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Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
CHARLES ALSTON Two early drawings.
Untitled (Entrance of Gazing Eyes). 380x305 mm; 147/8x12 inches. Edge tears and small losses in the margins * Untitled (Souls Rising ). 405x310 mm; 16x12 inches. Laid down, loss upper right corner, ink stains and tears throughout. Both pencil and crayon on tissue-thin artificial vellum, circa 1930. Both signed in pencil, lower right.
These early drawings, influenced by jazz music and the art deco movement, reflect the style of Aaron Douglas (1898-1979), the first great African-American artist of the Harlem Renaissance.
Alston became an integral figure of the Harlem Renaissance, working at the influential Harlem Arts Workshop under the sculptor Augusta Savage, and later helping found the Harlem Artists Guild. In 1935, as dirctor of the WPA murals project at Harlem Hospital, Alston was the first Black supervisor within the Federal Arts Project.
