CHARLES MCGEE (1924 - ) Fishermen on the Detroit River.
Oil on masonite board, mounted to thick cardstock, 1951. 305x406 mm; 12x16 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right.
Provenance: acquired directly from the artist; private collection, Detroit; thence by descent to the current owner.
This figurative painting is the earliest known work by this important Detroit artist to come to auction. Beginning in 1947, Charles McGee was attending art classes part time at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Detroit (now the College for Creative Studies). In 1951, he studied oil painting with the director Sarkis Sarkisian and was a classmate of Hughie Lee-Smith. McGee painted carefully composed groups of figures in other early paintings--in Spring, 1951, a tightly cropped group of boys play marbles. From this early, academic beginning, McGee's work evolved into the large, vibrant and multimedia constructions that he is known for today. His works are now in many museum collections, including the Detroit Institute of Arts, Howard University and Clark Atlanta University. In 2009, Julia R. Myers curated the first major retrospective of his work with the exhibition and catalogue Energy, Charles McGee at Eighty-Five at Eastern Michigan University. Myers pp. 6-7.
