Phyllis Kind Gallery - Exhibitions

Phyllis Kind Gallery is honored to present Robert Colescott. On exhibit are large-scale paintings on canvas, (Ascension, 2003, 84" X 72", Sleeping Beauty, 2002, 84" X 144", Tastes Lik Chickens, 2001, 72" X 84" Send Up, 72" X 84" 2002, Ole McWillie’s Farm, 2002, 72"X 84"), and smaller paintings on paper (41 ¼" X 59") from a 1993 series, Sepic River Stay Away From My Door, which somehow specifically anticipates this new body of work. In these works, possibly the artist's most urgent and direct, he reduces figure construction to its essential elements; distilled to its essence, the imagery hovers between representation and abstraction.

After studying in Paris with Fernand Leger and living in Cairo, Colescott returned to America to play a significant role in the resurgence of figuration on the West Coast during the 1960s. In the mid-1970s he began using images from popular culture and making racial parodies of masterpieces from art history. Now 78, Colescott continues to produce vitally significant work. No one has been more important as a role model for a younger generation of African-American artists. Without question he has created an extremely powerful body of work, which employs a highly personal brand of narrative figuration so laced with irony and humor that it successfully exposes the on-going racial inequity of our culture.

Robert Colescott was the first African-American artist to represent the United States (1997) in a single-artist exhibition at the Venice Biennale and the first American painter whose work was shown in a one-person exhibition at the United States pavilion since Jasper Johns in 1988.

Concurrently on exhibition at the McKinney Avenue Contemporary (The MAC) in Dallas, Texas from March 1 until April 13, 2003: Robert Colescott's Knowledge of the Past is Key to the Future. A catalog is available.

The artist is represented in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, as well as numerous other public and private collections.