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A detailed black pen-and-ink drawing on cream paper, mounted on a black mat: a woman balancing a water jar on her head stands among layered faces, children, palm trees and small houses, with a cigar-smoking man beside a rising chart in the upper right.

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A closer view of the whole drawing within its black mat, showing the dedication and signature along the bottom edge. Detail of the central figure carrying the water jar, with a curled form inside her body, houses and palm trees, and a cigar-smoking man with a chart. Close-up of overlapping profile faces drawn in fine cross-hatching, streaked with dripping black ink. Close-up of the handwritten Spanish dedication in brown ink beginning “A Joanne y Jon”, signed with a flourish and dated Oct. 28-78. Close-up of the signature “Firartiga 76.” in blue ink at the lower right.

Unidentified artist, signed “Firartiga 76”

Con fe y esperanza

(With Faith and Hope)

Title taken from the inscription. The artist’s own title is unknown.

Pen and black ink on paper, 1976
Sheet approx. 16¼ × 22¼ in.; framed approx. 21¾ × 26¼ in.
Signed and dated in blue ink lower right; inscribed with a Spanish dedication, signed and dated Oct. 28-78
Framed in silver metal with a black mat

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About this work

A densely worked pen-and-ink drawing built from fine cross-hatching. A woman balancing a water jar on her head stands at the centre. Around her are overlapping faces streaked with dripping black ink, a row of small figures, houses and palm trees, and, at the upper right, a man smoking a cigar beside a heart-shaped chart. The sheet is signed “Firartiga 76” in blue ink at the lower right.

Along the bottom edge the artist added a handwritten dedication in Spanish, dated October 28, 1978, so the drawing was given as a gift two years after it was made.

The inscription

A Joanne y Jon
en la distancia y en el tiempo
ante todo ser,
intensamente ser.

Con fe y esperanza
en el destino del “HOMBRE”
y que la neutrónica no sea.

Signed with initials, Oct. 28-78

To Joanne and Jon,
across distance and time,
above all, to be,
to be intensely.

With faith and hope
in the destiny of “MAN”
and that the neutron [bomb] may not be.

Translation by Flesch

The handwriting is looped and informal, so the translation is offered in good faith. The neutron bomb was a much-debated weapon in 1977–78.

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