Albert Backus (1906 - 1990)
Albert Ernest (Beanie) Backus was active/lived in Florida. Albert Backus is known for Everglade landscape, trees and figure painting.
Oil on canvas
Painting Size: 18" x 20".
Frame Size: 24 1/2" x 26 1/2"
Artist or Maker: Albert Ernest (Beanie) Backus (1906 - 1990)
Biography
The Backus studio in Fort Pierce became a gathering place for aspiring artists and also for friends seeking stimulating conversation, for Haitian refugees, troubled local kids whom he housed, and for bus-loads of tourists. He hated "pleasant" conversation, stating that "I'd rather be a liar than a bore". (Backus Museum). Reportedly he could hold forth on almost any topic ranging from personal finance, through politics, philanthropy and religion. He spoke of the virtues of Christianity but alternated between atheism and agnosticism. He was known for his annual Halloween parties, always integrated by race and age, and ever featuring the recent artwork of his students known as the Backus Brats.
In those years, his lifestyle was a combination of personal creativity, gregariousness and modest day-to-day existence with old appliances, and only one air conditioned room, his studio where he most likely was playing recorded music of Duke Ellington. Backus donated generously to charities and paid for the academic art education of numerous young people he thought deserving.
Of this ever-outreaching man and much-admired artist, Unitarian minister, Charles Lelly, wrote in 1969: "Here is a man who gives of himself, of his time, and of his love. He gives to the rich, to the poor, and to the in-between. He takes in the destitute or homeless and takes care of their needs until they are able to stand alone. He never knows whether another man is white, black, yellow or red. He only knows that man is a person. He has the courage to be firm when necessary, yet is always tender...understands and loves, but rarely passes judgment...puts himself last and everyone else ahead."
PROVENANCE
Private Collection from New Jersey
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Good Condition