Henry Speller
1903-1997
Glorie Jean and Her Friends
1987
18 1/16 x 24 in. (45.9 x 60.9 cm)
Porous-point pen, wax crayon, and graphite on wove paper.
2018.103
Gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation from the William S. Arnett Collection and purchase on the Manley Family Fund.
Notes
Speller worked as a sharecropper in the Mississippi Delta region before relocating to Memphis in 1939. He worked as a landscaper and garbage collector, and found solace in art and music. In drawings such as this one, which depicts three semi-nude women on a vibrant purple ground, the sexuality of Speller's subjects serves as a metaphor for a freedom that he felt was out of his own reach.
Artist
Classification
Century Drawings
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