Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 9

Reginald K. Gee
"Painting Style of 814 BC, " Oil Pastel on Grocery Bag signed by Reginald K. Gee

1999

About the Item

"Painting Style of 814 BC" is an original oil pastel on a grocery bag by Reginald K. Gee. The artist signed the piece lower right. Painting Style of 814 BC, of 1999, is one of Gee’s paper bag pastel series, and an homage to another artistic influence, Pablo Picasso. Here the artist humorously evokes literal “primitivism” in his title (style of 814 BC) and executes the face of a woman in the proto-Cubist African mask inspired style of Picasso’s Three Women and Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. Gee imitates Picasso’s formal innovation by using the forms and conceptual logic of non-Western art. Following the Spanish master, the artist reduces the image to a web of interlocking forms in which a single plane defines multiple contours. Unlike Picasso, however, the artist uses color to define the planes of the figure’s face. Gee melds the image with the surface of the work by flattening the picture plane with areas of color. 13 1/2" x 12" art 20 3/4" x 18 7/8" frame Framed to conservation in a shadow box style frame. Mounted on 100% rag foam core and housed in a slim rounded contemporary gold frame. Reginald K. Gee was born in Milwaukee on April 28, 1964 to Native American and African American parents and spent most of his childhood on the northwest side of Milwaukee in the Havenwoods neighborhood. Gee has been creating art since 1982, and his professional art debut began in 1986 at an outdoor exhibition at Milwaukee’s Performing Arts Center. Like Prophet William J. Blackmon and Simon Sparrow, Gee is primarily self-taught. He refers to himself as a visionary Neo-Expressionist. Like the Neo-Expressionists, his work is characterized by its raw depiction of subjects, the use of textural and expressive brushwork and intense colors. According to Sotheby’s auction house, Neo-Expressionist art, “[a]s a reflection of the postmodern world,” is characterized by a “sense of tension, alienation and ambiguity” and is “often accompanied by playfulness and parody.” Gee counts among his artistic influences Pablo Picasso, Francis Bacon, Willem de Kooning, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and David Salle. He is a brilliant colorist who has produced a body of work numbering in the hundreds, including a series of pastels on brown paper bags executed from 1999-2007, some of which were among the works shown at a 25-year retrospective at the David Barnett Gallery in 2013. The artist has been featured at the Outsider Art Fair in New York, the National Black Fine Arts Show, and the Chicago Black Art Expo. In 2002, two of Gee’s paintings, The Inspiration and Honest Crowd, were selected for inclusion in a Smithsonian traveling exhibition honoring the legacy of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Another Gee painting, Nationwide Tobacco Ban, c 1998, was chosen for a campaign against smoking sponsored by the American Lung Association. According to the Milwaukee Journal in 1999, the artist had a spiritual epiphany that compelled him to move to San Francisco, start a ministry among the homeless, and continue to pursue the art career he began in Milwaukee.
  • Creator:
    Reginald K. Gee (1964, American)
  • Creation Year:
    1999
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 20.75 in (52.71 cm)Width: 18.875 in (47.95 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Framing:
    Frame Included
    Framing Options Available
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: 10865c1stDibs: LU605312441632
More From This SellerView All
  • "Man on Express, " Oil Pastel Drawing on Grocery Bag signed by Reginald K. Gee
    By Reginald K. Gee
    Located in Milwaukee, WI
    "Man on Express" is an original oil pastel drawing on a grocery bag by Reginald K. Gee. The artist signed the piece in the lower right margin. It features a man in a green suit loung...
    Category

    1990s Contemporary Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Oil Pastel, Found Objects

  • "Psalm 63:4...While I Live, " Oil Pastel signed by Reginald K. Gee
    By Reginald K. Gee
    Located in Milwaukee, WI
    "Psalm 63:4...While I Live" is a religious original oil pastel drawing on a grocery bag by Reginald K. Gee. The artist signed and titled the piece lower right. This piece illustrates...
    Category

    Early 2000s Contemporary Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Oil Pastel, Found Objects

  • "Two Citizens, " Figurative Oil Pastel on Grocery Bag signed by Reginald K. Gee
    By Reginald K. Gee
    Located in Milwaukee, WI
    "Two Citizens" is an original oil pastel drawing on a grocery bag by Reginald K. Gee. The artist signed the piece upper left. Gee engages a variety of themes in his work, including ...
    Category

    1990s Contemporary Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Oil Pastel, Found Objects

