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USA
South
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New Orleans, LA
Roy Ferdinand, Jr.
1959-2004
Paintings
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Information:
Roy Ferdinand lived and painted in New Orleans. Born in 1959, he spent his adult life finely detailing the people, drugs and violence in the ghettos and dark corners of the city. He created his images of life and death on the street with ink, colored pencils and tempera on poster board. No stranger to poverty, drugs and violence himself, he painted those evils at work like no other artist.
He recorded local peoples' sadness, anger, addiction, violence and death. But he also captured beauty and sensuality in portraits of former loves and present day friends. His work is very detailed and usually rendered on 28 x 22 poster board. He created smaller pieces and occasionally powerful 40 x 32 inch paintings. He sometimes accepted commissions and placed a patron's images in a scene, if desired.
Chuck and Jan Rosenak said of Roy Ferdinand in their "Contemporary American Folk Art Collector’s Guide" (1996): "Some of Ferdinand’s work is sexually explicit and some is full of brutality - if you have a problem with this type of art, look for something else that is easier to live with."
Roy Ferdinand died of cancer on December 3, 2004 at age 45.
Biographical information and all images are generously provided by FocalArt Gallery
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Bibliography:
"Contemporary American Folk Art - A Collector's Guide" Chuck and Jan Rosenak, Abbeville Press, 1996. (p. 154)
"20th Century American Folk, Self Taught, and Outsider Art" by Betty-Carol Sellen, Cynthia J. Johnson, Neal-Schuman Publishers, New York, 1993.
"Self Taught, Outsider, and Folk Art—A guide to American Artists, Locations and Resources" by Betty-Carol Sellen with Cynthia J. Johnson, 2000.
"American Self-Taught Art: An Illustrated Analysis of 20th Century Artists and Trends with 1,319 Capsule Biographies" by Florence Laffal and Julius Laffal, 2003.
"Wos Up Man?" Selections from the Joseph D. and Janet M. Sheen Collection of Self-taught Art" Palmer Museum of Art, 2005.
Slotin Folk Art Auction Catalog, Masterpiece Sale, November 4, 2006 |
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