Oil on canvas, 1977. 762x1016 mm; 30x40 inches. Signed, titled and dated in oil, verso.
Provenance: obtained directly from the artist; private collection.
The Chinese Massacre is an extraordinary and early experimental painting by James Little in which he combined oil painting with a dispersing agent to create a unique cratered, organic texture. His first canvas to come to auction, this also marks the beginning of his career as a painter.
Born in Memphis, Little earned a B.F.A. from the Memphis Academy of Arts in 1974, and a M.F.A. from Syracuse University in 1976. He has been based in New York ever since, showing his work in numerous solo and group exhibitions. A recent grant award from the Joan Mitchell Foundation and his critically acclaimed 2009 solo exhibition at June Kelly Gallery have cemented his reputation as a leading abstract artist. Little's paintings are in the collections of the New Jersey State Museum, the Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Library of Congress, Washington, DC and the Paul R. Jones Collection, Atlanta.
