Home › Forums › Identification: What is this thing? › Please help me with artwork, I'm clueless
- This topic has 7 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 7 months ago by Habnab.
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09/08/2017 at 6:36 am #22653
Hello everyone,
After hearing Jay and Ryanne discuss it on the podcast, I went out and picked up several pieces of art. Now that it has come time to list them, I realize that I am completely clueless regarding art styles, mediums, and well, everything.
The piece in question is here: https://imgur.com/J2QEMSc
To me, it has an African vibe, but I worry about being unintentionally culturally insensitive. If someone could just give me a few keywords to start researching, I would very much appreciate that. I’ve tried looking up the artist and can’t find anything except one completed auction on “Vintage Barn Auctions” and I think they may have spelled the artists name wrong.
Additionally, if anyone has tips for identifying whether it is original or a print, that would be amazingly helpful. I tried looking at it with a loupe and couldn’t see anything indicative of printing like Jay and Ryanne suggest in the podcast.
Thank you so much for your help!
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09/08/2017 at 10:52 am #22659
To me, it similar to cubism modern art. Is the artist’s first name Bobby? I can’t make out the last name, but it looks short. The term Black Art is used throughout eBay and the internet, but I would not use African since you don’t know where the painting was made.
I can’t tell if people are hatching out of the eggs or if the people are hanging around a bunch of large eggs. And then there are pineapples! Maybe a few eggplants? Really cool & weird.
Can you tell if it is paper? From the one picture, it looks like something painted or printed on wood.
So, descriptor words, for what they are worth: Black art cubism modern hatching eggs pineapples. Maybe put the size in the title like ##”x##”.
You can put descriptor words together and price it high with make offer. I never seem to price as high as Ryanne & Jay, but maybe a few hundred dollars?
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09/08/2017 at 5:27 pm #22661
I would offer that you not list this item too quickly, but instead take the time to research it.
A few thoughts that come to mind:
Traditionally, in the African culture, women are considered to be the giver’s of life which may be what the eggs and usage of the color white represent. In addition, African women have and continue to provide the food for life through the harvest and what is naturally grown on the land – see the basket of grains in the middle, the pineapples and the tree trunks. This artist seems to be paying homage to the traditional African woman. This link may be of benefit. https://africa.si.edu/
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09/11/2017 at 10:06 am #22712
If you look at the figures, you can see they’re sitting on the ground, you can see their legs in front of them. The artist has given them strange, long bodies and triangular hunched shoulders with their necks out. They are surrounded by fruit, squash (look for the long stalks), 2 different types of melons (look at the ends, the “stars” are shaped differently, and pineapples. At the back, the brown ones look like coconut.
At first glance, I thought this came from Ghana. Because of the basket of rice, it has to be somewhere in West Africa, and with the bamboo stalks, it’s a coastal area. That contributes to my suggestion of Ghana, although it could be Senegal, Sierra Leone, or Nigeria. As you have no way of knowing, I’d use “West Africa” as your keywords.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by Amatino.
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09/11/2017 at 2:30 pm #22731
I believe this is a painting done in the style of Haitian artist Laurent Casimir. His style is often copied/referenced/forged by other artists. The sort of flat/geometric/cubist/escher feeling originated, I think, with Casimir’s work (though his palette is brighter.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurent_Casimir
- This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by Habnab.
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09/11/2017 at 2:39 pm #22733
Here are some links to similar pieces:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/186336503304060555/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/496170083928345133/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/236227942933036075/ -
09/12/2017 at 3:34 pm #22761
Wow, Habnab for the WIN! That’s awesome! I love this community. 🙂
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09/14/2017 at 2:33 pm #22833
What’s funny is that I only knew about Laurent Casimir because of some long-ago research I did on a luminous etching by Luigi Kasimir I sold several years ago. I’ve since come across a number of Laurent Casimir sort of knock-offs or “school of” pieces. He’s so often imitated that even if a piece is signed “Casimir” you need to due a ton of work to authenticate it.
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