Overview
Purvis Young
Self-taught African-American artist Purvis Young is well-known for his expressive paintings and collages.
His vibrantly colored paintings of trucks, people, and coil-shaped abstractions, created on various things such as scrap metal, book pages, and discarded envelopes, depicted a problematic but inspiring life in Miami's impoverished Overtown district.
Works
Biography
Purvis Young © Ted Degener
Purvis Young © Ted Degener
Born in Liberty City, Florida, on February 2, 1942, he never received any official art training but picked up drawing from his uncle at an early age.
He started sketching a lot when he was a teenager and was imprisoned at the Raiford State Penitentiary from 1961 to 1961. The Miami Art Museum owner, Bernard Davis, became interested in Young's creative work years after his release. After Davis made the artist's work widely known, collectors and tourists began to frequent Young's home and studio in Goodbread Alley by the 1970s. Throughout the later half of his career, Young's work expanded in scale and formal creativity, influenced by documentaries on American history and books on Rembrandt, Vincent van Gogh, El Greco, and Paul Gauguin. The artist died in Miami, Florida, on April 20, 2010. His creations can currently be found in collections in several museums, including the the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the  American Folk Art Museum, among others…
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