These are dangerous pictures, and they were meant to change the world, said artist Sam Durant, who organized the exhibition of the graphic art of Emory Douglas now on view at the New Museum. Revolutionary Artist and Minister of Culture of the Black Panther Party for 20 years starting in 1967, Douglas created symbolic images designed to mobilize black communities and to skewer oppressive authorities.

Founded in 1966 by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton as the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, in Oakland, California, the Party grew out of Marxist ideals for social action. Its aim was to provide decent employment, decent housing, decent food, decent education, community control of the police, and peace and justice for all black people - using armed self-defense "by any means necessary."

Left and right: copyright Emory Douglas/Artists Rights Society (ARS) New York, courtesy the New Museum. Center: Installation view, photo by Peggy Roalf.

While the Black Panther Party is remembered more for its revolutionary actions, it was also a grass-roots community organization whose first social program was free breakfasts for school children. And it was Douglas's graphic work that gave visual identity to the Party's work as it modified its mission from a focus on self-defense to social welfare and participation in electoral politics.

By the time its nationwide membership reached 400,000, the Party's community programs had improved life for many poor blacks. The good that was done, however, was drowned out by inflammatory press reports that labeled its leaders violent terrorists. Many of them, including founder Huey Newton, were incarcerated on false charges that were later cleared.

Douglas, who was trained as a commercial artist at City College of San Francisco, designed the Black Panther, the Party's weekly newspaper. He created most of the cover art and illustrations for it, taking on just about every major subject of the day from the Ku Klux Klan to black athletes in the Olympics. The exhibition becomes a portrait gallery of some of the most important public figures of the period from Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. to Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger. Notable figures from the Party and the civil rights movement are represented, including Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown, Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), and Angela Davis.

Douglas had an arsenal of graphic devices at hand to brand the newspaper with his distinctive stamp. A sunburst of radiating beams in high key colors, often combined with bold typography to powerful effect, was one of his hallmarks. The raised clenched fist, the repeating rifle held aloft, black-and-white prison stripes, and the ubiquitous black beret of the Party were iconic elements he used to create a unified identity for the weekly paper and for posters announcing fundraising rallies.

Some of Douglas's most memorable portraits and posters have been reprinted in silk screen on rag paper for the show. It's a testament to the power of his imagery that beautiful printing on artist's paper in no way diminishes the impact of the originals, which were cheaply printed on common paper.

The exhibition includes an informative video about the history of the Black Panther Party and a heavily illustrated catalogue (Rizzoli 2007).

Emory Douglas: Black Panther continues at the New Museum through October 18^th. 235 Bowery at Prince Street, New York, NY. 212.2198.2000. Please visit the website for information.

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