ALVIN DEMAR LOVING JR.
(American, 1935-2005)
Untitled
woodcut
signed Alvin D. Loving Jr. lower right
inscribed Artist's Proof lower left
plate: 25 1/2 x 23 3/8 in., sheet: 29 x 26 in.
Provenance: Property from The Artis Collection. Anthony and Davida Artis began collecting works by African American artists in 2009, with an early-1900s etching by Henry Ossawa Tanner entitled The Disciples See Christ Walking on the Water. They started the Anthony and Davida Artis Collection of African-American Fine Art in 2014, with a mission to use African-American artists and artworks to educate, encourage, and engage with people from all walks of life.
Anthony and Davida are full-time pastors for a local congregation called, Dedicated Believers Ministries. The artwork in the Artis Collection focuses on faith, family, and faces. The collection is comprised of nearly 80 artworks from over 60 artists, the majority of which represent African-American artists. Their favorites, amongst many artists, include Mary Lee Bendolph and the artists of Gee’s Bend, Sanford Biggers, Elizabeth Catlett, Sedrick Huckaby, Kerry James Marshall, Richard Mayhew, Winfred Rembert, Faith Ringgold, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Alma Woodsey Thomas, emerging artist Charles Wilbert White, and Matthew Owen Wead. Annually the Artis’ sell several works from their collection to make room for new acquisitions.
Other Notes: Alvin Loving gained public recognition in 1969 following a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of Art, where he was the first African American to have a solo show. Loving called himself a ‘material abstractionist.’ His early hard-edged geometric paintings were studies in spatial illusion. In the 1970s Loving moved away from painting and began experimenting with collage and fabric assemblages. In doing so, he acquired a new focus on spatial relationships through an exploration of ‘accidental shapes’ and spirals, the latter of which for Loving represented ‘a symbol for life and continued growth.”