As I was organizing my thoughts for this post I realized my art posts started at the beginning - and that this post is about one of my most recent acquisitions - coming full circle long before I should, I suppose.

The thing is, I'm a non-linear thinker. Per Professor Google this is how non-linear people think:

Human thought characterized by expansion in multiple directions, rather than in one direction, and based on the concept that there are multiple starting points from which one can apply logic to a problem.

I'm the dog on a leash trying to pee on every bush.


*****


Though I now collect with a more discerning eye and I do extensive research (exaggeration), I still have many, many impulsive moments (no exaggeration) with art that zings straight to my irrational heart. I also have great compassion, a soft spot, for emerging artists. They're the ones, if they're good, that push the boundaries, experiment... excite me.

Last week my book club discussed a nifty book The Art Forger. Believe it or not, it was not suggested by me. During the discussion I observed I wasn't interested in imitators of style or genre. I have zip interest in having a Degas-style painting. If I want a painting like Degas, I want a Degas. Of course I will never have a Degas. Am I making sense?

I want nothing but originals - and that's not as elitist as it might sound. Some of my favorites in my collection are extremely inexpensive works done by emerging artists - those with fresh, daring, innovative perspectives. Why would I ever consider a Degas wannabe? Truth be told, I'm not even a fan of Degas... Good gravy, I've given this man way too much space here.

This is what's important to me, you, anyone - whatever pleases, inspires, speaks - whether it's an original, a forgery, a lithograph, a serigraph - anything... if it's pleasing, then it's fabulous!



*****


I've recently added two works by Purvis Young. I would suggest that most collectors are familiar with his name as a significant American Outsider artist. A great deal of this post is lifted from the Internet - the amount of information on Young is staggering - especially the provenance of exhibitions and collections and museums.

I haven't added Young to my collection because I'm especially drawn to his work, though I think his accomplishments are amazing, and I'm especially fond of Unity the work I recently acquired. Over the years I've added works of various artists because they *complete* the intent of my collection. How could I possibly be considered a serious collector of Outsider Art and not have a Mose Tolliver or a Missionary Mary Proctor or Finster or Chris Clark - just to name a few? And that is true with Purvis Young. He adds authenticity to my intent, as well as rich historical notoriety.

Purvis Young is well listed and highly collectable and ordinarily waaaaay out of my budget range, so I consider this piece, Unity, a remarkable find.





Unity by Purvis Young


It depicts a group of 3 figures, two white and one black, standing together and holding hands. This was unique subject matter for Purvis, referencing unity among people. He created it with found materials, which include black marker ink on white paper. It's signed and came with a certificate of authentication.

Young's life's work was vibrant and colorful. Through his works he expressed social and racial issues, and served as an outspoken activist about politics and bureaucracy. He's credited with influencing/creating the art movement terms Social Expressionism or Urban Expressionism.



*****



Purvis Young (February 4, 1943 - April 20, 2010)



Young was an American artist from the Overtown neighborhood of Miami, Florida. Young's work, often a blend of collage and painting, utilizes found objects and the experience of African Americans in the south. A self-taught artist, Young gained recognition as a cult contemporary self-taught artist, with a collectors' following including the likes of Jane Fonda, Damon Wayans, Jim Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, among others. In 2006 a feature documentary entitled Purvis of Overtown was produced about his life and work. His work is found in the collections of the American Folk Art Museum, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the High Museum of Art, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, among others. Visit Purvis Young Museum, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.


*****


Purvis Young is a storyteller. Considering his obsession for books and his insatiable appetite for knowledge about art, it is not surprising that his painting and his books of paintings appear to serve the purpose of books. They all contain, preserve, and document knowledge of real life situations. Whether in bound form or painted on found materials, Young's images always tell a story. Like his African-American ancestors who maintained the traditions and values of their people through storytelling, he continues to record the struggles, the hopes, and the joys of his world. Young's work has roots in the dreamy fields of high art subject matter - horses, nudes, etc. At the same time it is filled with the energy and syncretism of the world's vanguard American urban Black culture. It is to outsider art what bebop is to the blues. The subject matter rides on a thick layer of color, attention, choice, and free-swinging composition that refers to a thousand years of composition before it. This work is anything but naive.

