Purvis Young (American/Florida, 1943-2010), "Figures with Pink and Yellow", 1994, oil on panel, signed upper right, signed and dated en verso, 96 in. x 17 in., unframed. Provenance: The Doug and Cathy Gitter Collection. Note: “Some folks don’t take me serious. They come to my place and want to talk about the bikes I got… If you don’t talk about my paintings, I don’t want to talk. God put me here to be an artist.” ~Purvis YoungMiami-born Purvis Young followed an untraditional path to discovering his creative talent. After a tumultuous childhood, Young landed in prison serving a sentence for armed robbery. It was there, when a guard handed him a sheet of paper and a pencil, that he discovered he enjoyed drawing. Inspired by a book illustrating the Chicago mural, “Wall of Respect,” which featured portraits of African American leaders, Young started piecing together his own mural in “Goodbread Alley” in Miami’s Overtown district in the 1960s – the first of the numerous murals Young would paint, many of which have since been disassembled or destroyed.Young’s work centered around the struggles and hardships of his community - hardships which he himself experienced as a young boy. Young recognized that art could be an effective way of documenting and processing the injustices he witnessed in his daily life. His work was often a blend of paintings and drawing with collaged elements and discarded found objects. Over time, he developed his own vast visual vocabulary of images inspired by documentaries, books, American history and spiritual folklore.Ref.: Turner, Elisa. “Purvis Young: ‘God Put Me Here to be An Artist.’” The Jitney. Feb. 7, 2022. www.jitneybooks.com. Accessed Feb. 15, 2024; “Purvis Young.” Main Street Gallery. www.mainstreetgallery.com. Accessed Feb. 15, 2024.

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