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Myrtice West and Purvis Young
4.23.2010
The folk art world lost two great artists this week...
MYRTICE WEST and PURVIS YOUNG.
Myrtice brought her messages from the Bible to the masses through her artwork. She came back from a house fire that destroyed everything and did not give up!
Created between 1978-1985, Myrtice West’s Revelations Series is a triumph of visionary and outsider art. Each painting is detailed extensively in the book Wonders to Behold: The Visionary Art of Myrtice West. Each is a museum piece.
"I’d like to say I’m not much of an artist as I don’t have much of an education or training... I know also I am not a writer and unless Christ comes in, I am afraid I can’t explain how I did these pictures or why.” — Myrtice West
Purvis began at an early age...Young's symbols convey the on-going economic and cultural divides so prevalent in Miami and beyond through recurring images of black and white horses, pregnant women, highways and overpasses, convoys of trucks and trains, railroad tracks, airplanes, angels and Zulu warriors.
He was one of South Florida's most storied artists, a man who transformed a troubled life with brush strokes, painting the joys and sorrows of his people on objects discarded in his Overtown neighborhood - a great body of work that brought Purvis Young international recognition.
"My feeling was that the world might get better if I put up my protests [in the form of paintings]," --Purvis Young
Both of these artists have contributed greatly to the folk art community and are going to be so missed.
RIP
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