BENNY ANDREWS (1930 - 2006)
Everything That Rises Must Converge.

Portfolio with six color etchings and complete text on Rives BFK paper, 2005. 652x499 mm; 25?x19? inches (sheet), loose as issued.

Edition of 60 numbered copies. Each signed, dated, and numbered 43/60 in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Peter Petengill at Wingate Studio, New Hampshire. Published by the Limited Editions Club, New York.

Everything That Rises Must Converge is a collection of color etchings from Benny Andrews inspired by the short stories of Flannery O' Connor in 1961. Both these etchings and short story were inspired by a passage from the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. The portfolio chronicles the events surrounding a bus trip that an arrogant young man takes with his bigoted mother. The mother insists on her son's company because, since the system was recently integrated, she doesn't like to ride alone. The tensions in their relationship come to a head when a Black mother and son board the same bus, with the woman wearing an identical hat.

O’ Connor’s primary focus is on the mindset of the woman's college-educated son, who is embarrassed and angered by his mother's condescending racism and who regards the African American woman's indignant response as his mother's justified punishment for a behavior condemned by history. Andrew's images correlate to different scenes from the text.