?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
WILLIE MASSEY (1906 - 1990) Untitled (Airplane).
Mixed media assemblage, 1986. Appproximately 660 mm; 26 inches high. Signed in paint on the underside of the plane. Signed, dated and inscribed "Bowling Green, KY" in pencil on the underside of the base.
Provenance: the Ness Oleson Trust. The late Frannie Ness and Gary Oleson were the proprietors of Waiting for Godot Books of Hadley, MA, which specialized in rare American and English books, including African American literature.
During the 70 years he worked as a tenant farmer, Willie Massey learned to make things to meet practical needs and to satisfy his creative energy. He began creating sculptures and paintings after his wife's death in 1955. He is well known for his colorful multilevel birdhouses made from old fruitcrates, his tinfoil birds and his airplanes. He died in 1990 as a result of burns suffered in a house fire. His art was included in the exhibitions African-American Folk Art in Kentucky,Passionate Visions of the American South, and others. His work is in many permanent collections, including the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Morris Museum of Art and the Kentucky Folk Art Center. Bio courtesy of the Gordon Gallery..
