Oil on cotton canvas, 1992. 1016x762 mm; 40x30 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right. Titled in ink on the upper stretcher bar, verso.
Provenance: private collection.
This striking, dynamic figure is an excellent example of the painting of Pheoris West, and only the third work of this significant contemporary artist and educator to come to auction. Its vibrant colors and multi-faceted figure typify West's later career painting. It shows his interests in incorporating movement and Afro-centric symbolism in his figurative art.
Born in Albany, New York, West studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, from 1970-74, and then earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale University in 1976. That year West joined the faculty at the College of Arts at Ohio State University. He taught as a professor of art there until until he suffered a debilitating stroke in 2016. Over a forty year career, West had solo exhibitions with Peg Alston Arts, New York, the Studio Museum in Harlem and several Ohio university galleries. His paintings today are in many institutional and corporate collections including the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, Howard University, the Ohio State University and the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati. St. James pp. 560-562.
