M.L.K.

Robert Colescott was an African American artist of Creole descent (mixed European and African ancestry), acclaimed for his expressionist figure paintings and drawings that explored black history and identity. Equally adept at satire and seriousness, Colescott produced narrative scenes that address issues of race, gender, power, and social inequality, often mocking stereotypes with lurid imagery and unnerving situations. Colescott’s graphite drawing Heavenly Host & MLK imagines God in the guise of a southern plantation owner flanked by white police-uniformed bodyguards. God directs the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., mortally wounded, away from the gates of heaven toward Satan, who wears black-face and sports horns, ready to escort King to hell.