Pierre Desir
The Poet Crucified #2, 2016
Oil on canvas board
22 x 28 inches
$5,000
The Poet Crucified #5, 2018
Watercolor on paper
9 x 18 inches
$3,000
The Poet Crucified #7, 2019
Watercolor on paper
21 x 29 inches
$5,000
"The Ancient Rain series depicts the oppression of the black artist at the hands of the criminal justice system, institutional racism, and the Eurocentric art world. It depicts the August 10,1959 arrest in the Coexistence Bagel Shop of Bob Kaufman, a mixed race poet and a black-listed merchant marine, by the San Francisco police department. The text refers to Kaufman’s poem “The Ancient Rain” and written police records of the years-long harassment of Kaufman. The painting also references a medical device that administers electro-shock, treatments Kauffman was forced to undergo after being arrested for walking on the grass."