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Reginald K. Gee
"Inspiration II, " Mixed Media on Canvas signed by Reginald K. Gee

2008

$24,500
£18,813.65
€21,582.21
CA$34,425.37
A$38,554.25
CHF 20,116.97
MX$470,923.56
NOK 255,946.46
SEK 241,260.21
DKK 161,065.42

About the Item

"Inspiration II" is an original mixed media on canvas by Reginald K. Gee. The artist signed the piece lower right. Inspiration II, 2008, references The Inspiration from 2002 that was exhibited in the Smithsonian traveling exhibition in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. The image represents the Biblical basis for Dr. King’s civil rights crusade. At the top center of the work, Gee paints the Crucifixion intertwined with the star of David, with blood running down onto an American flag to become one of its red stripes, as if to implicate America in its persecution of African Americans. The text reads: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6/I am the resurrection. John 11:25/Y’shua Hamashiach/Jesus the Messiah.” The bottom center says: “Segregation is a blatant denial of the unity which we all have in Christ Jesus/I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on.” Gee also presents vignettes featuring marchers with Dr. King, and Dr. King preaching; as well as cryptic images such as a figure beside an enormous bell, a scene of a fiery car crash, and a dark scene that appears to show two figures in a field with a setting sun. 25 1/2" x 38 3/4" art 34 1/2" x 48 3/8" 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. 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:
    2008
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 34.5 in (87.63 cm)Width: 48.75 in (123.83 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: 11401c1stDibs: LU60533543542

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