September 2 - October 3
Opening Reception: Friday, September 2nd, 8-11 pm
La Luz de Jesus Gallery
4633 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90027
323-666-7667
www.laluzdejesus.com
info@laluzdejesus.com
Some of the most impassioned artwork to emerge in America during the past 150 years was conceived in our conflicted South. Simply Iconic showcases soul-stirring works from some of the most gifted vernacular artists included in the Smithsonian American art Museum's permanent collection:
Sam Doyle, Purvis Young, Herbert Singleton, Roy Ferdinand, Charlie Lucas, Sulton Rogers and O. L. Samuels
Sam Doyle
(1906-1985) South Carolina
"I paint from, I would say, the mind's eye."
Sam Doyle fashioned his uniquely-styled personal portraits and tributes with evangelical enthusiasm, blending ancestral Gullah lore and his devout Baptist faith into a rich multi-cultural impasto. As a youth, Doyle attended Penn School, established in 1862 to provide educational and vocational skills to newly liberated slaves. It was during his formative years at Penn that he first received encouragement for his artistry and learned the value of history. Following his retirement in the late 1960s, Doyle fully committed to painting the history of his beloved Gullah community and more generally African-American advancement. Over the next decade his museum-like exhibition evolved into the St. Helena Out Door Art Gallery where haints and saints rubbed rusty shoulders and shared the boughs of Spanish moss laden oak trees with other celebrated figures, both famous and infamous.
Doyle's artwork brought him much acclaim, particularly after his inclusion in the Corcoran Gallery of Art's seminal 1982 exhibition Black Folk Art in America 1930 – 1980. Curated by Jane Livingston, The Washington, D.C. event was Doyle's only excursion away from his home state. He had the sublime pleasure of seeing his artworks formally presented and shaking the hand of First Lady Nancy Reagan. Aficionados traveled from around the world to view Doyle's outdoor history lesson. He commemorated many of their visits by painting their hometowns or countries of origin on a 4ft x 8ft plywood panel and he amended his gallery sign, adding "Nation Wide" parenthetically to emphasize its broad appeal. As evidenced by his "Visitors" sign, Doyle's influence is far and wide. The late Neo-expressionist Jean-Michel Basquiat once traded some of his own artworks to a gallery owner for a few of Doyle's and noted contemporary master Ed Ruscha paid posthumous tribute to the artist with his painting "Where Are You Going, Man? (For Sam Doyle), 1985." The work now resides in the collection of Eli Broad. Examples of Doyle's expressive work are held in important private and museum collections worldwide and have been selected for many exhibitions.© Gordon W. Bailey
Show preview: http://www.laluzdejesus.com/shows/2011/Simply-Iconic/Doyle2011.htm
Doyle's FaceBook Tribute https://www.facebook.com/SamDoyleArt
Roy Ferdinand
(1959-2004) Louisiana
Known in New Orleans art circles as a sort of 'Goya of the ghetto,' Ferdinand has described his work as rap in pictures, while some critics have placed his utterly honest depictions of inner city decay within the social realist tradition of Courbet." Times-Picayune "I've been around long enough to know what's good and what's not good, and I instantly knew that Roy was good," says Willie Birch, a nationally prominent African-American artist who nominated Ferdinand for inclusion in the 2001 New Orleans Triennial. "To me, he was fearless, and that was his strength. Roy will go down as one of the more significant artists to come out of New Orleans. His work is set in a timeframe and will grow in strength as the years go by." Roy Ferdinand painted the tough New Orleans neighborhoods where he shared his life on the streets with drug dealers and junkies, pimps and whores. His uncompromisingly realistic style can be unsettling in its brutal and sexually explicit depictions of an inner-city gangsta lifestyle. The African-American artist was a self-proclaimed urban warrior. Ferdinand's uncompromising artwork has been included in numerous important exhibitions and is in the permanent collections of the New Orleans Museum of Art, the African American Museum in Dallas and the University of Southwestern Louisiana. Ferdinand died from cancer at the age of 45, leaving a rich and formidable documentary legacy.
