The first day of Slotin Folk Art’s two-day auction, Self-Taught Art Masterpieces, was led by Purvis Young’s “Trapped Spirits,” 96 inches long by 19 inches high, which depicted a purgatory of human souls in various states of ecstasy, trauma and despair. From Young’s Goodbread Alley period in the 1970s and with provenance to Miami gallerist Joy Moos, plus an impressive exhibition history, the painting sold for $127,500 to an unidentified phone bidder, relatively new to Slotin.
Review by W.A. Demers
BUFORD, GA. — Bidding was aggressive for a Purvis Young (1943-2010) signed painting, an oil and house paint on board from circa 1974 on April 27, the first day of Slotin Folk Art’s two-day auction, “Self-Taught Art Masterpieces.” Spanning 96 inches long by 19 inches high, “Trapped Spirits” depicted exactly that, a purgatory of human souls of dynamic, elongated figures in various states of ecstasy, trauma and despair.
The painting sold for $127,500. Young famously painted on objects — doors, pieces of cardboard and wood — scavenged from his neighborhood, and his artworks were a depiction of everyday life there. Made during Young’s Goodbread Alley period in the 1970s, it was especially desirable, according to Steve Slotin, the firm’s co-owner. “We had three or four people on the phones,” said Slotin, and ultimately the work went to an unidentified phone bidder, relatively new to Slotin. The painting had provenance to Joy Moos Gallery, a Miami art dealer who, according to a January 2020 Washington Post article by Deirdra Funcheon, in 1989, signed Young to an exclusive contract and introduced his work to contemporary art galleries in New York and Chicago. Exhibition history for the work included “Purvis Young Painting from the Streets,” 1993, and “Street Visions: The Works of Purvis Young,” 1993, as well as a show at Northwestern University’s Block Museum, “Looking Life Straight In The Face, The Art of Purvis Young.”
Slotin Folk Art hosts auctions four times a year, which feature the best in self-taught art, Southern folk pottery, Outsider art, antique and anonymous folk art, Americana, African American decorative arts and quilts.
Bill Traylor’s untitled (Brown Spotted Pig) circa 1939-42, graphite and poster paint on found Granger tobacco advertisement cardboard, sold for $60,000.
The firm’s two-day spring Masterpieces sale featured more than 700 lots, including the above categories as well as contemporary art, international art and new discoveries. The sale total was $1,727,506, and following the event, an exhausted Steve Slotin said, “We sold everything!” Registered bidders online totaled 2,753, and there were 188 registered bidders on the phone.
Another of the stellar Outsider artists represented in the sale was Bill Traylor (1854-1949), whose drawings brought to life his memories of living on the plantation and captured Black Southern life in the Twentieth Century. Self-taught, Traylor was born into enslavement and was penniless when he died at the age of 96. His works today, however, sell for five- and six-figure prices. Here, untitled (Brown Spotted Pig) circa 1939-42, graphite and poster paint on found Granger tobacco advertisement cardboard sold for $60,000.
Fanciful landscapes comprised the Outsider wheelhouse for Joseph Elmer Yoakum (1891-1972). Also self-taught, getting his start in the early 1960s, he concentrated on painting imagined landscapes of mountains, valleys, rivers, trees and meandering byways, always with an abstract, almost dreamlike style. Fetching $35,000, his “The Junction Point of South Atlantic Ocean and South Pacific Ocean Near Delfulgo, Argentina and Pairgona,” signed and titled, was executed in vivid colors with ink, colored pencil and graphite on paper. The catalog deemed it a “masterpiece” example with a bright sun and a skull face mountain.
Mesmerizing and vivid, Eugene Von Bruenchenhein’s “No. 518 – Cosmic Dragon,” 1956, done with oil on heavy cardstock with varnish and large at 28 by 24 inches, went out at $31,250.
Eugene Von Bruenchenhein’s (American, 1910-1983), “No. 518 – Cosmic Dragon,” 1956, was an eye-catching work, also vividly colored, done with oil on heavy cardstock with varnish. Large at 28 by 24 inches, it was signed, dated and numbered, going out at $31,250.
Not much is known about Marian Spore Bush, a self-taught artist and dentist born in 1878 in Bay City, Mich., but that may change after this sale. Her “The Oasis,” circa 1940s, estimated $500-$1,000, must have slaked the consignor’s thirst when it tallied $31,250. The heavy oil on canvas was not signed, had a large tear in the upper right corner and was in overall poor condition.
Amos Ferguson’s “Two Figures With Birds in Tree,” nearly tripled its high estimate by bringing $28,875. The paint on paper was signed and in excellent condition. Size with frame was 33 by 39½ inches.
No self-taught masterpieces sale would live up to its billing without Outsider art’s popular reverend, Howard Finster (1916-2001). The Baptist minister from Georgia believed God had chosen him to spread the gospel through reclaiming his swampy land, which he called Paradise Garden, and installing some 46,000 pieces of folk art sculptures. In this sale, he was represented by an unusual (for him because he rarely depicted devils) work in paint and glitter on board with artist-made frame. Its subject was a group of cavorting devils and it was titled “The American Devils Are Very Friendly. #2,097.” Well, some bidder made a bargain because the work leapt from $4/6,000 as bidders chased it to $25,000. It had provenance to Phyllis Kind Gallery
Henry Joseph Darger Jr, an American writer, novelist and artist, was represented in the sale by “Eleven Generals,” a watercolor, graphite, carbon transfer and ink on found paper backed to found cardstock. The 16½-by-10¾-inch work finished at $21,250.
Finally, another Outsider master Henry Joseph Darger Jr (1892-1973), American writer, novelist and artist who served as a hospital custodian in Chicago and gained fame with his fantasy novel, The Story of the Vivian Girls, contributed “Eleven Generals,” a watercolor, graphite, carbon transfer and ink on found paper backed to found cardstock, It finished at $21,250.
Prices given include the buyer’s premium as stated by the auction house. Slotin’s next sale is August 3 — Fun Folk Art. For information, 404-403-4244 or www.slotinfolkart.com.
