Artist: Sid Maurer
Title: Rev. Al Sharpton (from the Portraits of Luminaries Collection)
Year created: 2010
Medium: Original Mixed Media Artwork on Wood Board
Edition: Original Unique Artwork, Hand-Signed by the Artist
Height (inches): 18
Width (inches): 23-3/4
Signed twice by the artist
Signed Area: front & back
Also Titled and Dated on back
This piece is unframed.
Description of piece:
Sid Maurer’s mastery as a fine artist is evident in his strikingly accurate, personal and intuitive portraits of luminaries.
Imbued with warmth and vibrancy, Maurer’s portraits capture the essence of his subjects, and synthesize Maurer’s artistic vision with his technical and compositional roots in graphic design. Bold, visible paint texturing and layering bring added light, depth and dimensionality to the artwork.
An original mixed media painting on wood board, Maurer’s self-titled Rev. Al Sharpton is one of the only portraits in Maurer's Portraits of Luminaries Collection which is a horizontally-positioned artwork, measuring 18” in height x 23-3/4” width. Adding to the depth and light of the artwork is the addition of sparkling highlights, as shown in the auction images.
The artwork is signed twice by the artist: first, on the front of the artwork, lower right, boldly in silver; and on the reverse, where Maurer has also titled and dated the work.
Rev. Al Sharpton is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity, which comes in a clear, protective archival sleeve.
REVERAND AL SHARPTON (née Alfred Charles Sharpton) is a civil rights activist, Baptist minister, talk show host and politician. Sharpton is the founder of the National Action Network. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. presidential election. He hosts his own radio talk show, Keepin' It Real, and he makes regular guest appearances on cable news television. In 2011, he was named the host of MSNBC's PoliticsNation.
Not only a strong advocate for human rights and civil rights, Sharpton supports the humane treatment of animals; equal rights for gay and lesbian people, including same-sex marriage; and advocates for criminal justice reform.
Sharpton has well-earned his reputation for outspokenness, and is no stranger to controversy; his tireless advocacy has brought him accolades, as well as personal sacrifice. President Barack Obama has said that Sharpton is "the voice of the voiceless and a champion for the downtrodden."
Artist bio:
Sid Maurer's (1926-2017) long career spanned decades in the world of Art and Music, beginning at age seventeen when he was hired as Assistant Art Director at Columbia Records in New York City. When the music industry exploded, Maurer designed album covers and promotional material for popular artists, alongside Columbia Records colleague Andy Warhol. Maurer expanded his commercial art studio to tackle a wide range of projects for the music and film industries, while his striking artistic style developed, influenced by artists he met including Pollack and Rauschenberg.
Maurer left the empire of music and art that he had helped to build to focus on his passion: painting. In the last decade, his work has been shown in a wide variety of venues, including the Georgia Capitol, the Carnegie Museum and U.C.L.A. His commissioned artwork includes work for ESPN, MotorSport America Magazine, David Bowie, Boy George, and Donovan.
As a painter, Maurer created large mixed media pieces that were very much a product of his varied training and experience. His style combined bold, dynamic colors and strokes with painstaking layouts and typographical elements. The result is the unique blend of a painter's passion tempered with the calculating compositional eye of a graphic designer, exploring his themes through the use of bold subject matter, symbols and graphics.