Freehand: Drawings by Inez Nathaniel-Walker

Inez Nathaniel-Walker (1911–1990) made her first works of art while she was serving a sentence at a maximum-security prison for killing a man by whom she had been abused. While in prison she began to draw, creating remarkable portraits of her fellow inmates whom she called “bad girls.” Her richly patterned works combine meticulous detail and playful simplicity, forming expressive depictions of her subjects’ personalities and physical attributes.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.