Robert Colescott Print: "I Can’t Dance" (1996)

Robert ColescottI Can’t Dance, 1996Lithograph on Arches paper30 1/4 x 22 1/4 inches 76.8 x 56.5 centimetersEdition of 70, 2AP, 4TP Robert Colescott worked in a number of mediums throughout his long career, including a variety of print techniques from serigraphy and lithography to woodcuts and etchings. Five editions made from 1989 to 1997 are featured in the gallery’s Colescott Print Shop.  Printed by master printmaker Marina Ancona at Hand Graphics in Santa Fe, New Mexico, I Can’t Dance (1996), Whirl Champ (1997), and Local Color (1997) explore racial stereotypes from multiple points of view. I Can’t Dance and Whirl Champ challenge the old trope that all Black people are inherently good dancers, while Local Color satirizes the phrase “local color” in a scene depicting a white male farmer in a covert sexual encounter with a Black woman. Editions from I Can’t Dance and Local Color are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the de Young Museum in San Francisco. A port