“Homage to a Giant”was created by AfriCOBRA co-founder Wadsworth Jarrell in 1970 as a tribute to Malcom X. Featured in the upper far left of the picture, the image of Malcom X expresses the struggle of the of the black community against oppression and opposition; referencing protesters who died for their beliefs. Referencing the Black Panther movement, Wadsworth imbues his painting with their message of “free by any means necessary” as well as the right to self defense. To the right of Malcom X, Wadsworth also includes celebrated figures from the black community: Jesse Jackson, Huey Newton, and Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Toure). Their faces peer out of large, repeating letter Bs, emblematic of “black is beautiful,” and “badness.” At the bottom of the painting, Wadsworth spells out a part of Malcom X’s eulogy, spoken by the actor and activist Ossie Davis. It reads, “If you knew Malcolm, you would know why we honor him... our living manhood and shining prince.”

“Homage to a Giant,” was featured in AfriCOBRA’s first national exhibition “AFRICOBRA I: Ten in Search of a Nation,” at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1970, and late traveling to the National Center of Afro-American Art in Boston and Black Expo in Chicago . “Homage to a Giant” is a key example of AfriCOBRA, an aesthetic rooted in the culture of Chicago’s of the late 1960’s and 70’s, capturing the rhythmic dynamism of Black culture and social life. While many AfriCOBRA works reference Wadsworth Jarrell’s personal life, “Homage to a Giant,” examines the contemporary issues of the 60’s and 70’s through his own distinctive point of view. Initially labeled as mere “protest art,” Wadsworth Jarrell’s evocative “Homage to a Giant” celebrates the life and actions of a fellow activist in their fight towards equality.

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PROVENANCE
Collection of the Artist

EXHIBITIONS
Art Basel, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, Basel, Switzerland, 2023
AFRICOBRA Message to the People, Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, FL, November 27 2018- March 24 2019.
Cleveland Musuem of Art, "Heritage: Wadsworth and Jae Jarrell", 2017
Studio Museum in Harlem, June - August, 1970

LITERATURE
J.M. Hayes, "AfriCobra; Messages to the People", New York, 2020, illustrated pp, 32, 110, 11R.
Douglas "Wadsworth Jarrell: The Artist as Revolutionary", Essex, 1996, illustrated pp. 32-43