<I>José Williams Playing the Sax</I>
date: label: Date
content: ca. 1970
name: label: Created by
content: Wadsworth Aikens Jarrell Sr., American, born 1929
label: Subject of
content: José J. Williams, American, born 1934
label: Subject of
content: AfriCOBRA, founded 1968
notes: label: Caption
content: Wadsworth Jarrell was a founding member of AfriCOBRA, an influential collective of Black artists formed in 1968 on the South Side of Chicago. As a painter and photographer, he used vibrant colors to depict political activism and musical life in Chicago in the late 1960s and 70s. This is a double portrait of fellow Chicago artist José J. Williams.
label: Caption
content: Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, Williams was a painter, printmaker, musician, textile artist, and designer. In addition to teaching art at Northwestern University, he owned the AFAM Gallery and was director of the South Side Community Art Center in Chicago in the early 1970s. A talented jazz saxophonist, he often played events at Jae and Wadsworth Jarrell's WJ Studio and Gallery.
label: Description
content: A portrait of artist and jazz musician, José J. Williams, in watercolor on light green wove paper by Wadsworth Jarrell. The colorful double portrait depicts two views of Williams during a live performance, surrounded and overlaid by round bursts of watercolor in black, blue, green, orange, red, pink, and yellow. In the left depiction, Williams’s eyes are closed as he leans back slightly, playing his soprano saxophone. He is painted with curly black hair and wearing a bright green shirt, yellow belt, and red fading to white trousers. In the right depiction, Williams plays in a forward, bending stance, wearing a blue shirt and pink trousers. In the bottom right corner of the painting is the artist’s signature [Wadsworth A. Jarrell] in dark blue watercolor.
place: label: Place depicted
content: Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, United States, North and Central America
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: Art
label: Topic
content: Communities
label: Topic
content: Instrumentalists (Musicians)
label: Topic
content: Jazz (Music)
label: Topic
content: Music
label: Topic
content: Musicians
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Classification
content: Visual Arts
label: Movement
content: BAM (Black Arts Movement 1965-1976)
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2023.46.1
objectType: label: Type
content: watercolors
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: © Wadsworth Aikens Jarrell Sr
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: watercolor on wove paper
label: Dimensions
content: H x W: 47 3/16 × 40 3/8 in. (119.8 × 102.5 cm)