Lot 317: Vertis Hayes (American/Georgia, b. 1911), "The

Vertis Hayes (American/Georgia, b. 1911), "The Circus Stallion", oil on canvas, signed lower right, 24 in. x 30 1/8 in., in a period frame.

Reference: Stewart, Ruth Ann, "New York/Chicago: WPA and the Black Artist," exhibition catalogue, Studio Museum in Harlem, 1973

Note: Born in Atlanta, the African-American artist, Vertis Hayes, moved to New York City in the early 1930s. He soon became a member of that community of artists living in Harlem which included Charles Alston, Aaron Douglas and Augusta Savage. Hayes earned critical acclaim and exhibited with the prestigious Harmon Foundation, American Negro Exposition in Chicago and Dillard University in New Orleans. In collaboration with Alston, he was assigned to paint murals for the Harlem Hospital for the Works Progress Administration (WPA). In the late thirties, Hayes moved to Memphis, where he was named Director of the Federal Art Center and was chair of the art department at Le Moyne College, a historically black university. In this lively and colorful painting of a circus stallion being brought out to the big tent, ready to perform, Hayes employs lush, expressive brushwork.