Purvis Young (American, 1943-2010). Painting on a found wooden real estate sign, c. 1990s. Signed "Young" on upper right. A striking painting of a truck being driven by tenement buildings by Purvis Young on a wooden real estate sign found by the artist. Outsider artists like Young oftentimes use non-traditional materials as well as found objects for their artwork. All is delineated in bold shades of sunny yellow with lime green highlights and chocolate brown contours. Young's style has been described as childlike, akin to fingerpainting; however, the self-taught artist was also influenced by masters of art history, studying Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Gauguin, El Greco, Picasso, and Daumier at his local library. Many have credited Young with inspiring the new art movement terms Social Expressionism and Urban Expressionism. Size: 39.125" L x 33.25" W (99.4 cm x 84.5 cm)
Born in the historically black neighborhood of Overton in Miami, Florida, Purvis Young was a self-taught artist who used a variety of media to create his compositions - blending painting and drawing with everyday found objects. Young's themes draw upon his experience living in the historically black neighborhood of Overton, and his work has been collected by celebrities such as Damon Wayans, Jane Fonda, Dan Aykroyd, and Jim Belushi as well as major museums, including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the American Folk Art Museum, the High Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Purvis Young was also featured in a documentary entitled "Purvis of Overtown" in 2006, and in 2018, the artist was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame. In addition, during Art Basel/Miami Art week in 2018, one entire floor of the Rubell Collection was dedicated to Young's works, and Young's work was also presented at the Japour Family Collection.
According to the Smithsonian American Art Museum, "Purvis Young paints on scrap lumber and plywood that he scavenges from the streets and vacant lots of Overton, the historically black neighborhood where he lives in Miami, Florida, and whose long deterioration he has witnessed. He sometimes depicts his surroundings literally, but in this work he paints what he sees with his 'inner eyes'—and transcends the misery that surrounds him. Young has pursued a keen interest in art by studying books in his local libraries. When he began painting, he was inspired by the popular mural movement of the 1960s. He hung his paintings of tenement life and animals on the exterior walls of abandoned buildings in his neighborhood."
See Tom Patterson's "Contemporary Folk Art: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum" (New York and Washington, D.C.: Watson-Guptill Publications, in cooperation with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2001) to learn more about Purvis Young.
Provenance: J Compton Gallery, Wimberley, Texas, USA
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#169756
Condition
Signed by the artist on the upper right. Painted on a real estate sign found by the artist; the sign has age wear with some cracks, chips/losses, and rough edges/losses to peripheries as shown as it was a found object. Outsider artists oftentimes use non-traditional materials as well as found objects for their artwork. There is a suspension wire on the verso making the painting ready to display.