Neptune Washington

Ron Adams was an African American contemporary printmaker, who worked both as a collaborative master printer and as an independent artist. He trained during the 1950s and 1960s at several schools, including the Otis Art Institute, UCLA, and the University of Mexico. The large lithograph “Neptune Washington” depicts a fisherman, polling his boat in a light rain. The print is characteristic of Adams’s portrayal of African American musicians, craftspeople, folk heroes, and everyday people, rendered through a synthesis of technical excellence and interest in expressing heroic qualities of the human figure.