Artwork Description
Terry Allen – Yellow Man’s Revenge
Dimensions: 23 x 29.75″ paper
Year: 1974
Medium: 6-color lithograph, chine colle, punched holes
Yellow Man’s Revenge, a lithograph with a chine collé image of Allen in drag as a youth, is the piece that first caught my attention.The gender-bending content of the work presents ideas of being “othered” and has the potential to connect to those who have been traditionally excluded for not adhering to prevailing social norms. His ruby red lips drew me into his personal history and showed an honesty that only can come from a page ripped out of a private sketchbook. The central image floats in a world of text and doodles on a sheet of enlarged and reproduced notebook paper. Allen’s sketchbook aesthetic is a stream-of-conscious mishmash of imagery and text.