#simon sparrow

Self-taught artists often operate with a remarkable degree of individuality, but Simon Sparrow stands out among them for the enigmatic nature of his work. Sparrow seems to have painted for much of his life, but he only began to produce the works for which he is best known in the early 1970s. Like "Assemblage with Faces," these compositions are often enormous, consisting of all manner of small found objects—shells, beads, plastic toys and figurines, buttons, costume jewelry, glitter, paint, rocks, bits of mirror or glass, and so on—attached to large pieces of wood. Faces and figures, birds and animals are visible in these creations, but the artist is said to have believed that the images came to him from God and that they represented not individuals, but the spiritual essences of people unknown to him.

Exposition Art Blog Simon Sparrow - American Folk Artist

Simon Sparrow (1925-2000) was an American folk artist, a painter and mixed media artist who was born in West Africa and grew up in North Carolina on a Cherokee Reservation. He was a self-taught artist and received a Wisconsin Visual Art Lifetime Achievement Award (WVALAA) in 2012.Sparrow's work is considered folk art and his piece Assemblage with Found Objects is held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum on the 3rd Floor, Luce Foundation Center.

Simon Sparrow began painting in the 1960s, but it wasn't until the mid-1980s that he began to create the grand scale and complex assemblages for which he is best known. For Sparrow, the faces and figures in his compositions depict spirits, essences of people who lived long ago and images that came to him from God. 

Exposition Art Blog Simon Sparrow - American Folk Artist

Simon Sparrow (1925-2000) was an American folk artist, a painter and mixed media artist who was born in West Africa and grew up in North Carolina on a Cherokee Reservation. He was a self-taught artist and received a Wisconsin Visual Art Lifetime Achievement Award (WVALAA) in 2012.Sparrow's work is considered folk art and his piece Assemblage with Found Objects is held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum on the 3rd Floor, Luce Foundation Center.

Exposition Art Blog Simon Sparrow - American Folk Artist

Simon Sparrow (1925-2000) was an American folk artist, a painter and mixed media artist who was born in West Africa and grew up in North Carolina on a Cherokee Reservation. He was a self-taught artist and received a Wisconsin Visual Art Lifetime Achievement Award (WVALAA) in 2012.Sparrow's work is considered folk art and his piece Assemblage with Found Objects is held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum on the 3rd Floor, Luce Foundation Center.

Exposition Art Blog Simon Sparrow - American Folk Artist

Simon Sparrow (1925-2000) was an American folk artist, a painter and mixed media artist who was born in West Africa and grew up in North Carolina on a Cherokee Reservation. He was a self-taught artist and received a Wisconsin Visual Art Lifetime Achievement Award (WVALAA) in 2012.Sparrow's work is considered folk art and his piece Assemblage with Found Objects is held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum on the 3rd Floor, Luce Foundation Center.

Exposition Art Blog  Simon Sparrow - American Folk Artist

Simon Sparrow (1925-2000) was an American folk artist, a painter and mixed media artist who was born in West Africa and grew up in North Carolina on a Cherokee Reservation. He was a self-taught artist and received a Wisconsin Visual Art Lifetime Achievement Award (WVALAA) in 2012.Sparrow's work is considered folk art and his piece Assemblage with Found Objects is held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum on the 3rd Floor, Luce Foundation Center.