Name: Matinee at the Ritz
Brand: Johnnie Lee Gray

Matinee at the Ritz

View Similar Items

Andrea Stajan-Ferkul - Take Me Dancing, Series Of 4 Original Artworks, 14"x14" Framed Dresses, Women

Ella Freire - Lattice 1

Ella Freire - Jam Spread

Justin Wheatley - Summer Air

Janet Keith - Janet Keith, Opalescence, Original Abstract Painting, Affordable Art

Juvenal Ravelo - Fragmentación De La Luz Y Del Color - 21st Century, Contemporary, Installation

George Simmons - Acrylic Painting on Canvas and Board -- Story of the Birds

About the Item

As a child Johnnie Lee Gray loved to go to the movies on Saturday to watch Western serials. He went to the Ritz Theater, an all-black movie house. Blacks were either banned from, or restricted to the balconies, of "white" movie theaters. As with several of his paintings, the artist is the man to the left with the big hat. Artist, Johnnie Lee Gray was born in Spartanburg County, South Carolina in 1941. In his early years, Gray demonstrated artistic talent, painting & drawing as a way to express his emotions & depict his surroundings. Working alongside his grandparents in the fields of their sharecropper farm, & later as a carpenter, textile mill worker, & house painter, Gray learned early on to use the materials of his milieu to create works of art that drew on his memories & experiences as a black American man. After graduating from the county’s segregated Lincoln High School in 1960, Gray enlisted in the Army, where he served for seven years, including an 18-month volunteer tour of duty in Vietnam. As a Vietnam Veteran and self-taught artist, Gray’s work illustrated his experiences in the military as an African-American and the participation of black people in the history of the American and world landscape. Described as “visionary” “outsider” artist, the patterned shapes, visual texture, vibrant palettes and repetitive forms showcased in his paintings are recognizable characteristics of his historical narratives. The PBS television series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow aired nationally in the fall of 2002 & prominently featured Grays work. The series was sponsored by New York Life Insurance & gave new attention & recognition to Gray's work. The public response from the series prompted a traveling exhibition in 2003, curated by Dr. Gwendolyn H. Everett of Howard University, with its official opening night at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, NY. From 2003-2009, Johnnie Lee Gray’s work was exhibited in such venues as the Russell Senate Office Building Rotunda, Washington D.C.; The Forbes Galleries, Manhattan, NY; Chicago Historical Society, Chicago, IL; Atlanta History Center, Atlanta, GA; California State University, Northridge, CA; the Spartanburg County Museum of Art, SC; University of Virginia Art Museum, Charlottesville, VA; Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC; Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA; Livingstone College, Salisbury, NC; Converse College Milliken Art Gallery, Spartanburg, SC; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Harlem, NY; and the Cherokee County History & Arts Museum, Gaffney, SC. Significant exhibitions include traveling solo exhibits: “Rising Above Jim Crow: The paintings of Johnnie Lee Gray”, 2003 and “Landscape of Slavery: The Plantation in American Art”, 2007-2008.

Creator:
Johnnie Lee Gray (1941 - 2000, American)
Creation Year:
1992
Dimensions:
Height: 24.5 in (62.23 cm)Width: 47.5 in (120.65 cm)
Medium:
Acrylic,Board
Period:
1990-1999
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Charleston, SC
Reference Number:
Seller: 1351stDibs: LU2016210467862

2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Board, Pencil, Color Pencil

Andrea Stajan-Ferkul
Take Me Dancing, Series Of 4 Original Artworks, 14"x14" Framed Dresses, Women, 2014

$5,600

Lattice 1

By Ella Freire

Located in Deddington, GB

Lattice 1 [2021] original Acrylic on board Image size: H:40cm cm x W:40cm cm Complete Size of Unframed Work: H:40cm cm x W:40cm cm x D:2cmcm Sold Unframed Please note that insitu im...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Board

Ella Freire
Lattice 1, 2021

$568

Free Shipping

Jam Spread

By Ella Freire

Located in Deddington, GB

Jam Spread [2021] original Acrylic on board Image size: H:40cm cm x W:40cm cm Complete Size of Unframed Work: H:2cm cm x W:40cm cm x D:2cmcm Sold Unframed Please note that insitu images are purely an indication of how a piece may look Warm pinks and orange with a shot of blue, evocative of my sunny morning walks along my favourite beach in Santa Teresa...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Board

Ella Freire
Jam Spread, 2021

$568

Free Shipping

Summer Air

By Justin Wheatley

Located in Denver, CO

Summer Air, 2019

Category

21st Century and Contemporary More Art

Materials

Acrylic, Board

Justin Wheatley
Summer Air, 2019

$4,995

Janet Keith, Opalescence, Original Abstract Painting, Affordable Art

By Janet Keith

Located in Deddington, GB

Janet Keith Opalescence Original Abstract Painting Acrylic paint on board.  Size: H 76cm x W 101cm x D 0.30cm Sold Unframed Free Shipping  Please note that in situ images are purely ...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Board

Janet Keith
Janet Keith, Opalescence, Original Abstract Painting, Affordable Art, 2020

$2,741

Fragmentación De La Luz Y Del Color - 21st Century, Contemporary, Installation

By Juvenal Ravelo

Located in Barcelona, Catalonia

Technique: Acrylic on MDF (medium-density fiberboard), metal and reflective elements. Kinetic installations by Juvenal Ravelo: light and color in the new millennium.

Category