Purvis Young
mixed media on magazine paper
10.75 x 7.75 inches
Framed 13.5 x 11.5 inches
Signed upper right
#006995

The painting is an expressive, abstract work by Purvis Young with a strong emphasis on dynamic brushwork and a limited color palette dominated by deep cobalt blues, off-whites, and subtle accents of earthy browns and reds. The raw energy of the painting depicts an stylized figure on a horse, rendered in a loose, energetic, calligraphic style. The background is largely white or off-white, heavily textured with visible impasto, scraping, and layered brushstrokes that create a sense of depth and energy with hints of underlying colors like red and brown peeking through. A wonderful example of the urban or social expressionism style, with the thick, tactile paint application and the way the blue form seems to emerge from the white “chaos,” gives it a dramatic, almost sculptural presence on the two-dimensional surface, giving the piece a raw, aged, or weathered quality, almost like an old fresco or a heavily worked surface. The overall style appears to be influenced by Abstract Expressionism, as seen in the work of Willem de Kooning or Franz Kline, with its gestural energy combined with elements of figurative abstraction. The painting is signed by the artist in the upper center, and a gallery business card is affixed on the verso. It comes housed in a silver shadowbox frame and mounted on an off-white mat under glass, and hanging wire on verso ready to be displayed.