Acclaimed Author Alice Walker Is Selling a Painting by Bill Traylor Once Given to Her as a Gift From Steven Spielberg

The buzz surrounding Bill
Traylor continues to grow. The self-taught artist, who was born
into slavery in 1853, began making work in 1939, at the age of 86,
when he was living as a homeless man in Montgomery, Alabama—an
experience that made him an ardent observer of those around him. He
passed the time by spending his days on the city’s Monroe Street,
incorporating the people he saw into his work. 

Perhaps building on the momentum
of a comprehensive exhibition of Taylor’s work currently on view at
David Zwirner in New York, Christie’s has announced the sale of
his Man on White,
Woman on Red /
Man with Black Dog
(double-sided), slated
to fetch an estimated $200,000 to $400,000 when it hits the auction
block on January 17 of next year.

The painting, which is being
touted by the auction house as a highlight of its forthcoming
Outsider Art sale, also has an intriguing backstory. It comes from
the personal collection of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice
Walker, who was gifted the work by Steven Spielberg after filming
wrapped on the movie adaption of her novel, The Color Purple. Walker, speaking to the Wall Street
Journal, described the artwork as “a gift from someone I
consider a genius with soul,” but ultimately explained that “my spirit tells
me it is time for it to find a new home.” (She went on to explain
that wildfires in California have made her nervous, and happy to
have the Traylor find “a safer wall than mine on which to
hang.”)

“The provenance of the work
creates an interesting conversation between Alice Walker’s
The Color Purple
and Traylor’s art,” Cara Zimmerman,
head of the sale at Christie’s, said in a statement. “Both consider
a similar moment in American history—hers looking back, and his
from a contemporaneous perspective.” 

Man on White, Woman on
Red /
Man with Black Dog
(double-sided), dated
between 1939-1942, is notable for its double-sided composition, as
well as Traylor’s use of the color red, a rarity for the artist.
Additionally, the rendering of the dog suggests that the work fits
into a larger series in which he was experimenting with various
ways of portraying the animal. 

At present, the world auction
record for the artist is held by Woman Pointing at Man with Cane
(c. 1939-1942). The January 2019
sale of that particular work set off Traylor’s current market
revival when it went for a whopping $396,500 at Christie’s in New
York, far exceeding its modest $40,000 to $60,000
estimate. 

The post Acclaimed Author Alice Walker Is Selling a Painting
by Bill Traylor Once Given to Her as a Gift From Steven
Spielberg appeared first on artnet News.