Purvis Young
This is the era of Purvis. Some artists are masterful self-promoters, others retain great advocates to push their work, and yet the quiet one, the one who simply spends his waking life painting, is the one taking America by storm. The rally around Purvis is unprecedented. A feature length documentary film (2006, Purvis of Overtown), countless books on him and his art, and an impressive list of exhibitions and permanent museum collections are just flickers of the Purvis flame that’s burning in America. Housed in the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, D.C.), Young's works are indeed coveted as American treasures.
Purvis paints the struggles observed in Overtown neighborhoods on everything around him. Perhaps the ultimate recycler, Purvis paints on anything that can support paint and the pressure of an artist’s hand—cardboard, discarded political signs, used paper, doors, plywood scraps, metal sheets, carpet remnants—you name it and Purvis has painted on it. Familiar forms in his work address racial struggles and urban afflictions. Recurring metaphors of white horses offering freedom, halos signifying saintly stature, the pregnant woman with the hope of a fruitful tomorrow all emerge on yesterday’s discarded debris.