Purvis Young Sculptures

To Chicago-based artist Patrick Fitzgerald, his sculptures are a means of traveling through time. Working from found materials, Fitzgerald constructs miniature soap box cars...

Murat Brierre or Murat Briere (1938–1988) was one of Haiti's principal metal sculptors. He was influenced by George Liautaud, but his work acquired its own, highly experimental style, often focusing on multi-faceted and conjoined figures, fantastically personified elements, and unborn babies visible within larger creatures. He sculpted works that reflected both Christian and Haitian Vodou themes. Murat BRIERRE was born in Mirebalais in 1938. He first worked as a builder, cabinetmaker and blacksmith before being introduced to Le Centre d’Art in 1966. After trying painting with DeWitt Peters, he realized that metal sculpture was best suited for him and studied under Georges Liautaud in order to learn the métier. He also made very beautiful linocuts. Francine Murat quickly recognized his talent and considered Brierre to be one of the best Haitian sculptors. He passed away in 1988 at the age of 50. Brierre’s works have been exhibited in France, the United States, Switzerland, Germany, Israel, Mexico and Jamaica, in such places as the Abbaye de Daoulas, the Grand Palais, the Brooklyn Museum, the Modern Art Museum of Mexico and the Musée du Montparnasse. His work is part of the permanent collections at the Waterloo Museum, the Davenport Museum, the Milwaukee Art Museum, Le Centre d’Art, the Musée d’art Haïtien du Collège Saint-Pierre and the Musée de Panthéon National Haïtien. References Phyllis Kind...

Artist: Mr. Imagination (aka Gregory Warmack), American (1948 - 2012) Title: Fish Year: circa 1985 Medium: Aluminum Collage with Bottle Caps Sculpture Size: 19.5 x 37.5 x 2 in. (49.5...

This work is hand signed. It is not dated. Murat Brierre or Murat Briere (1938–1988) was one of Haiti's principal metal sculptors. He was influenced by George Liautaud, but his work acquired its own, highly experimental style, often focusing on multi-faceted and conjoined figures, fantastically personified elements, and unborn babies visible within larger creatures. He sculpted works that reflected both Christian and Haitian Vodou themes. Murat BRIERRE was born in Mirebalais in 1938. He first worked as a builder, cabinetmaker and blacksmith before being introduced to Le Centre d’Art in 1966. After trying painting with DeWitt Peters, he realized that metal sculpture was best suited for him and studied under Georges Liautaud in order to learn the métier. He also made very beautiful linocuts. Francine Murat quickly recognized his talent and considered Brierre to be one of the best Haitian sculptors. He passed away in 1988 at the age of 50. Brierre was known for his recycling of surplus steel oil drum lids. Brierre worked as a brick mason, cabinetmaker, tile setter, and blacksmith. He was born in Mirebalais or Port-au-Prince, Haiti and was the younger of two brothers. His older brother, Edgar Brierre, was a painter and sculptor. The brother's signed their works with only their last name, creating some confusion within their professional circles about the authorship of their work. Brierre's sculptures typically ranged from three to six feet in length and reflected Christian, Haitian Vodou, and folklore themes. Brierre was also a painter, but ultimately chose to work with metal because he felt that the material was saturated with spiritual energy. It was a laborious process. The oil drum lids were hammered flat, drawn onto, then cut with a razor. The sheet was then cut with a chisel before finishing was completed with a file. By the mid1970s, Brierre's sculptures included pronounced areas of cut outs surrounding long curved lines of metal. Brierre's iron sculpture titled Chien de Mer overlays a dog head onto the body of a fish. Haiti has long celebrated a rich artistic and cultural heritage. Georges Liautaud (1899–1991) ignited the Haitian metal sculpture movement in the 1950s in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti. A blacksmith by trade, he fashioned crosses for public cemeteries before creating more elaborate cut-metal works. Liautaud disseminated the distinctly Haitian art form to emerging artists, such as Murat Brièrre (1938–88) and the Louisjuste brothers, Sérésier, Janvier, and Joseph (1940–89). They, in turn, taught others in Croix-des-Bouquets, including Gabriel Bien-Aimé (b. 1951) and Serge Jolimeau (b. 1952), Haiti’s two leading metal sculptors working today. Discarded steel oil drums have historically served as the base material for Haitian metal artists. The drums’ lids are cut open with a chisel and hammer and a long vertical split is made along the side of the drums. The interiors are filled with dried sugarcane or grass and lit on fire to remove any grime; once cool, the drums are flattened into sheets. Designs are chalked on; pieces are then cut and sculpted using only hand tools and further enhanced by hammering, embossing, cutting holes, and bending the metal. Sculptures reflect everyday life portraits, imaginative themes, and motifs of Haitian Vodou, an African Diasporic religion. Some of the many forms that appear include angels and winged creatures, mermaids and other aquatic figures, musical bands, animals, and earthly, paradisiacal scenes. Solo exhibitions 1967 – Haitian Art Gallery, New York 1968 – Centre d'Art, Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Bradley Galleries, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Georgetown Graphics Gallery, Washington D.C.; Menschoff Gallery, Chicago; John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin; Roko Gallery, New York 1969 – Centre d'Art, Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Showcase Gallery, Washington D.C.; Botolph Group, Boston 1970 – Centre d'Art, Port-au-Prince, Haiti 1972 – Centre d'Art, Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Roko Gallery, New York 1979 – Areta Contemporary Design, Boston Group exhibitions 1969 – Davenport Art Gallery, Iowa 1974 – Davenport Art Gallery, Iowa 1978 – Brooklyn Museum, New York (traveling) 1982 – Studio Museum in Harlem, New York 1983 – Chicago Public Library Cultural Center 1985 – Davenport Art Gallery, Iowa 1987 – Musée du Panthéon National, Port-au-Prince, Haiti 1988 – Galeries Nationales d'Exposition du Grand Palais, Paris 1989 – Museum of Art, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida 2006 – Phyllis Kind Gallery in conjunction with the Outsider Art Fair, New York 2024 Ayiti Toma II: Faith, Family, and Resistance, Luhring Augustine, Tribeca, New York 2023 Haitian Metal Sculpture, SFO Museum, California, USA 2015 Celebrating African American Art, Flomenhaft Gallery, Chelsea, New York, USA An important exhibition of works by outstanding African American artists. Included were: Emma Amos, Benny Andrews, Romare Bearden, Murat Brierre, Beverly Buchanan...

