September 27, 2011 Library Receives Gift of Artwork by Nicola Green

The Library of Congress today announced the acquisition of a series of seven serigraph prints titled “In Seven Days …” by British artist Nicola Green. The prints were inspired by Green’s personal experiences while following Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.

The acquisition is a gift from British banker and businessman Anthony Fry and his wife Anne, who is a textile designer and collector of art and photography.

“The series represents a unique blend of historic document and artistic expression, strengthening the Library’s substantial collections related to U.S. presidents and their campaigns and artists’ responses to historic events,” said Katherine Blood, curator of fine prints in the Library’s Prints and Photographs Division.

The artwork will be housed in the Prints and Photographs Division, located in the James Madison Building. Images of the series can be viewed on the artist’s website at www.nicolagreen.com/ External

During 2008, Green made six trips to the United States, following the Obama campaign from the candidate’s Denver nomination speech to his inauguration in Washington D.C. “I quickly learned that the story I was witnessing was about the American people, the campaign and the global community more than it was about Obama,” Green said.

While on the campaign trail, Green conducted conversations with people she encountered, took notes, took photographs and created thousands of drawings. She also spoke with Obama and campaign team members. This work became rich source material for the print series.

The seven strikingly elegant prints include depictions of Obama and campaign event-goers. Threaded throughout the series are images of selected hand gestures that can be read as multi-layered visual language, guided by the artist’s individual titles, which include “Light,” “Struggle,” “Hope,” “Change,” “Fear,” “Sacrifice/Embrace” and “Peace.”

“In Seven Days …,” created in a small edition of 20 impressions, has been exhibited at Harvard University, featured in an online Time Magazine photo essay and acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Other artwork by Green has been on display at London’s National Portrait Gallery and acquired by London’s Courtauld Institute and the Edinburgh College of Art. Green is married to British politician David Lammy.

The Library’s Prints and Photographs Division includes approximately 14.4 million photographs, drawings and prints from the 15th century to the present day. International in scope, these collections represent a uniquely rich array of human experience, knowledge, creativity and achievement, touching on almost every realm of endeavor: science, art, invention, government and political struggle, and the recording of history. For more information, visit www.loc.gov/rr/print/.