Artists

Artist Emory Douglas

Born 1943 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. Lives and works in the Bay Area, San Francisco, USA.
  • Artist | Emory DouglasEmory Douglas
    Poster from ‘The Black Panther’ newspaper, 19 June
    1971
    Courtesy the artist

Emory Douglas has lived in the Bay Area of San Francisco, California since 1951. Douglas was the appointed Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party in Oakland from 1967 until its demise in the early 1980s. Trained as a commercial artist during his time spent in prison, his revolutionary designs featured in the Party’s posters and newspapers, which were distributed widely across the United States. Douglas’s distinctive and powerful illustrations in marker, ink, gouache and graphite made him one of the most influential and radical artists of the era. His art and activism played an important part alongside the Party’s other radical activities, debating issues critical to African-American communities and fighting against injustice. For the Biennale, historian and archivist for the Black Panther Party, Bill (Billy X) Jennings, has lent a selection of posters, newspapers and films documenting this time.

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