PAT WARD WILLIAMS, ACCUSED BLOWTORCH PADLOCK, 1986

Collaged tar paper, oil pastel, found painted wood, found magazine, three gelatin silver prints with printed text on mylar overlay, and nails and staples, mounted on wood panel. 61 13/16 × 108 1/4 × 3in.

“One of Williams’ best known works is Accused/Blowtorch/Padlock (1986), which consists of an image of a black man tied to a tree (originally published in Life magazine in 1937 and not attributed to a specific photographer), surrounded by text expressing the artist's reaction to this image.

Accused/Blowtorch/Padlock has been included in exhibitions such as The Decade Show, a large-scale collaborative exhibition by the New Museum, Studio Museum in Harlem, and The Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art, as well as in Art, Women, California 1950–2000: Parallels and Intersections at the San Jose Museum of Art.” - Wikipedia