Richard Wilson

"Vernors & Oreos" Treats for Stevie Wonder, Still-Life, Oil, Colorful

2019

"Squares and Things" painted by the eminent artist, Charles McGee, literally breaths his African American heritage and his extraordinary vibrant use of colors. Provenance is The Arwin Galleries on Grand River in Detroit, Michigan - label on verso. This early painting of McGee's shows his mastery in creating a painting in the style of the French Impressionist Edouard Manet, "Still Life with Melon and Peaches" located in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, and in the style of Fauvist/Expressionist painter Henry Matisse, "Still Life with Blue Tablecloth", located in the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia. McGee makes the well-known genre of still life his own creating an exciting marvelous work incorporating the homely quilt - the powerful symbol of the African American road to safety from slavery - as his main focus. Quilts symbolize warmth, comfort, and as shown by the collection of quilts gathered by the artists in Gee's Bend the designs on the quilts hung outdoors at locations along the Underground Railroad showed fugitives the road north and to safety. "Squares and Things" was first shown at The Arwin Galleries, Inc., Detroit, Michigan, one of the stops along the Underground Railroad. This piece is signed by the artist, Charles McGee, and is an extraordinary example of his early work before he moved into Abstract Expressionism and his many sculptural works now located throughout Michigan. Several of these works are: "Noah's Ark: Genesis, 1984," on display at the Detroit Institute of Arts, his brilliant 2005 "Progression" a 45-foot wide aluminum sculpture at Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, Michigan, and his stunning 2016 "United We Stand" sculpture at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History . His genius can be seen in sculpture installments throughout the city of Detroit. . He was born into a family of sharecroppers. While helping his grandfather tend the land, "he observed firsthand the order and harmony that exists within nature." He had no formal schooling until moving to Detroit at age 10, where he found that "everything was on the move and it hasn’t slowed down yet." in 2017 he observed, "I learned something not being in school — because life is school . . .I learn something every time I move. Every time I go around a corner, something new is revealed to me.” McGee took advantage of the GI Bill to attend classes at the Society of Arts and Crafts, now the College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI. Other College for Creative Studies (formerly Center for Creative Studies) faculty and graduates include Richard Jerzy, Harry Bertoia, Doug Chaing (currently director of Lucas Film), Stephen Dinehart (game maker, writer, designer connected with The David Lynch Foundation), Tyree Guyton (international artist), Herb Babcock, Jerome Feretti, Kevin Siembieda (writer, designer and publisher of role-playing games), Renee Radell, and Philip Pearlstein. After retiring from the Corps of Engineers, McGee spent 1968 studying art in Barcelona. Despite not knowing the language at the outset, he immersed himself in the culture and opened himself to a whole new range of experience that would play out in his artwork. "If you free yourself, you have this kind of opportunity to have those experiences, horizons, and new vistas." (per interview with Nick Sousanis author of a book on Charles McGee.) He returned to Detroit and curated "Seven Black Artists" at the Detroit Artists Market in 1969, which along with McGee himself, included Lester Johnson, Henri Umbaji King, Robert Murray, James Lee, Allie McGhee...

Artis Lane’s “Flowers in a Pink Vase” fills the canvas with the breathtaking beauty of colors and with the dynamic energy of their movement. The subject of the flower has captured the interest of both artists and viewers across centuries and in numerous cultures. Mosaics of flowers can be seen on the villa floors in Pompeii and Herculaneum pre 79 A.D., the Dutch painter Jan Davidsz de Heem is famed for his Baroque still lifes of flowers in the 1600s, French artist, Edouard Manet’s Last Flowers are revered as some of his best work, and the 20th c. silkscreens of Andy Warhol’s Poppys...

This still-life is an acrylic on canvas work that depicts a jar full of various paint brushes bunched together brushes up. In contrast to many still-lifes that depict the setting tha...

"Pork Chop and Corn" is a luscious rendition of a hearty meal that wafts off the canvas with a tempting mental olfactory smell. Bryant Tillman is a popular artist in the Detroit Metropolitan area. He captures objects from life and presents them in unforgettable ways sometimes with philosophical undercurrents. He is comparable to the U.S. Poet Laurette, Billy Collins, who memorializes the common place as metaphors for the deeper values of life. Bryant Tillman has painted for 30 years. He was introduced to art by the late Cass Corridor painter Bradley Jones...

Eclectic objects, oddly juxtaposed, found in antique shops creates opportunities for the artist. This shop was directly across from my gallery so I set up my easel just out front . I...

Mystery American Artist Untitled, 1930 Oil on canvas 29 1/2 x 23 3/4 in. Framed: 34 1/2 x 28 3/4 x 1 1/2 in. Signed and dated lower left

Provenance Private Collection (acquired directly from the artist); Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, Sale #2326, 27 January 1965, Lot 168; Private Collection (acquired from the abo...

Still Life (Untitled), c. 1940/50s, oil on canvas, 25 x 30 inches, identified by label verso Jeanette Maxfield Lewis was a California-based landscape painter and etcher. Born in Oa...