African American Ellis Wilson Original signed Painting In Period Vintage Frame

Image 8 3/4 x 12 inches. Frame 16 x 20 inches. Condition: Very good, no damage, toning or foxing.

This is exceptional work and much better in person. Original gilded vintage frame, mat was replaced with linen mat and gilded wood fillet, new non glare glass was added. Private USA California Collection, no paperwork s.

ArtistEllis Wilson was born in. In 1916 he began attending. Moving in 1919 to study at the.

In 1928 he moved to. Where he joined the Harlem Artists Guild and worked at a brokerage house. From 1941 to 1944 he worked in an aircraft engine factory. He was also commissioned to create.

For US Army and Navy chaplains. In 1944 he was awarded a. And subsequently travelled through the southern United States.

In 1952 he travelled to. An experience which resulted in numerous paintings.

Although Wilson had several exhibitions and won several prizes for his paintings he never became wealthy. He died on either the 1st or 2 January 1977 and was buried in a pauper's grave.

The exact date of his death and site of his grave are unknown. A once-acclaimed Kentucky-born artist who captured the black culture in the Southeast and Haiti of his time, Ellis Wilson is little-known in his home state today. To remedy this neglect and to celebrate the centennial of his birth, he became the subject of a February through March 2000 exhibition premiered at Murray State University in the Clara M. Eagle Art Gallery, 25 miles southeast of Mayfield, birthplace of the artist. The exhibition, organized by Albert Sperath, Director of the Eagle Gallery, featured forty-five paintings that were borrowed from private collectors, art dealers, and museums.

Of this exhibit, art critic David Minton wrote that Ellis Wilson painted a vivid but realistic portrait of black culture beginning in the 1920s. Wilson doesn't paint his subjects in mythical proportions. He simply shows them as they were: a fisherman with his catch slung over his back, his shoulders illuminated by the sunlight, his figure completely surrounded by a luminous sea. Or factory workers and farmhands, full of life and dignity. The same concept applies to his images of Harlem cabaret dancers, people engaged in ritual religious ceremonies and sitters for straight portraits. Wilson gained prominence in the art world during the 1930s and 40s. But that doesn't mean he was ever widely known or was even able to make a living at art. Wilson was born in Mayfield, Kentucky and attended Kentucky State University in Frankfort for two years. However, because he could only study agriculture or education, he left at age 19 to study at the Art Institute of Chicago. He stayed in Chicago for five years trying to make it as a commercial artist, but in 1928 moved to New York.

As a new art school graduate, Wilson was active in the New Negro Art Movement of the 1920s and'30s in New York, where he lived until his death. He was employed by the Works Progress Administration from 1935 to 1940.

On the basis of paintings done from sketches of fellow workers at an airplane factory, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1944, which was renewed in 1945. Wilson used his fellowship to travel across the South, where he painted black people at work.

He was noted as a colorist with a deft touch for simplification. In 1947 he had an exhibition in his hometown; it was reportedly the first art show ever held in Mayfield. A year later, Louisville's J. Speed Art Museum had a solo exhibition of Wilson's figural images, and in 1953 Murray also gave Wilson an exhibition. In the meantime, Wilson continued to work at manual labor jobs in New York and paint on the side until his death in 1977.

One of Wilson's paintings, Funeral Procession , was part of the set on Bill Cosby's TV series in the 1980s. The item "African American Ellis Wilson Original signed Painting In Period Vintage Frame" is in sale since Friday, February 17, 2017. This item is in the category "Art\Art from Dealers & Resellers\Paintings". The seller is "beautenart" and is located in Redding, California. This item can be shipped to United States, to Canada, to United Kingdom, DK, RO, SK, BG, CZ, FI, HU, LV, LT, MT, EE, to Australia, GR, PT, CY, SI, to Japan, SE, KR, ID, to Taiwan, ZA, to Belgium, to France, to Hong Kong, to Ireland, to Netherlands, PL, to Spain, to Italy, to Germany, to Austria, RU, IL, to Mexico, to New Zealand, SG, NO, SA, UA, AE, QA, KW, BH, HR, MY, CL, CO, CR, PA, TT, GT, HN, JM, BB, BD, BM, BN, BO, EC, EG, GF, GG, GI, GP, IS, JE, JO, KH, KY, LI, LK, LU, MC, MO, MQ, MV, NI, OM, PE, PK, PY, RE.

• Original/Reproduction: Original
• Listed By: Dealer or Reseller
• Signed?: Signed
• Medium: Watercolor
• Subject: Ethnic
• Style: Impressionism
• Size Type/Largest Dimension: Small (Up to 14in.

  )

• Date of Creation: 1900-1949
• Region of Origin: US
• Artist: Ellis Wilson