James Lesesne Wells

Why this artist matters now

James Lesesne Wells was an American printmaker and painter whose work centered on African American life and labor in the early-to-mid twentieth century. Working primarily in woodcut and lithography, he developed a bold graphic style that combined modernist abstraction with social observation, documenting scenes of community, work, and dignity. Active from the 1920s through the 1980s, Wells maintained a sustained engagement with figuration and narrative content at a time when abstraction dominated American discourse. His prints remain important documents of African American artistic practice during the postwar period.

Source: Moma Bulk 2026 05 04 · Trust score: 92% · Updated 27d ago