  • "Ulsto, " Abstract Figurative Oil Pastel signed by Reginald K. Ge
    By Reginald K. Gee
    Located in Milwaukee, WI
    "Ulsto" is an original oil pastel drawing on grocery bag by Reginald K. Gee. The artist signed the piece on the back. This piece features abstract color fields but also depicts an ab...
    Category

    1990s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Oil Pastel, Found Objects

  • "Floor Phobic, " Oil Pastel on Grocery Bag signed by Reginald K. Gee
    By Reginald K. Gee
    Located in Milwaukee, WI
    "Floor Phobic" is an original oil pastel drawing by Reginald K. Gee. The artist signed the piece lower right as well as signing & dating it on the back. This piece depicts a green-sk...
    Category

    1990s Contemporary Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Oil Pastel, Found Objects

  • "Dance Studio, " Oil Pastel on Grocery Bag signed by Reginald K. Gee
    By Reginald K. Gee
    Located in Milwaukee, WI
    "Dance Studio" is an original oil pastel drawing on a grocery bag by Reginald K. Gee. The artist signed the piece lower right as well as signing and dating it on the back. It depicts...
    Category

    1990s Contemporary Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Oil Pastel, Found Objects

You May Also Like
  • Freya (Seated Backwards), Mixed media on grey board
    By Howard Tangye
    Located in London, GB
    Howard Tangye (b.1948, Australia) has been an influential force in fashion for decades. Lecturing at London’s Central Saint Martins for 35 years, including 16 years as head of BA Wom...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Other Medium, Archival Paper, Handmade Paper, Pen, Felt Pen, Permanent M...

  • Giorgio (Two figures, pink & blue), Mixed media on Pergameneta parchment
    By Howard Tangye
    Located in London, GB
    Howard Tangye (b.1948, Australia) has been an influential force in fashion for decades. Lecturing at London’s Central Saint Martins for 35 years, including 16 years as head of BA Wom...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Paint, Paper, Parchment Paper, Charcoal, Crayon, Oil Crayon, Oil Pastel,...

  • Jake II (Red coat), Mixed media on Pergameneta parchment
    By Howard Tangye
    Located in London, GB
    Howard Tangye (b.1948, Australia) has been an influential force in fashion for decades. Lecturing at London’s Central Saint Martins for 35 years, including 16 years as head of BA Wom...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Paint, Paper, Parchment Paper, Charcoal, Crayon, Oil Crayon, Oil Pastel,...

  • Craig (Richard's Friend - Sitting - Blue Jacket), Mixed media on grey parchment
    By Howard Tangye
    Located in London, GB
    Howard Tangye (b.1948, Australia) has been an influential force in fashion for decades. Lecturing at London’s Central Saint Martins for 35 years, including 16 years as head of BA Womenswear. There, he tutored many contemporary greats, including John Galliano, Stella McCartney, Christopher Kane, Wes Gordon, Zac Posen and Hussein Chalayan. Examples of Tangye’s portraits are held in many important collections, both public and private, including the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), Harvard University and London’s National Portrait Gallery. Throughout his teaching career Tangye quietly developed a particularly idiosyncratic art practice. By employing a decisive line with bold applications of richly layered materials, Tangye explores the nuances of the human form in an effort to expose his subjects’ true essence and energy. — Howard Tangye Craig (Richard's Friend - Sitting - Blue Jacket), 2012 Mixed media on grey...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings

    Materials

    Paint, Paper, Parchment Paper, Chalk, Charcoal, Crayon, Oil Crayon, Oil ...

  • Maria Nishio (Profile - Browns), Mixed media on Pergamenata parchment
    By Howard Tangye
    Located in London, GB
    Howard Tangye (b.1948, Australia) has been an influential force in fashion for decades. Lecturing at London’s Central Saint Martins for 35 years, including 16 years as head of BA Wom...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Other Medium, Paint, Paper, Parchment Paper, Chalk, Charcoal, Crayon, Oi...

  • Matthew (Two Figures, Overlapping), Mixed media on ochre parchment
    By Howard Tangye
    Located in London, GB
    Howard Tangye (b.1948, Australia) has been an influential force in fashion for decades. Lecturing at London’s Central Saint Martins for 35 years, including 16 years as head of BA Wom...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Paint, Paper, Parchment Paper, Charcoal, Crayon, Oil Crayon, Oil Pastel,...

Recently Viewed

View All