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postmarked 28 April '82

Just a few notes to help you along.

I used to got to the Brooklyn Museum in 1952 and they had an extensive African Collection so my earlier work was very much influenced by that.  Also I liked the Mexican painters - RIVIRIA [[Rivera]]- OROSEO [[Orozco]]- TAMAYO and the German Expression painters.  I [[strikethrough]] liked [[/strikethrough]] liked Jacob Laurence work very much.  One of the great moments in my life was meeting Jacob Laurence in 1955 - Jake has been a close friend since then He was the best man at my wedding in 1972.

[[left margin]] also I liked Romare Bearden [[/left margin]]

I also did a lot of southern landscapes around that time as I remembered the life from my days in the Army.  The rural scenes - the poverty - the injustice - in 1948 it was in many respects very bad.  But it had its pleasures - the trees, flowers - the pastoral beauty - the sun -  I was very inspired by the clothesline, the wooden houses and just the genre.  Coming from the city it was very different.  I also started working in 1954 on the Saturday Night in Harlem series of which I did [[strikethrough]] a number [[/strikethrough]] quite a few paintings.

I was influenced by Jakes' Larence series at the time The slide - Saturday Night in Harlem (1955) 40 x 48 is one of the major pieces of that period.  After I came back (1955) from the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture I did a tremendous amount of painting.  In the early sixties I got caught up in the Civil Rights Movement and for 10 year's 1963-1973 - I worked on pastels prints - etchings & lithos - drawing's and oil paintings related to all the trauma that [[strikethrough]] want [[/strikethrough]] WENT on.  Some critics who were just discovering me label me a protest painter - but Robert Motherwell who did "Elegy to the Spanish Republic for 18 years - or Abebrham [[Abraham]] Rattner who depicted the struggle with the Jews & Arabs - or countless other Jewish artists who I have seen over the years at the Jewish Museum NYC 

Transcription Notes:
I think it's supposed to be 'post-dated' in first line Latin Masters Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, and José Clemente Orozco