Graphite on cream wove paper, 2002. 202x153 mm; 8x6 inches. Signed, dated and numbered #2 in pencil, verso.
Provenance: the artist, New York; the Hatch-Billops Collection, New York.
Lovell draws portraits from a personal archive of approximately 600 studio photographs of anonymous African Americans, most dating from the first half of the 20th century. Lovell often draws them directly on to wood plank assemblages, which might be combined with everyday found objects like chairs, globes, textiles, musical instruments, gramophones and radios. Lovell first used such drawings in a series of installations, often with incorporated sound effects which gained national acclaim. His work is found in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC, the Seattle Art Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Yale University Art Gallery.
