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Edgar Jeter (1934-1987) was an innovative and prolific self-taught artist of many media, as well as a self-taught musician and jazz lover. Jeter was known for his “wooden puzzle” portraits, of which "Girl Reading" is an exemplar. As a profile of the artist included in the companion digital collection explains, “[t]hey are portraits in wood, but they have more dimension than … paintings." Jeter's creative experimentation with new media typified the work of the King Library Freewheelers. “Girl Reading” is constructed of ebony sourced from Africa, locally-sourced mahogany, and teak.
In one critic's estimation, “the grains in the woods give the pieces an inner movement,” and that same sense of "inner movement" also animates the two abstract works by Richard Overton alongside which Jeter's "Girl Reading" is displayed. Jeter's reader glances forward from her book, through Frankie B. Cole's "Red Tropical Circle" and Gerald Duane Coleman's blue gorilla, to share a knowing glance with William Christian's "Roz," who closes the exhibit. Together, “Roz” and Jeter's reader frame the second half of the exhibit.
The artist's legacy of public service encompassed work at the Milwaukee Public Museum, where he is known for a diorama honoring the fight for Black suffrage; at the Milwaukee Art Museum, where he worked as an installation tech; and as artist-in-residence at various Milwaukee Public Schools and a Wisconsin correctional facility. The artist was also commissioned for a large public sculpture installation in a Madison, Wis., park (1987), which one critic described as “subtly gorgeous” and “one of Madison’s finest pieces of public art.” Other work by Jeter is on view at the Center Street Library, and a portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by the artist is also in the Milwaukee Public Library Collection. Extensive biographical information for the artist, including revealing profiles, are available as part of the MPL Digital Collections Milwaukee Black Arts Movement digital collection.