Young lived and worked in Overtown, an inner city Miami neighborhood cut off by the highway overpasses that loomed over it. He was of the community, but also of the larger art world as well. He researched art history avidly and saw what other artists had done, spending years in the libraries that had supported his work. He chose his imagery out of Overtown and his own life, and out of the resonances of the past as well.


*****


Impulsive, vivid, created with a quick, sure, intense touch, Purvis Young's paintings have the spontaneity, the emotional honesty, the immediacy, the dramatic directness and idiosyncrasy we have come to expect from folk art. Their painterly handling conveys a certain joie de vivre, even when it is streaked with black morbidity. I am thinking of Dance (ca. 1977), with its mingling of forceful, twisting drippings, ruthlessly black, and more subdued yellow marks, also painterly but fewer in number, all displayed on a rough and ready Mylar ground, a kind of crude dance floor for the excited paint. It is an abstract expressionist painting in all but name, however much the elongated black gestures can be read as dancing African-Americans. One can feel the beat in the paint, sense the ecstatic movement of the dancers, read their energy as emotional expression.


*****



BIOGRAPHY

Born: February 4, 1943, Liberty City, Miami, FL
Died: April 21, 2010 Overtown, Miami, FL


SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2010 "Purvis Young + Grown and Sewn", NY, NY

2009 "Highlights from the Permanent Collection", Museum of Fine Art, St. Petersburg, FL
"Same Sweet Dream", Dieu Donne, NY NY

2008 "The Figure Past and Present: Selections from the Permanent Collection", Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL
"30 Americans", Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL
Morehouse College Permanent Installation, Atlanta, GA
"Protest: Purvis Young", Gallery Bar, New York, NY
"Hexagone (a hex is gone)", MAS-Miami Art Space, Miami, FL

2007 "Painted Protests", Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL
"Mixed Signals", Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York, NY
"Self Taught: Seven African American Vernacular Artists", Rebecca Randall Bryan Art Gallery, Costal Carolina University, Conway, SC
"Compelling Visions: Florida Collects Folk Art", Museum of Fine Arts, Sarasota, FL

2006 "Purvis Young: Paintings from the Street," Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL "Outsiders In Paradise: Rev. Howard Finster and Company," Cotuit Center For the Arts, Cotuit, MA "Miami in Transition," Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL "Inside the Outsider World: Folk Art from the Permanent Collection," Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL "Outsider Art," Art Access Gallery, Columbus, OH "The Mind of Young: Sketchbooks and Artist's Books by Purvis Young and Works from the Permanent Collection," Miami-Dade Public Library, West Dade Regional Library, Miami, FL

2005 "Coming Home! Self-Taught Artists, the Bible and the American South," Museum of Fine Arts, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL , and The Museum of Biblical Art, New York, NY. Organized by The Art Museum, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN "Purvis Young Urban Painter Retrospective 1969-2004," Hurn Museum of Contemporary Folk Art, Savannah, GA "Rock Paper Scissors: American Collage Now," The Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia, PA "At This Time: Ten Miami Artists," Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL "African American Masters: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum," Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT; traveled to Spelman College Museum of Fine Arts, Atlanta, GA "Revelations and Reflections of American Self-Taught Artists," Museum of the Southwest, Midland, TX

2004 "Coming Home! Self-Taught Artists, the Bible and the American South," The Art Museum, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN "African American Masters: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum," Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH (traveled to Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH; The Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE; Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA "Revelations and Reflections of American Self-Taught Artists," Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art, Great Falls, MT; traveled by ExhibitsUSA to Middlebury College Museum of Art, Middlebury, VT; Hearst Art Gallery, Saint Mary's College of California, Moraga, CA; and Loveland Museum and Gallery, Loveland, CO "Recent Acquisitions: African American Art in the South," The Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA "African-American Art from MFAH Collection," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX "Outside/In: American Self-Taught Art from the Mennello Museum of American Folk and the City of Orlando Folk Art Collection," The von Liebig Art Center, Naples, FL "Purvis Young: From the Rubell Family Collection," The von Liebig Art Center, Naples, FL

