(ART) KERSEY JOSEPH ARTUR Head of a Young Girl

Sale 2204 - Lot 134

Price Realized: $ 4,320

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 5,000 - $ 7,500

(ART.) KERSEY, JOSEPH ARTUR. Head of a Young Girl. Terra-cotta, 9 inches tall; signed and dated in the base, "Kersey, '48" [Chicago, 1948]

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an exquisite piece from the collection of james amos porter. Joseph Artur Kersey was born in Chicago, his birthdate variably listed as 1908 (Igoe Lynn. 250 years of Afro-American Art), 1909 (Cederholm); 1918 (Locke. The Negro As Artist). He was educated in the Chicago public schools, and attended the Art Institute there. Selected Exhibitions: Chicago Artists, 1938; Federal Arts Project; American Negro Exhibition, Chicago where he received honorable mention in 1940; Atlanta University, Howard University, Library of Congress, Anacostia Museum, Atlanta University, DuSable Museum of African American History Collections: Johnson Publishing Co., Barnett-Aden Collection. James Amos Porter (1905-1970) wrote in Modern Negro Art: "Kersey is especially noteworthy because of his long career as a professionally exhibiting artist and his enviable record as art teacher at the University of Chicago Settlement House, Hull House, and the South Side Settlement, Chicago. As an interpreter of racial subjects, Kersey exercises the forbearance and good taste one would expect of an artist who in temperament and approach to sculpture recalls Luca della Robbia of the Renascence. In his diversification of surface through the use of polychromy and lining and flecking, Kersey is interesting; and, indeed, in this respect he may be included among the more versatile of North American ceramists."