Tookie Williams Redemption
Artist:
El Franco Lee II
(American, born 1979)
Dimensions:
67 × 52 in. (170.2 × 132.1 cm)
Credit Line: San Antonio Museum of Art, gift of the Sheerin Family in Honor of the Artist
Object number: 2019.24.7
Object number: 2019.24.7
Object number: 2019.24.7
Copyright: © El Franco Lee II
Label Text
Houston-based El Franco Lee II commemorates the legacy of Stanley “Tookie” Williams, co-founder of notorious Los Angeles gang the Crips. Williams was convicted of murder and sentenced to death row in 1981, and spent the rest of his life working against gang violence. Williams wrote children’s books (Tookie Williams Speaks Out Against Gang Violence is tucked into Tookie’s waistband in this painting), a memoir, Blue Rage, Black Redemption, and a “Protocol for Peace” to help gangs make truces. For this work, Williams was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Williams was executed by the State of California via lethal injection in 2005. In this 2010 painting, Lee II’s messiah-like Tookie is massive, calm, and still working to stop violence between warring Crips (in blue) and Bloods (in red).
(Yinshi Lerman-Tan, 2020)
(Yinshi Lerman-Tan, 2020)
Not on view
In Collection(s)
The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.
This resource has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