Gérard Cambon was born in 1960 in Toulouse (Fr). He has a degree in political science and is a self-taught artist. In the earlier years of his life practiced and experimented with c...

Guillaume Couffignal (French b. 1964) Theatre, 2014. Bronze. 19 7/8 x 13 1/2 x 7 1/4 inches. Signed on the base: Couffignal. Beautiful texture and patina. Guillaume Couffignal is a ...

Gérard Cambon was born in 1960 in Toulouse (Fr). He has a degree in political science and is a self-taught artist. In the earlier years of his life practiced and experimented with c...

Gérard Cambon was born in 1960 in Toulouse (Fr). He has a degree in political science and is a self-taught artist. In the earlier years of his life practiced and experimented with collage and model making. Later, with an interest in old machines and patinas he started collecting old and used objects, tools, and fragments of items whose previous lives remained obvious. When he travels, one of his greatest pleasures is to find materials in antique shops or ironmongeries. In 1994, he began creating Locomobiles and reliefs and presented them to the public for the first time at “La Jeune Peinture,” a Parisian art fair. In 1995 , he stayed during 8 months in the hospital for eight months (leukaemia) where he began preparing and creating plans for new Locomobiles and reliefs. As his health improved, he committed himself to his artwork and during the same year met a Parisian gallery owner who decided to organize a solo show for him, Le Galerie Beatrice Soulie in Saint Germain des Pres. He has shown his work since 1996 in Paris and since 2000 in the United States (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle). He is currently being shown by galleries in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg , Denmark, and the United States. He keeps on trying out new materials (fabric, leather, glass, plants, metals,…) that he integrates into his bas-reliefs: traction engines...

Gérard Cambon was born in 1960 in Toulouse (Fr). He has a degree in political science and is a self-taught artist. In the earlier years of his life practiced and experimented with c...

An extraordinarily moving piece by an outsider artist who must have spent many a day conceiving, cutting, hammering, soldering and welding this stunning metal group made of tin and iron. The result is something completely individualistic, which at the same time recalls early medieval...

To Chicago-based artist Patrick Fitzgerald, his sculptures are a means of traveling through time. Working from found materials, Fitzgerald constructs miniature soap box cars...

"Bridge Loan (Basketcase)" Satirical Bond Paperwork Collage Elaborate collage by Mickey "Kano" Kane (American, 20th century). This composition is a surreal and satirical take on fin...