Caged Bird

Walter Henry Williams

Caged Bird was published by the International Graphic Arts Society, January 1967, Series #72. Published in editions of 210, 100 impressions were sold in America and 100 in Europe. There were 10 artist's proofs.

Williams suffered great loss as a child and, with the imagery of Caged Bird, he seems to have been reflecting on his unhappiness. A Black child is never free to completely abandon himself in daydreams lest he break a societal rule that he is an unwitting victim of. The figure in the background could be his authoritarian father in a work apron beckoning the child from his revelry. The boy is much like the black caged bird, ready and willing to fly but unable due to the constraints of his age, the racism of the society in which he lives, and the dominant belief that idleness equates to laziness.

Williams printed his own works and the colors within the edition and impressions will vary from one to another.