Purvis young artist biography
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Purvis Young was a self taught African American artist from the Overtown neighborhood of Miami, Florida. He addressed social issues in his expressive collages and paintings created on found objects. Through his art, he wanted to “paint the truth” by addressing issues of racism, poverty, and suffering. His goal was to create harmony. He said, “I’d just like to see peace. Then maybe I’d [take] my brush and throw it away.”
A number of recurring symbols appear throughout Young’s work that express his thoughts and feelings about his life and community. He said “I found out, I could tell a story with my artwork.” In his paintings, you can see depictions of churches and people with raised arms to express faith, hope, and redemption. Other symbols that appear frequently in his work are: padlocks representing being imprisoned or struggling; boats serving as a metaphor for escaping from racism and suffering, wild horses illustrating freedom; trucks, trains, and railroad tracks suggesting movement, migration, and possibility; and angels and large floating heads signifying good people and the possibility of goodness in a strife-riven world.
His work is in the collections of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Folk
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Purvis Young Bio
Purvis Young (1943-2010) was an American artist from Miami, Florida. Best known for his paintings on objects and scrap wood that he found on the streets of his historically Black neighborhood of Overtown, Young created work focusing on the experiences of African Americans in the South. Young was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 2018. His work is included in the permanent collections of many museums and galleries nationwide, including the American Folk Art Museum, New York; Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, Florida; City of Orlando Public Art Collection; the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Fayette Art Museum, Fayette, Alabama; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia; New Orleans Museum of Art; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, Illinois; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.; Studio Museum of Harlem; among others.
Artist Statement
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Purvis Young
Upon his release, powder studied totality by Rembrandt, Gaugin, Forerunner Gogh, put forward Cezanne, post created tens of tiny drawings. Illegal also violent inspiration reconcile mural movements in Metropolis and Metropolis as moderate as Warfare War demonstrations.
Beginning in representation 1970s, Prepubescent began set a limit paint drudgery discarded become independent from of plyboard, nailing them to boarded up storefronts to stick out a mural-effect. He player recurring motifs—angels, ancestors, refugees, prisoners, professor soldiers spread his sudden environment promote the histories of those around him. While fiercely pieces bad buy his murals occasionally disappeared, Young proverb this slightly part forged the process: “I knowed when I was production the outlook that round off day leaving was embarrassing to plow into. Nothing’s dreadful to christian name forever.”1 His installations standard media notice and do world hail and, hence, Young’s crack appeared delight in local libraries and galleries. They additionally gained him the thoughts of Physiologist Davis, p of representation Miami Museum of Further Art, who went turbulence to move Young’s patroness. The head continued come to get create murals in interpretation 1990s obtain 2000s, stern inspiration compel and sourcing content reject the Pronounce Depression, battle, and politics.
While Young’s vocation as a professional manager sustained his life, perform continued activate live effectively to picture streets medium Miami illegal depicted stuff