2003 "African American Masters: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum," New York Historical Society, New York, NY; traveled to Cheekwood Museum of Art, Nashville, TN; The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Jacksonville, FL "Revelations and Reflections of American Self-Taught Artists", Southern Ohio Museum, Portsmouth, OH "Purvis Young: Art and Real Life," Gallery 721, Fort Lauderdale, FL "Purvis Young: Artists' Books from the Permanent Collection Featuring the Work of Purvis Young," Miami-Dade Public Library, Main Library, Miami, FL "Young at 60, Paintings and Drawings by Purvis Young,” Miami-Dade Public Library, Main Library, Miami, FL "At 60: The Art of Purvis Young," Skot Foreman Fine Art, Atlanta, GA "Outsider Art," Fox-Martin Fine Arts Gallery, Great Barrington, MA

2002 "Purvis Young: The Life I See", Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL "Contemporary Folk Art: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum," High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA "Recent Work: Purvis Young," Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL "Ancestors: Origin of Community," Lyric Theatre, Miami, FL "Revelations and Reflections of American Self-Taught Artists," The Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AK, traveled to Stedman Art Gallery, Camden, NJ "Urban Outsider and Visionary Folk: The Works of Purvis Young and Minnie Evans," Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, FL "Purvis Young Paintings and Books from the Permanent Collection," Miami-Dade Public Library, Culmer Overtown Branch, Miami, FL and Miami Beach Branch, Miami Beach, FL

2001 "Let It Shine: Self-Taught Art from The T. Marshall Hahn Collection," High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA "Contemporary Folk Art: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum," Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA; traveled to The Art Museum at Florida International University, Miami, FL 2000 "A Convergent Voyage," Skot Foreman Fine Art, Ltd., Dania Beach, FL "Contemporary Folk Art: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum," Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL "Purvis Young," at Kunst Koln, Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Germany

1999 "Purvis Young," Springfield Museum of Art, Springfield, OH "Purvis Young: Walking Among the Peoples," Museum of Contemporary Art, Lake Worth, FL "Purvis Young," Frederic Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL "Self Taught Artists of the 20th Century: An American Anthology," Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY ;Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH; and the Museum of American Folk Art, New York, NY. Organized by the Museum of American Folk Art, New York City, NY

1998 "Self Taught Artists of the 20th Century: An American Anthology," Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA. Organized by the Museum of American Folk Art, New York City, NY; traveled to High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; and The Amon Carter Museum and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX "Purvis Young: Painting the Blues," Springfield Museum of Art, Springfield, OH "Purvis Young," Skot Foreman Fine Arts, Ltd., Dania Beach, FL

1997 "Pictured in My Mind: Contemporary American Self-Taught Art from the Collection of Dr. Kurt Gitter and Alice Rae Yelen," DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA "Bearing Witness: African-American Vernacular Art of the South," Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, NY "Purvis Young-The Streets of Overtown: Paintings on paper and scraps," Armory Art Gallery, Department of Art and Art History, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA "Flying Free: Twentieth-Century Self-Taught Art from the Collection of Ellin and Baron Gordon," Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Williamsburg, VA "Purvis Young: Paintings," Pelegro Gallery, New Orleans, LA "Purvis Young: Paintings," Leslie Muth Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

1996 "Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art of the South - The Arnett Collection," Emory University Museum, Atlanta City Hall East for the 100th Cultural Olympiad, Atlanta, GA "Purvis Young: Paintings," American Primitive Gallery, New York City, NY "Purvis Young: Paintings, Drawings, Constructions and Books", Janet Fleisher Gallery, Philadelphia, PA "Wrestling With History: Selections from the Shelp Collection," Sidney Myhkin Gallery, Bernard Baruch College of The City University of New York, New York City, NY "Naives, Seers, Lone Wolves & World Savers VIII," Dean Jensen gallery, Milwaukee, WI

1995 "Passionate Views of the American South: Self Taught Artists from 1940 to the Present," Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL "Pictured In My Mind: Contemporary American Self-Taught Art from the Collection of Dr. Kurt Gitter and Alice Rae Yelen," Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL "The Outside Eye: Contemporary Art of the South, from the Collection of George Lowe," Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL "Rare Visions: Works by Expressionist and Self-Taught Artists," Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, Hollywood, FL "Contemporary Folk Art: A View from the Outside," Nathan D. Rosen Museum Gallery, Adolph and Rose Levis Jewish Community Center, Boca Raton, FL

