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Purvis Young

Florida (born 1943)

"Purvis Young first gained attention as an artist more than 25 years ago, when he began making large mural-style paintings on plywood nailed to the exteriors of abandoned buildings in the Overtown ghetto where he has spent most of his life. In a fashion characteristic of his work, the paintings are on scrap wood panels and other flat, rectangular materials that Young salvages from the streets. These surfaces are particularly appropriate for his cityscapes, which depict the same urban settings where he finds these damaged and discarded materials. He uses them in such a way that they can be seen as metaphors for the human lives that are wasted in such economically impoverished inner-city environments - tossed aside by society and yet capable of being reclaimed and restored, just as Young transforms and renews the castoffs from which he makes his art.

Young has been recognized as one of the masters of this broadly defined nonacademic genre. His work possesses a singularly raw form of aesthetic power and is highly relevant to some of today's most pressing social problems. The most recent measure of Young's status within the art world is a major exhibition titled, Self-Taught Artists of the 20th Century: An American Anthology. Young is one of only four living artists represented in this show."

Tom Patterson
Winston-Salem Journal

George Jacobs Self-Taught Art
PO Box 476
Newport, Rhode Island 02840
Phone 401-847-0991
Selftaughtart@aol.com

To purchase art, please note the artist and the artwork name and email us at Selftaughtart@aol.com or call us at 401-847-0991. Mastercard and Visa accepted.

Click on images for a larger view.

Uprising
1991
oil on marker board
36 x 48
$4,500
Untitled (Aftermath)
1995
oil on panel
25 x 48
$2,400
Untitled (Nine Figures)
1996
oil on canvas mounted on plywood, carpet frame
48 x 26
$2,000
Untitled
1995
oil, varnish on panel
12 x 47
$2,000
Untitled
1998
oil on wood, panel frame
30 x 30
$1,500
Untitled (Supply Truck)
1990s
oil on board, plywood
38 x 28
$1,000
Untitled (Urban Scene)
1990s
oil on cardboard, carpet
22 x 31
$900
Boats
1999
oil on paper
30 x 22
$900
Untitled
1990s
oil on paper legal folders
18 x 39
$900
Untitled (Saint)
1990s
oil, marker on printed paper
12 x 11
18 x 17 frame
$450
Untitled (Burial)
1990s
oil on blue paper
23 x 16
$400
Untitled (Knight)
1990s
acrylic, oil pastel on paper
11 x 9
18 x 15 frame
$400
Untitled
1990s
oil on payroll ledger paper
11 x 14
$275