Untitled Anxious Crowd

2018

Untitled Anxious Crowd, 2018. Rashid Johnson (American, b. 1977), Jennifer Melby (American), Hauser & Wirth. Softground etching; image: 50.5 x 61.3 cm (19 7/8 x 24 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dr. Gerard and Phyllis Seltzer Fund 2020.78 © Rashid Johnson Contemporary artist Rashid Johnson draws on the traditions of painting and conceptual art to explore the lived experiences of African American men. This print belongs to a series that began as an exploration of the artist’s own anxieties but grew to express the experiences of young black men during a time marked by police violence and mass incarceration. In the artist’s words, “I . . . realiz[ed] that my anxiety was not mine exclusively.” Rashid Johnson created this print by making repetitive, jagged marks that echoed his subject’s mood into the waxy surface of a softground etching plate.