Lev T. Mills
1938-2021
I...
1970
collagraph
30 x 22 inches
Signed, titled, dated and numbered 5/25

Lev Mills’ collagraph, “I…” was selected as a competitor in the Third National Printmakers Exhibition. One juror was Warrington Colescott, a professor of drawing and printmaking while Mills was an MFA student at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The print was selected as a “1970 Purchase Award” for the Ackland Museum on the campus of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Symbolically, the print encompasses a “capital I” and a “big eye.” The viewer is challenged to determine the significance of the symbols found throughout the print. Typically, Mills' works express action through words and images. Graffiti is a powerful expression of the unheard and is often used in his works.

In over a dozen exhibitions, Mills' works gained international recognition at a private gallery, Kunsthandel K276, in Amsterdam; the American Embassy in London and the American Cultural Center in Paris. Subsequently, the United States Information Agency (U.S.I.A.) sponsored Mills on a “Seven Month Exhibition and Lecture Tour” to East, West, North and Southern Africa as well as to the Middle East.

Thank you to Joyce Mills for providing information about this powerful image.