Allan Rohan Crite

"Animal Illustrations" Allan Rohan Crite, 2 Ink Drawings African American Artist

circa 1930s

Bob Thompson Untitled, 1964 Felt tip pen on printed paper 11 x 20 1/2 inches Provenance: The artist Kathy Komaroff Goodman (gift from the artist) Hollis Taggart, New York Exhibited...

Melecio Galvan (1945 - 1982) Figures, 1968 Sepia on paper 18 x 22 inches Signed and dated lower right Provenance: Estate of the artist Melecio Galván (San Rafael, Mexico, 1945 - 1982) was a Mexican draughtsman who was little-known during his lifetime. This is principally because he was a socio-politically committed artist wary of the commercial gallery circuit as well as art institutions controlled by the state. He arose from a working-class family in San Rafael, on the outskirts of Mexico City, and died under mysterious circumstances in that town at the age of 37, just when he was reaching the apogee of his mature style. Galván studied at the Academia San Carlos in Mexico City between 1965 and 1968. His preferred medium was ink on paper, and he created page upon page of sketchbooks filled with drawings. The major themes he developed in his work were reinterpretations of classical drawings of the human figure and anatomy studies, explorations of the grotesque, and themes related to the socio-political situation in Mexico, especially following the 1968 Tlateloco Massacre. In 1971-72, he traveled to Northern California where he collaborated on a mural in Fresno and created illustrations for the Latino journal Basta Ya (Enough Already) in San Francisco. Back in Mexico City, from 1977 to 1981 he was a member of the Grupo MIRA, primarily comprised of printmakers who favored themes of politics and social justice...

Lawrence Philp Insiders Say Too Much is Enough Signed lower left; titled on overlap Oil on canvas 70 x 59 1/2 inches Lawrence Philp, the son of Jamaican immigrants, studied at the ...

David Hare Cronus Hunting, 1967 Acrylic and paper collage on linen 68 x 53 inches “Freedom is what we want,” David Hare boldly stated in 1965, but then he added the caveat, “and wha...

Jogen Chowdhury : Untitled Pen & Ink on Paper ; 7 x 9 inches ; 1983 Signed by the Artist. Style : He has immense contribution in inspiring young artists of India. Jogen Chowdhury ha...

Animal is a Watercolor artwork realized by Reynold Arnould (Le Havre 1919 - Parigi 1980). Good condition on white paper. No Signature. Reynold Arnould was born in Le Havre, Fra...

Animal is a Color Marker Drawing realized by Reynold Arnould (Le Havre 1919 - Parigi 1980). Good condition on a sheet of a notebook. No Signature. Reynold Arnould was born in Le ...

Surrealist proto-Afropunk drawing by African-American artist, Roland Ayers (1932-2014). Animal Capers, ca. 1970 . Ink on illustration board, image measures 20 inches. inches; illustration panel measures 21.5 inches. Unsigned. Minor staining evident in detail photos Artist and art educator, Roland Ayers was born on July 2, 1932, the only child of Alice and Lorenzo Ayers, and grew up in the Germantown district of Philadelphia. Ayers served in the US Army (stationed in Germany) before studying at the Philadelphia College of Art (currently University of the Arts). He graduated with a BFA in Art Education, 1954. He traveled Europe 1966-67, spending time in Amsterdam and Greece in particular. During this period, he drifted away from painting to focus on linear figurative drawings of a surreal nature. His return home inaugurated the artist’s most prolific and inspired period (1968-1975). Shorty before his second major trip abroad in 1971-72 to West Africa, Ayers began to focus on African themes, and African American figures populated his work almost exclusively. In spite of Ayers’ travel and exploration of the world, he gravitated back to his beloved Germantown, a place he endowed with mythological qualities in his work and literature. His auto-biographical writing focuses on the importance of place during his childhood. Ayers’ journals meticulously document the ethnic and cultural make-up of Germantown, and tell a compelling story of class marginalization that brought together poor families despite racial differences. The distinctive look and design of Germantown inform Ayers’ visual vocabulary. It is a setting with distinctive Gothic Revival architecture and haunting natural beauty. These characteristics are translated and recur in the artist’s imagery. During his childhood, one of the only books in the Ayers household was an illustrated Bible. The images within had a profound effect on the themes and subjects that would appear in his adult work. Figures in an Ayers’ drawing often seem trapped in a narrative of loss and redemption. Powerful women loom large in the drawings: they suggest the female role models his journals record in early life. The drawings can sometimes convey a strong sense of conflict, and at other times, harmony. Nature and architecture seem to have an antagonistic relationship that is, ironically, symbiotic. A critical turning point in the artist’s career came in 1971 when he was included in the extremely controversial Whitney Museum show, Contemporary Black Artists in America. The exhibition gave Ayers an international audience and served as a calling card for introductions he would soon make in Europe. Ayers is a particularly compelling figure in a period when black artists struggled with the idea of authenticity. A questioned often asked was “Is your work too black, or not black enough?” Abstractionists were considered by some peers to be sell-outs, frauds or worse. Figurative* work was accused of being either sentimental or politically radical depending on the critical source. Ayers made the choice early on to be a figurative artist, but considered his work devoid of political content. Organizations such as Chicago’ s Afri-Cobra in the late 1960‘s asserted that the only true black art of any relevance must depict the black man and woman...