Jann Haworth
Sorceress and Warrior 
1970-75
Screenprints
I Overall: 14 1/2 in. x 9 1/2 in.
II Overall: 14 1/2 in. x 9 1/2 in.
Gift of Vivian Cherry Redein
Jann Haworth, 1942, is an American artist born in Hollywood, California who is a pioneer in soft sculpture as a feminist reclamation of a traditionally female role, as well as a prominent sculptor, printmaker, and creator of collage. Haworth is considered one of the founders of the 1960’s Pop Art movement and is well known as the co-creator of The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album cover for which she won a Grammy award.1 Haworth has had many national and international exhibitions as well as permanent collections at the Tate Modern, the Walker Art Center, and the Smithsonian Institution’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden2 and collaborative murals, collages, and illustrated books.3
Sorceress and Warrior are the 37th out of 75 serigraph prints done by Haworth and her mother from 1970 to 75: “the works were in fact collaborative-my mother was a printmaker and I did the drawings and she did the prints at the Art College where she was a senior lecturer: Central School of Art."4 Sorceress depicts a sitting figure on a purple background with a feathered headdress, a blue dress with moons and stars, a mustard yellow cape, holding a baby tiger and a light green orb with a pale reflections of a face. Warrior depicts a powerful standing figure on an orange background wearing a cape to one side and holding a shield to the other. The head of the figure is symbolic of the female anatomy.
Inspired by Victorian and Edwardian illustrated children's books at the time,5 Haworth reflects this style through her use of blocked color, black outline, and playful symbolism. In Victorian children’s books for example, each page tells an entire mystical narrative that could stand alone even without the description from the rest of the book. By looking at Haworth’s prints, a narrative about femininity and power is told. While Sorceress and Warrior could each function as a single image and tell a powerful story, they are even more powerful in combination, which also speaks to the power that Haworth possesses in her constant desire to create collaborative works.
1. "Biography," Jann Haworth, 2006. Accessed December 06, 2016. http://www.jannhaworth.com/jann_haworth/bio/Bio.pdf.↩
2. "Meet the Artist: Jann Haworth," Brigham Young University Museum of Art. 2015. Accessed December 06, 2016. http://moa.byu.edu/meet-the-artist-jann-haworth/.↩
3. "Biography," Jann Haworth. ↩
4. Personal communication with the artist. ↩
5. Personal communication with the artist.↩
-Ivy Rose Smith