Article relating to an individual, 2002
Published by: Frieze magazine
Year published: 2002
Number of pages: 1

In Frieze, issue 69, September 2002, the magazine’s Deputy Editor Dan Fox discussed a 1983 portrait of “Eldridge Cleaver with one of his sculptures” (Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS). On the magazine’s content’s page, the item was listed as Picture: Black Panthers. In reality, the picture was a portrait of Eldridge Cleaver taken by Roger Ressmeyer, in 1983, by which time Cleaver had long renounced or disassociated himself from his earlier political activities and had, amongst other courses of action, embraced Christianity.

Fox wrote, “Here, one-time Black Panther Party leader Eldridge Cleaver poses with a sculpture made whilst serving time in prison followiong his return from self-imposed exile abroad. Up against the Panther’s high impact visuals, the significance of Cleaver’s sculpture - a strange hybrid of a Paul Thek ‘Meat Piece’ and an engine block covered in limpets - seems oddly indistinct. When the revolution comes, high Modernism will be no match for simple graphics and a sharp suit.”