James W. Washington Jr.

James W. Washington Jr. (November 10, 1908 – June 7, 2000[1]) was an American painter and sculptor prominent in the Seattle art community.

[2] In 1938 he became involved with the Federal Works Progress Administration as an assistant art instructor at the Baptist Academy in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

[3] This Civil Service job soon took him to the Pacific Northwest, where he and his wife Janie Rogella Washington,[2] née Miller,[3] arrived in 1944.

[3] Other artists Washington met during this period were Dudley Pratt, Fay Chong, Andrew Chinn, Kenjiro Nomura, John Matsudaira, and George Tsutakawa.

[3] Washington and his wife lived in Seattle's Central District, near the Madison Valley; he maintained a studio in his home.

Others directly address the topic of racism, such as The Making of the UN Charter (1945), which incorporates collaged newspaper clippings and images of body parts, and which "express[es] the concept that Blacks died for the idea of freedom in World War II, but were denied a place in their own country as stated in human rights declarations at the United Nations.

"[2] Similarly, his 1946 sculpture The Chaotic Half shows a black hand reaching for a ballot box, juxtaposed with a hooded Klansman, a crucifix, and a noose.

The last of these, which Deloris Tarzan Ament describes as "the strongest work of that series", shows "Christ at prayer amid a hail of scratched white lines and a background of dark billowing trees."