Doc Spellmon

"Going to America" African Slave Ship by Black folk artist F.L. Doc Spellmon

Circa 1960s

Biography Velox Ward (Born 1901) Texas Artist Velox Ward "Clean Up Time" East Texas (Born 1901) Texas Artist Size: 8 x 10 Frame: 10 x 12 Medium: Oil "...

Johnny Banks (1912-1988) San Antonio Artist Image Size: 14 x 22 Frame Size: 21 x 29 Medium: mixed media "The Living Dead" Biography Johnny Banks (1912-1988) In my opinion one of the greatest Texas folk artists of all time. The following information was compiled and submitted by Stephanie Reeves: John Willard Banks, San Antonio, Texas, African American Folk Artist John Willard Banks, black self-taught artist, the son of Charlie and Cora Lee (McIntyre) Banks, was born on November 7, 1912, near Seguin, Texas. At the age of five his parents took him to San Antonio, where he attended Holy Redeemer School until the age of nine, when his parents were divorced and John returned to his grandparents' farm near Seguin. From childhood Banks's favorite pastime was drawing pictures on his Big Chief tablet. He later recalled, "As a kid I used to lie flat on my stomach, drawing and drawing. . . . My mother had to kick me off the floor to sweep." While helping out on his grandparents' farm, Banks completed the tenth grade before striking out on his own. His favorite activities during his youth were singing in a gospel quartet and playing baseball. In his adult years he worked in oilfields and cotton fields, drove a truck, and tended a San Antonio service station. During World War II he joined the army; he held the rank of sergeant and was stationed in the Philippines. After the war he returned to San Antonio, where he worked as a custodian at Kelly Air Force Base, at Fort Sam Houston, and at a local television station. Banks married Edna Mae Mitchell in 1928, and they had five children. The marriage ended in divorce around 1960. In 1963 he married Earlie Smith. His art career began in 1978 while he was recuperating from an illness for which he had been hospitalized. Banks's wife admired her husband's drawings and secretly took several of them to a San Antonio laundromat. There she hung the drawings on the wall, offering them for sale at the price of fourteen dollars. They were purchased and taken to a gallery for framing. Quite by chance, a San Antonio physician and collector of works of art by black artists...

Mixed media assemblage sculpture/painting. Hand signed and dated recto and verso. Provenance: Galerie Alphonse Chave, bears their label verso Michel, Fernand (1913-1999) Born in 1913 in Neuviller-lès-Badonviller in the Vosges, Fernand Michel began working at the age of twelve in a Landes pottery factory. When his mother died, he went to live in Alsace with an aunt and became an art bookbinder. A lover of poetry, he bonded with Jean Vodaine, Jean Dubuffet and Alphonse Chave (Alphonse Chave was an art lover, dealer and collector. On November 15, 1947 in Vence, under the name Les Mages, he opened a contemporary art gallery which would also become a high place of art brut and unique art . The gallery took its final name - Galerie Alphonse Chave - in 1960. He exhibited Dado, Philippe Dereux, Jean Dubuffet, Max Ernst, Henri michaux, Louis Pons, Man Ray, Dorothea Tanning, Zao Wou-ki as well as other creators.) Around 1962, he began carving zinc after finding a plaque in a landfill. From this period, he made numerous assemblies, most often of large dimensions, which he called "zinc works" where buxom bathers, Venus callipyges, nuns and holy nitouches rub shoulders. The corroded and battered material over the years, used as is, gives his works a certain harshness, however softened by more ornamental pieces. Fernand Michel lived in Montpellier. He died in 1999. His work is present in the collection of La Fabuloserie in Dicy. Publications Revue "Création Franche" N ° 16, November 1998 Catalog "Donation Claude Massé", March 1999 Catalog "Collection Création Franche - 1989-2010", September 2010 Revue "Création Franche" N ° 38, June 2013 Franche Creation, Special Issue N ° 2, April 2015 His son Patrick Michel's collection is housed in Montpellier in the Musee d’arts brut, singulier and autres. "I used to accompany my father to his exhibitions since he was exhibited every year at the Galerie Chave in Vence. I still remember that Alphonse Chave once offered me a little toy (a car!) from his shop. I therefore met the artists Philippe Dereux, Armand Avril, François Ozenda, Pascal Verbena, Louis Pons, Jean Vodaine, Henri Comby, Fred Deux and Eugène Gabritschevsky- I took the decision to create the museum in order to save (and protect) my father’s work- my father was often classified under the ‘Art Brut’ label but in fact he belonged to the ‘Singular Art’ label... The term Art Brut exists since Jean Dubuffet gave it to us in 1945, covering self-taught and marginalised artists..The terms Outsider Art and Art Brut are fine with me- I place Nek Chand before Le Facteur Cheval. I also like the Art Brut artists Augustin Lesage...

This vibrant mixed media painting by Serg Graff bursts with whimsical energy and textured detail, portraying a fantastical maritime scene. A pirate ship adorned with both American an...