1971) was an American Painter and Printmaker, (Fig. 1) is the artist style I mimic for the project Illustration in Context (Fig. 2). Using one of his images from the book Moby Dick, (Fig. 3) I illustrated the image of Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., August 17, 1887 – June 10, 1940 (Fig. 4). Born in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica, self-educated, Mr. Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association, dedicated to promoting African-Americans and resettlement in Africa. In the United States he

Fig. 1 Rockwell Kent 1882-1971, title unknown, circa 1920, Photograph.

launched several businesses to promote a separate black nation. After he was deported back to Jamaica, he continued his work for black repatriation to Africa. Mr. Garvey advanced a Pan-African philosophy which inspired a global mass movement, known as Garveyism. Garveyism would eventually inspire others, from the Nation of Islam to the Rastafarian movement.

Fig. 2 Rohan Patrick (b.1969), Marcus Mosiah Garvey, 2012, printmaking, Illustration in Context.

I received a grant several weeks ago from the Media Literacy Group, to conduct a research project in ethnographic study. The grant enabled me to purchase a printmaking machine. Through this study in the printing and graphic arts course which I am currently an instructor at the Lansing Girl School, I was able to examine the works of artist whose work documents the Fig. 3 Rockwell Kent, Ahab, 1930, printmaking, Moby Dick or The Whale.

visible and invisible practices of human cultures, societies and the individuals within them. It informs much of

contemporary media. Rockwell Kent was such an artist; famous in his own time as

an arctic adventurer, and political activist, Mr. Kent left his most enduring legacy as a printmaker and illustrator of books. His bold and enigmatic images of mysterious, statuesque figures in spiritual communion with the natural world proved equally effective in corporate advertising campaigns and book projects alike. This exhibition follows the artist’s journey from Alaska to New found land, and from the pages of Vanity Fair magazine to the deck of Captain Ahab’s ship in Moby Dick.

Fig. 4 Associated Press, Marcus Mosiah Garvey, 1922, Provisional President of Africa, annual Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World.