Know When To Quit by Mike Henderson

Know When To Quit by Mike Henderson

Know When To Quit

Mike Henderson

Title

Know When To Quit

 
Artist

Mike Henderson

  1944 - PRESENT (biography)
Year
1981  
Technique
lithograph 
Image Size
19-1/2 X 22-3/8" image 
Signature
pencil, lower right 
Edition Size
Printer's Proof, edition not more than 20 
Annotations
titled and editioned, lower left 
Reference
 
Paper
BFK Rives white wove 
State
published 
Publisher
artist 
Inventory ID
14956 
Price
SOLD
Description

Missouri born African-American artist Mike Henderson got his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. He has taught painting and occasionally printmaking at UC Davis in Davis, California and is equally noted as blues musician and a filmmaker.

This black and white lithograph, a printer's proof, shows the influence of the Bay Area Funk Art that many of the UC Davis artists embraced. Henderson's work later evolved to more abstract compositions.

Wikipedia notes about the Funk Art movement: "Unlike earlier movements, such as Dada and Surrealism, Funk art was not concerned with public morality. Its artists were committed to identifying with their works on a personal level instead of the social or existential. Through their absurdist works, Funk artists demonstrated personal feelings, emotions and processes and in this way their work had a closer relationship to nature rather than to culture. The works had creative freedom and demonstrated the artists' lives, personalities and experiences.

Funk artists treated their work with a sense of humor, senselessness, confrontation, vulgar sexuality and autobiographical references. In their pieces, Funk artists are sometimes self-deprecating and ironic. Although the works are humorous, they sometimes cover a more serious undertone. Since there was no clear meaning in many pieces, Funk art contains a sense of ambiguity."