Self Portrait at Eleven Years Old is part of a series in which the artist has used images of his childhood music idols to represent himself as a child. This image of Stevie Wonder is taken from the singer's 1977 greatest-hits triple-LP album, Looking Back. Ligon englarged the image and used a stencil to create clustered circles of black linen pulp that mimick the Benday dots of the original. In his painting, printmaking, drawing, installation, and film, Ligon has been at the forefront of a generation of artists who came to prominence in the late 1980s with conceptually based artwork that investigates race, gender, and sexuality.
Gallery label from New to the Print Collection: Matisse to Bourgeois, June 13, 2012–January 7, 2013.