BILL TRAYLOR (CIRCA 1853-1949)
BILL TRAYLOR (CIRCA 1853-1949)
BILL TRAYLOR (CIRCA 1853-1949)
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PROPERTY FROM THE WILLIAM LOUIS-DREYFUS FOUNDATION
BILL TRAYLOR (CIRCA 1853-1949)

UNTITLED (PITCHER AND BOWL)

Details
BILL TRAYLOR (CIRCA 1853-1949)
UNTITLED (PITCHER AND BOWL)
tempera and graphite on card
15 x 13 in.
Painted circa 1939-1942.
Provenance
Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York
William Louis-Dreyfus, Mount Kisco, New York, 1992
Gifted from the above to The William Louis-Dreyfus Foundation, Mount Kisco, 2013
Literature
Frank Maresca and Roger Ricco, Bill Traylor: His Art – His Life (New York, 1991), p. 131.
Exhibition catalogue, Bill Traylor: An American Prodigy (New York, 1997), no. 18.
Frank Maresca and Roger Ricco, Bill Traylor: Observing Life (New York, 1997), pl. 18.
Josef Helfenstein, Roman Kurzmeyer, eds., exhibition catalogue, Bill Traylor 1854–1949: Deep Blues (New Haven, 1999), p. 69, no. 23, illustrated.
Josef Helfenstein, Roman Kurzmeyer, eds., exhibition catalogue, Bill Traylor, William Edmondson, and the Modernist Impulse (Champaign, Illinois, 2004), no. 8, illustrated.
Lynne Cooke et al., exhibition catalogue, Outliers and American Vanguard Art (Chicago, 2018), p. 193, pl. 80, illustrated.
Exhibited
New York, Ricco/Maresca Gallery, Bill Traylor: An American Prodigy, 20 November 24-December 1997.
Bern, Switzerland, Kunstmuseum Bern, Deep Blues, 4 November 1998-31 January 1999; also, Cologne, Museum Ludwig, 26 February-16 May 1999; Burlington, Vermont, Robert Hull Fleming Museum at the University of Vermont, 17 June-22 August 1999.
Urbana-Champaign, Krannert Art Museum at University of Illinois, Bill Traylor, William Edmondson, and the Modernist Impulse, 22 October 2004-2 January 2005; also, Birmingham, Alabama, Birmingham Museum of Art, 1 February-3 April 2005; Harlem, New York, Studio Museum in Harlem, 27 April-3 July 2005; Houston, Texas, The Menil Collection, 22 July-2 October 2005.
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, Outliers and American Vanguard Art, 28 January-18 March 2018, no. 80; also, Atlanta, Georgia, High Museum, 22 June-30 September 2018; Los Angeles, Los Angeles Museum of Art, 18 November 2018-17 March 2019.

Brought to you by

Cara Zimmerman
Cara Zimmerman Head of Americana and Outsider Art

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Lot Essay

After a lifetime on a plantation, former slave Bill Traylor moved to Montgomery, Alabama. There, from a doorstep on Monroe Street, he composed starkly modernist images of lively animals, vibrant landscapes, and active people. This impressive study of two everyday objects shows Traylor’s interest in examining the material world around him on micro and macro levels. By treating these vessels with the same care and sophistication as his figures and exciting events – even employing a similar approach to graphite underdrawings – Traylor is elevating everyday material culture to new heights.

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