Lot 149: LEROY CLARKE (1938 - ) Brighter Days with Roots.

LEROY CLARKE (1938 - )
Brighter Days with Roots.

Oil and enamel on burlap, mounted on wood, 1971. 915x915 mm; 36x36 inches. Titled and dated in ink, upper margin verso. Signed, titled, extensively inscribed with the artist's Trinidad, West Indies address and the Studio Museum in Harlem address, and dated in ink on the board, verso.

Provenance: purchased directly from the Studio Museum in Harlem; private New York collection.

LeRoy Clarke, one of the best known contemporary West Indies artists, had an early start in New York in the late 1960s. According to the Artist Society of Trinidad and Tobago, in 1967 Clarke left for New York where he painted on crocus bags on the floor of his apartment. His work was well received at a 1968 exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem, and included in the 100 Years of American Art exhibition in Philadelphia. In 1971 the Studio Museum offered him a job as a program co-ordinator/artist-in-residence, and he stayed there until 1974.