The Torture President's Legacy

Medium: Woodcut
Dimensions: 11 5/8 x 17 inches (image/sheet)
Artist details: American, 1925 - 2016
Date Finished: 2007
Edition: of 100
Reference: Summers, 249

Recommended by Nikki (Fine Arts Photographer & Content Publisher):
"Carol Summers’ woodcut lacks crisp lines and edges, as is characteristic of his works. Unlike his other works, though, he used only two colors in ‘The Torture President’s Legacy’. Summers takes an internationally well known symbol of America and blurs its distinctness as the blue ink mixes with the red as the two pigments lift off the block and migrate onto tissue thin paper via solvents. This work particularly struck me, as I went through the gallery’s inventory, after the current president’s reaffirmation of America’s ban on torture during his meeting with President Ghani and Chairman Abdullah of Afghanistan several days ago. Summers may have been turning a critical eye on Bush in 2007 when this piece was made, but the damage was done and the legacy of horror continued in different ways under each new president. Will America always blur its lines when it comes to basic inalienable rights of all people, including its own?"