.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
SH-62 is the inventory number used by Charles Shannon, who discovered Bill Traylor and was the artist's primary patron.
Born into slavery about 1852, Bill Traylor did not begin drawing until he was in his eighties while living essentially as a homeless man on the streets of Montgomery, Alabama. His drawings and paintings on cardboard were all executed during the brief period between 1939 and 1942. Like many of his contemporaries working during the Great Depression-Reginald Marsh, Ben Shahn and others--Traylor's imagery was taken from his immediate surroundings, and influenced by the artist's fertile imagination, flawless line and innate compositional sense. He created powerfully reductive forms that are infused with his trademark whimsical humor.
Born into slavery about 1852, Bill Traylor did not begin drawing until he was in his eighties while living essentially as a homeless man on the streets of Montgomery, Alabama. His drawings and paintings on cardboard were all executed during the brief period between 1939 and 1942. Like many of his contemporaries working during the Great Depression-Reginald Marsh, Ben Shahn and others--Traylor's imagery was taken from his immediate surroundings, and influenced by the artist's fertile imagination, flawless line and innate compositional sense. He created powerfully reductive forms that are infused with his trademark whimsical humor.