Connor Everts San Francisco Series

 

Connor Everts

  1926 - 2016 (biography)

1967  

lithograph 

20 13/16 x 14 11/16" irregular image 

pencil, lower right 

under 25; poster for Everts's 1967 exhibit at Michael Wallis Gallery 

 

 

cream wove 

published 

artist 

15291 

$1,500.00 

This lithograph was created in a small "edition" to advertise an exhibition of Everts' work at the Michael Walls Gallery in San Francisco in 1967. Connor Everts always pushed the edges with his work, which tended to be too "graphic" for average taste but opened up the possibilities for artists throughout the country to explore sexual and political imagery without uninformed censorship. In 1964 police raided and shut down an exhibition of his work at the Zora Gallery in Los Angeles. On display were a series of 9 lithographs titled 'Studies of Desperation.' These works were created in response to the chaos of the times following the assassination of President Kennedy. Reflecting on the series, the artist said the images were his renderings of someone looking out from the womb and choosing not to be born until the world was a better place. While these works are now widely recognized as a sophisticated and engaging work of art that embody the psychic and political turmoil of the era, at the time these prints were considered offensive and vulgar. Everts was arrested and tried for obscenity. The outraged Los Angeles art community united and rallied behind Everts in support. After a second trial, the first one was dismissed in a hung jury, Everts was exonerated. Although he was not convicted, Everts was terminated from his teaching position at Chouinard. He also suffered a subsequent beating by police that caused permanent nerve damage to his drawing hand.