Whitfield an American Classic. A very rare African American Folk Art-Outsider Art Masterpiece by the elusive painter in her signature iconic style medium, acrylic/watercolor on canvas board. Appropriately titled,’Day is Done’, the painting is accompanied with a fascinating narrative describing the painting subject and hand written and signed by the artist herself. Although’Day is Done’ has been highly sought after for decades by museums and collectors, the painting is being offered here for sale for the very first time. Mary Whitfield has signed’Day Is Done’ twice, on the front of the painting with her distinctive, MW, and with her full signature found on the reverse of the canvas. Dimensions 16″ x 20″. Mary Whitfield was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1947 when her mother was nineteen. Her father walked out on their wedding day so Mary spent the first years of her life in the home of her maternal grandparents. It was a loving environment with two aunts who each had eight children. The home was filled with family stories and traditions. Marys grandmother was an active soldier in the Civil Rights struggle. As a child, Mary developed a vivid imagination and loved to spend hours entertaining her younger sister and cousins, by telling stories that she illustrated with drawings. When Mary was seven, her mother remarried a man from New York and moved there with her sister. She and her sister would spend every summer in Alabama. In Great Neck, Mary and her sister were pioneers in integration, being the only black members of the student body. During the early years of her marriage, Mary began having the compulsion to create things after her children were put to bed. She would often find old plywood and housepaint in her garage and would paint paintings. This compulsion became a continuation of her love for storytelling that filled her lonely nights. Bringing to visual life a variety of stories became her escape from the sadness in her marriage. Over time, she found that creating art was a way of coping with her depression. Whitfield focuses her rich paintings on the historical and modern plight of African-Americans. The powerful works contain little detail; the figures have no facial features. Instead, the drama of their gestures or body language conveys the feeling of the painting. The American Museum of Folk Art wrote that through her spiritually powerful images and writings Mary Frances Whitfield re-interprets and documents stories told to her as a child. Her deceptively simple yet touching portrayals of the disquieting and heroic history of African Americans convey injustice, suffering, love and optimism. Day Is Done’ is a masterpiece, a virtual tour de force. The paintings of Mary F. Whitfield are found in the renown museums and in private collections. The item “RARE Iconic Mary Whitfield African American Negro Folk Art Painting South Cotton” is in sale since Thursday, November 8, 2018. This item is in the category “Art\Paintings”. The seller is “caritas1″ and is located in Eureka, Montana. This item can be shipped worldwide.
- Medium: Acrylic/Watercolor
- Width (Inches): 16
- Subject: Day Is Done
- Date of Creation: 1970-1989
- Style: Folk Art
- Height (Inches): 20
- Originality: Original
- Listed By: collector
- Painting Surface: Canvas Board
- Artist: Mary Frances Whitfield
- Features: Personalized