Show preview: http://www.laluzdejesus.com/shows/2011/Simply-Iconic/Ferdinand2011.htm
Charlie Lucas
(b. 1951) Alabama
Popularly known as "Tin Man," Charlie Lucas has attracted a large following. In recent years, he has traveled widely, lecturing at Yale University at the invitation of an African-American studies scholar and spending time as an artist-in-residence in France. A job-related accident in 1984 forced Lucas to give up his job as a maintenance man at a healthcare facility. While recovering from back surgery, he asked God to help him find something to do that no one else could do. Soon he began fashioning sculpture out of recycled metal. Gradually, his creations morphed in two directions: upward, to towering, gigantic men made entirely of spot-welded steel ribbons and 12 to 15-foot dinosaurs and downward, to 10 to 15-inch men and animals made of railroad spikes and bent wire. Although he has no formal art training, Lucas' sculptural work clearly combines skills he learned from observing his grandfather's mechanical and automotive repair techniques, his grandmother's basket-weaving, and his great grandfather's blacksmithing. In addition to creating three-dimensional sculptures, Lucas also paints. Indeed, painting was his first artistic endeavor after the injury, but he found that painting did not bring in enough money to support his family. As in his sculpture, humor is frequently the underlying theme of his colorful paintings, which combine realistic and quasi-abstract elements. Today, those rare, early, paintings are highly sought and rival his largest steel constructions in desirability.
Show preview: http://www.laluzdejesus.com/shows/2011/Simply-Iconic/Lucas2011.htm
Sulton Rogers
(1922-2003) Mississippi
Born and raised in Oxford, Mississippi, Sulton Rogers was originally taught woodcarving as a child by his father, who Rogers claimed could "build anything." Rogers' fantastic wood figures and captivating parings are renowned for their satirical style, mirroring the apparently amenable character of the artist himself. Rogers spent many years away from Mississippi, joining the army and later traveling through numerous states in the early 1950s before finally settling in New York State and finding work as a foreman. The boredom of the job led him to carve in earnest, which he continued to do following his retirement and return to Mississippi. Rogers carved his figures with a pocketknife, then painted his creations with acrylic. Most themes are human-related, but Rogers also enjoyed depicting snakes, 'haints' (spirits) and vampires, with occasional sexual or erotic references. His humans sometimes have exaggerated and comedic features, or amusing facial expressions. Rogers claims inspiration from dreams or people he has met during his travels. His groupings of haunted houses or graveyards are particularly noted for their workmanship, combined with Rogers' ever-present sense of humor.
Rogers' artworks are included in the permanent collections of Atlanta's High Museum, the University of Mississippi Museum of Art, the African American Museum and the University Art Museum. His carvings have also been exhibited in numerous exhibitions including important events at the Dallas Museum of Art, New Orleans Museum of Art, and the American Visionary Art Museum.
Show preview http://www.laluzdejesus.com/shows/2011/Simply-Iconic/Rogers2011.htm
O.L. Samuels
(b. 1931) Florida
O.L. "Geech" Samuels was born in Georgia in 1931. His father was West Indian and took his wife's name to become a U.S. citizen. Samuels left home at the age of 8 to work as a pineraker on Georgia farms, and, later, for the railroad. He traveled to Florida and then to New York, where he boxed professionally as a middleweight. Samuels has had many near misses with death: his home was dynamited after he complained to the cops about drug-dealing in the neighborhood; he was knifed; and, in 1982, while working as a tree surgeon, he was hit in the head by a swinging trunk. He barely survived that event and was confined to a wheelchair. Samuels fell into a deep depression. The words his great great grandmother, a freed slave, told him long ago finally pulled him out of his sadness. She told him that when a person became sad he could carve on a spool and it would help him heal. Samuels took her advice and picked up some wood and started carving. Although he is colorblind, he paints his carvings and says the colors seem to match up. He combines paint, glitter, sawdust, and glue into a secret formula, which he warms on the stove, and applies to his wood sculptures. Samuels explains, "They ask me why I use so many colors and I say I want to be sure I get the right one."
