KERMIT OLIVER (1943 - )
Hay Rolls.

Acrylic on plywood board, 1983. 1219x1219 mm; 48x48 inches. Signed in acrylic, lower right recto. Signed, titled, dated and inscribed "B Weaver Commission" and "48 x 48" in pencil, upper left verso.

Provenance: commissioned from the artist; Bruce D. Weaver, Houston (1983); thence by descent, private collection, Connecticut (2021). With a DuBose Gallery, Houston label on the frame back - inscribed "Weaver".

A native Texan, Bruce Weaver (1922 - 2021) developed a national business manufacturing and installing stainless steel commercial kitchen equipment, serving many of the leading names in the fast food and hospitality industries. Weaver was also a successful restauranteur, hotel operator, and builder of townhouses and custom homes. In addition, he was a passionate rancher, owning two Texas properties where he raised cattle, elk and exotic game.

This beautiful painting by Kermit Oliver is a significant mid-career painting by this important Texan artist. Through close observation and great draftsmanship, Oliver created his own form of rugged realism inspired by the Texan landscape and the workers and livestock found on its ranches. With its balanced composition and attention to light and detail, Hay Rolls epitomizes his oeuvre.

From a young age, growing up in Refugio, Texas, Kermit Oliver had a passion for depicting his rural surroundings through painting and drawing. Oliver's father was an African-American cowboy who worked on a cattle ranches. He attended Texas Southern University in 1960 where his professor John Biggers inspired him to stay "true to your own message, your own language." After graduating from TSU, Oliver rose to prominence as an artist in Houston in the 1970s.

When the DuBose Gallery began representing Oliver in 1971, he was the first African American artist in Houston to be represented by an art gallery. Oliver and his family moved to Waco in 1984 where, despite the fame from his many Hermès scarf commissions, he retreated from the art world. In 2005, he was honored with a retrospective exhibition of his work at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX. His work is included in several museum collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas Southern University, Houston, the Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, DC.