“The Pencil Is a Key”

A 1976 drawing by Fatima Meer that she made while doing time in a women’s jail during South Africa’s apartheid era… Credit… Constitution Hill Museum Collection.

This is an article about drawings made by persons who were in prison. They were featured in an exhibition at the Drawing Center that ran through January 5, 2020. Author Jillian Steinhauer quotes cartoonist Lynda Barry, who sounds the familiar theme that we all draw as children and grow away from it subsequently.

In the opening of her new book, “Making Comics,” the cartoonist and MacArthur fellow Lynda Barry reminds her adult readers that they made art when they were young, even if they self-consciously stopped doing so long ago. “There was a time when drawing and writing were not separated for you,” she writes. “We draw before we are taught.”

(Jillian Steinhauer, “Prison Art: A Dark Place Where the Muse Never Leaves,” NYTimes, 12-12-19)

Miné Okubo rubbed charcoal on paper to create “Untitled (Mother Bending Over Child),” circa 1942-44. Credit… Japanese American National Museum.

“Walled City,” made by Abdualmalik Abud in 2015. He spent almost 15 years at Guantánamo Bay, and drew this cityscape from memory. Credit… Abdualmalik Abud.

About JMN

I live in Texas and devote much of my time to easel painting on an amateur basis. I stream a lot of music, mostly jazz, throughout the day. I like to read and memorize poetry.

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