Print of the Day!! Tuesday, August 13, 2019; Max Pollak (1886-1970); Dancers: "Florence Mills"; color intaglio; ca. 1925; edition 10; $900.00.

Print of the Day!! Tuesday, August 13, 2019, Tuesday with Max: Czech-born American printmaker Max Pollak (1886-1970)

Dancers: "Florence Mills" (also called "Girl from Martinique") is an intaglio; an etching with aquatint color, printed a la poupeé, done around 1925. This impression is pencil signed, titled, and annotated "printed a' 10" by the artist in the lower margin and pencil annotated "Girls from Martinique" in the lower margin edge. The platemark measures 14-11/16 x 6-3/8". This color intaglio was printed by the artist on a sheet of ivory simile-vellum wove paper that measures 19-5/8 x 12-3/4". This impression has a red FPC (Friedl Pollak Collection) stamp in the lower left margin, indicating it was from the artist's wife's personal collection.

This rare, important color intaglio by Max Pollak is available from the gallery for $900.00.

Max Pollak did a series of color aquatints of dancers during the 1920s in Europe. This is one of those images.

Florence (Winfrey) Mills was an African American dancer and singer born in Washington, D.C. in 1896, to formerly enslaved parents John and Nellie Winfrey (nee Simon). Less well known than her flapper-era successors, she is often considered the catalyst for Black American women performers of the early 20th century. She began dancing at four, winning awards in "Cakewalk" and "Buck" dancing; with her sisters she formed a Vaudeville act and performed for foreign diplomats. In 1916 she learned tap dance from famed dancer Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson, formalizing an otherwise self-taught dancing style. Nobel Sissle, jazz pioneer, said of her dancing, "She was Dresden China and she turned into a stick of dynamite." Mills soon began touring with dance troupes in the southern U.S. Her star on the rise, she took a part in 1921's Shuffle Along on Broadway-- written by Sissle and cited as one of the harbingers of the Harlem Renaissance -- and as a result found opportunities abroad, first in London, and then Paris, Ostend, and other European cities.

By 1923, Florence had become an internationally acclaimed performer, beloved not only by the Black American entertainment community, but also by such figures as noted dance critic Arnold Haskell, English theater impresario Charles B. Cochran, and even the Prince of Wales. She was one of the first Black American women to be featured in Vogue and Vanity Fair. Though many Black performers chose to stay in Europe at this time, fearing life under Jim Crow laws, Mills never expatriated, always returning to live in the U.S. following her tours abroad. Her charm and ease in public, even when facing down discrimination on opening night of a performance, opened doors to conversations about the plight of Black Americans among those who might otherwise have avoided the subject. She championed the NAACP and was eventually recognized as a highly influential activist, albeit through her performance. Her signature song, "I'm a Little Blackbird Looking for a Bluebird" from the musical Blackbirds -- her most recognized performance, which began at the prestigious Palace Theater and which toured throughout Europe and the UK -- became a plea for racial equality at the time.

Mills' influence on the world's perception of the Black American woman, and of Black Americans in general, cannot be overstated. Upon her death in 1926 from tuberculosis at just 31, over 10,000 mourners attended her funeral. Among the many tributes to Mills, Duke Ellington wrote the song "Black Beauty" (1928) in her honor, and Fats Waller recorded "Bye, Bye Florence" (1927). Constant Lambert, an English composer and friend of Ellington's, who had seen Mills in Blackbirds, composed "Elegaic Blues" upon hearing of her death; a portion of the tune borrows from the musical.

A variety of other tributes--the naming of buildings, a postage stamp, a prestigious tap dance award--continue to honor the work of a woman whose incredible life has flown largely under the mainstream radar for some time. No recordings of her performances exist, as much of her career predated readily available technology for touring artists. Photos and other artworks are what is left of her visual legacy, as with this drypoint, in which Pollak captures the young dancer in her prime, her svelte form, strong stance, and bright smile, all of which lent to her title as the "Queen of Happiness".

Learn more about Florence Mills at florencemills.com

The Annex Galleries has acquired a large selection of Max Pollak's prints including his early work from Europe and the Holy Land, the United States and Latin America as well as many of his large portraits of dancers and noted personages. We have been adding these to the website with no prices as we catalog them and have added them to our Exhibitions section of the website at: https://www.annexgalleries.com/exhibitions/view/20

I will be featuring Pollak's intaglios one day each week. Many of these exist in very few impressions, many of his works were destroyed by the Nazis in the late 1930s. These works are all for sale.

To purchase this work, see other works, or read a biography for Max Pollak use this link to our website: https://www.annexgalleries.com/inventory/artist/1894/Pollak/Max

Use this link to view our complete inventory on our website: https://www.annexgalleries.com/inventory?q=