"How many times have I escaped death? I think it was 36 times," said Samuels. "God is keeping me alive for some reason." Samuels will often carve on a piece for months, improving it to his satisfaction. He'll put something aside and start another project, coming back to the first with renewed energy. His commitment often keeps him awake through the night, working on his projects.Samuels' unique artwork is in a number of important collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Show preview: http://www.laluzdejesus.com/shows/2011/Simply-Iconic/Samuels2011.htm
Herbert Singleton
(1945-2007) Louisiana
Algiers, Louisiana artist, Herbert Singleton, boldly carved and painted cedar panels both skewer and exalt his life and times. Singleton displayed keen insight into the socio-economic limitations imposed upon many in the New Orleans area. He railed against hypocrisy on both sides of the racial divide. Singleton overcame many hardships, some compounded by his own misdeeds. He survived a near-fatal shooting, drug addiction and, all tolled, nearly 14 years in prison, many of them in the infamous Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.
He first derived meaningful income from artistic endeavors in the early 1980s, carving walking sticks for New Orleans buggy drivers and "voodoo protection" stumps for friends. After his final stint of incarceration, the dispirited artist was encouraged by a French Quarter gallery owner to carve out his pain. Singleton dismantled an old chifforobe and created his first bas-relief panel: a stark white skeletal figure cut out of a black background, bordered by red. The heads of serpents are shown peering from the "infected" figure's ribcage. In works such as "Who Do We Trust" and "Who Speak For Man" Singleton addressed our seeming inability to meet the standards we set for others. In one masterwork, he carved self-destructive indulgences –- drugs, gambling, sex –- into a huge cypress log he salvaged from the Mississippi River. Exhibited as the "Algiers Rosetta" in High on Life: Transcending Addiction at the American Visionary Art Museum, Singleton referred to his work more directly as the "Tree of Death." In other more festive works he paid tribute to the uniqueness of New Orleans culture.
Singleton's artworks are in numerous important public and private collections worldwide including the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and Collection de l'Art Brut in Lausanne, Switzerland. ©Gordon W. Bailey
Show preview: http://www.laluzdejesus.com/shows/2011/Simply-Iconic/Singleton2011.htm
Purvis Young
(1943-2010) Florida
"I paint what I see…I paint the problems of the world." said Purvis Young simply. He often wore dark glasses to "hide his tears" at the injustice and sadness he witnessed. He was born in Liberty City on the outskirts of Miami. As a wayward youth, he was convicted of breaking and entering and spent time in prison, where he began drawing again and perusing art books. "I didn't have anything going for myself," he explained. "That's the only thing I could mostly do. I was just looking through art books, looking at guys painting their feelings."
In the mid 1960s he was inspired to make art by Vietnam War demonstrations and by protest art, notably the Wall of Respect mural in Chicago, painted by members of the Black Arts Movement. In the early 1970s he created a mural of his own, plastering a wall along a deserted stretch of Overtown's Goodbread Alley with dozens of his artworks. The mural drew attention from the news media and from Miami's art establishment, including an eccentric millionaire, Bernard Davis, who owned the Miami Museum of Modern Art and briefly became Mr. Young's patron, providing him with painting supplies until his death 1973. From then on, Young grew into something of an urban legend, an international celebrity, a frequent interview subject and an art-world star.
In the award winning feature length documentary about his life, Purvis of Overtown, famed actress and Young collector, Jane Fonda, describes her reaction to his evocative art: "All I knew was that there's something really powerful and profound going on here. But the first thing that struck me was the hopefulness of the work." At the time of filming, hopefulness for Young was in short supply. Ironically, as international acclaim was coming his way, he was on the losing end of ten-year battle with diabetes; surviving thanks to three-times-a-week dialysis treatments before a life-prolonging kidney transplant. Despite the fatigue induced by the treatments Young continued to paint.
In November 2006 he was the subject of a major retrospective at the Boca Raton Museum. In January 2007 he was the Director's Choice Artist at Art Miami, and a monumental archway of his work greeted visitors to the Miami Convention center. Even though Young's work was exhibited in more than fifty museums including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Corcoran, and Atlanta's High Museum and collected by numerous members of the fine art cognoscenti such as Don and Mera Rubell and Lenny Kravitz, the artist never considered leaving Overtown. For over forty years he created art with scavenged plywood, nails, books, cardboard, Masonite board, broken doors and mirrors. Of his own work Purvis Young had this to say: "I want people to know that I wish there would be peace in the world, and I will paint the way I paint until there is, and then one day maybe I could just hang up my brush and not paint any more."
Show preview: http://www.laluzdejesus.com/shows/2011/Simply-Iconic/Young2011.htm
