RICHARD WYATT, JR. (1955 - ) Kevin the Magnificent.
Pencil on thick wove paper, 1975. 1206x800 mm; 47 1/2x31 1/2 inches. Signed and dated "'75" in pencil, lower right.
Provenance: acquired directly from the artist; private collection.
Kevin the Magnificent is one of the largest and earliest drawings by this well-known mural artist to come to auction. In 1975, Richard Wyatt was a college student earning his BFA from the University of California, Los Angeles. His early art education began in the mid-1960s at the Watts Towers Art Center and the Studio Watts Workshop. He also attended the Tutor Art Program (established by the late Bill Tara), which met on Saturdays at the Otis Art Institute. At these Saturday sessions led by artist William Pajaud, Wyatt began studying, drawing and painting with artist and teacher Charles White.
The artist remembers this drawing well: "Kevin the Magnificent was created in 1975 during my Junior year at UCLA. The subject is my cousin who had a wonderful imagination as a kid. He would always act out movie scenes, usually action or Kung Fu movies. So I came up with this stark dramatic visual of Kevin walking a tightrope. And then the more I thought about it, the drawing became this metaphor for young Black males walking a fine line during the course of young adulthood. One slight mis-step could have negative ramifications on the rest of their lives."
Wyatt has taught drawing and painting at the University of California, Irvine, the Otis/Parsons Art Institute, Los Angeles and the Watts Towers Art Center, Los Angeles. For more than 25 years, Wyatt has produced art for public and corporate spaces, with more than 30 murals to his credit. He recently completed his largest public commission, with the artist May Sun, at the Robert F. Kennedy Monument at the former Ambassador Hotel on Los Angeles's Wilshire Boulevard.