1994 "Purvis Young: Books and Works on Paper," Janet Fleisher Gallery, Philadelphia, PA "Passionate Visions of the American South: Self-Taught Artists from 1940 to the Present," New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA "Purvis Young", Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris, France "Purvis Young: Art and Real Life," Gallery 721, Fort Lauderdale, FL "New Works, Galerie Moos, Toronto, Canada "Purvis Young," Edward Thorpe Gallery, New York City, NY "Purvis Young", Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL "Street Vision: The Works of Purvis Young," Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, FL "Purvis Young: From the Street," Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, Hollywood, FL

1992 "Purvis Young," Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Germany "Purvis Young Works of Paper (The Books)," Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York City, NY "Sam Doyle, William Hawkins, Purvis Young." Edward Thorpe Gallery, New York City, NY

1991 "Purvis Young," Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York City, NY "Purvis Young: Paintings, Books, Sculptures," Joy Moos Gallery, Miami, FL

1988 "Three From Miami: Carlos Alfonzo, Deborah Schneider, Purvis Young," The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL "Purvis Young," Joy Moos Gallery, Miami, FL "Purvis Young: Me and My Mink," Artists Space, New York City, NY "Purvis Young: Books & Paintings," Miami-Dade Public Library, Miami Lakes Branch, Miami Lakes, FL

1987 "Purvis Young: Books & Paintings," Miami-Dade Public Library, Homestead Branch, Homestead, FL "A Separate Reality: Florida Eccentrics," Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, FL; traveled to Valencia Community College, East Campus and Performing Arts Center Galleries, Orlando, FL "Purvis Young," Greene Gallery, Coral Gables, FL

1986 "Transculture Transmedia," Exit Art, New York City, NY "Purvis Young Recent Works," Artifacts Art Salon, Miami, FL Artist completes Miami-Dade County commissioned Art In Public Places mural, Northside Metrorail Station, Miami, FL

1985 "Burnt Toast," Joy Moos Gallery, Miami, FL "Images of Everyday Life (Paintings and Books)," Miami-Dade Public Library, Culmer/Overtown Branch, Miami, FL

1984 "Book Exhibition," Katherine Markel, New York City, "NY Get Fresh," Joy Moos Gallery, Miami, FL

1983 "Purvis Young: Books," Miami-Dade Public Library System, Miami, FL Artist completes Mural for the Miami-Dade Public Library, Main Library, Miami, FL

1981 "Purvis Young," Miami-Dade Public Library System, Miami-Dade Public Library, Miami Branch Branch, Miami Branch, FL

1977 "Contemporary Black Art: A Selected Sampling," Florida International University Art Gallery, Miami, FL

1973 "Purvis Young," Miami-Dade Community College North Campus, Miami, FL

1972 "Purvis Young," Miami Museum of Modern Art, Miami, FL Young installs paintings on exterior walls of buildings in Goodbread Alley, Overtown (Miami), FL


SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS:

American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY The Art Museum of Western Virginia, Roanoke, VA Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL City of Miami, FL City of Orlando Public Art Collection, Orlando, FL The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC Fayette Art Museum, Fayette, AL Federal Reserve Board of Atlanta, GA The Hampton University Museum, Hampton, Virginia High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA House of Blues, Chicago, IL House of Blues, Las Vegas, NV House of Blues, Los Angeles, CA House of Blues, Myrtle Beach, SC House of Blues, New Orleans, LA House of Blues, Orlando, FL Hurn Museum of Contemporary Folk Art, Savannah, GA Kentucky Folk Art Center, Morehead State University, Morehead, KY Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL The Mennello Museum of American Art, Orlando, FL Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL Miami-Dade Public Library, Miami, FL The Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA Motorola Corporation, USA Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, FL The Museum for Biblical Art, New York, NY Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX Naples Art Association, Naples, FL, The Newark Museum, Newark, NJ New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA Ogden Museum of Southern Art, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL Sackner Archives, University of Oregon, Portland, OR Springfield Museum of Art, Springfield, OH. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC. Studio Museum of Harlem, New York, NY. Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA.