Alabama Surreal Folk Art Oil Painting African American Woman, Flower Headdress, 1960

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The painting is signed Sykes and dated 1960 lower right. It has "Maltby Sykes, 1911- for Leon" written on the … Read more The painting is signed Sykes and dated 1960 lower right. It has "Maltby Sykes, 1911- for Leon" written on the stretcher verso It is a Surrealist Folk Art figure of an African woman oil painting on canvas Attributed to Maltby Sykes (1911-1992) Provenance: This painting was originally purchased from the estate of Philip Bibel (San Francisco, California), received from his brother Leon Bibel. Maltby Sykes was a versatile artist. If you review Sykes's early work, you will find a lot of prints, portraits, surreal and abstract expressionist compositions. By the 1970's, Sykes style had totally changed. He was producing more non-objective, abstract work, sometimes bordering on minimalism. The surreal use of lighting, combined with representational outlines of floral abstract designs, makes this painting very interesting. I have not been able to find too many other examples of Sykes's oil painting from 1960-1965. Leon Bibel was another modernist artist, who gave this painting to his brother Phillip. William Paul Maltby Sykes was born in Aberdeen, Mississippi in 1911, but was raised in Birmingham, Alabama. A painter, print maker, and graphic artist, he was a long-time professor of art at the Polytechnic Institute in Auburn, Alabama, He studied at the Art Students League in New York City with John Sloan, Wayman Adams and in mexico with Diego Rivera with whom he later worked on a mural. In France on the GI bill he studied with Fernand Leger and Stanley William Hayter, and then on a subsequent trip with Andre L'hote. A Southern artist, He was a member of the Alabama Art League, Alabama Watercolor Society, and the Southeastern Art Association. Exhibition venues include many entries in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana as well as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Pennsylvania Academy in Philadelphia. Member: Salmagundi Club. Exhibited: National Academy of Design; American Watercolor Society; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Modern Museum of Art. Author: The Multi Metal Lithography Process See less