Elvis Table

Leroy Person was a carver, a draftsman and a sculptor. He began making art in earnest in his sixties after a work-related illness forced him to retire. Putting all of his energy into his new vocation, Person transformed his surroundings by creating an extensive oeuvre including double-sided drawings, paintings, carved and colored tableaus and the functional furniture pieces for which he is best-known.
Consisting of scrap wood and found objects, works such as Untitled (Elvis table) have been obsessively incised with a pocket knife and colored with crayon and paint. The present lot incorporates a window frame and pictures of Elvis Presley. The carved images include abstract geometric shapes as well as references to the natural world and his own working tools.