Untitled

Copied Leroy Person, Untitled, ca. 1975, polychrome carved wood and metal, 38 7⁄8 × 17 × 16 1⁄4 in. (98.7 × 43.2 × 41.3 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Margaret Z. Robson Collection, Gift of John E. and Douglas O. Robson, 2016.38.44

Artwork Details

Title
Untitled
Artist
Date
ca. 1975
Location
Dimensions
38 7⁄8 × 17 × 16 1⁄4 in. (98.7 × 43.2 × 41.3 cm)
Credit Line
The Margaret Z. Robson Collection, Gift of John E. and Douglas O. Robson
Mediums Description
polychrome carved wood and metal
Classifications
Keywords
  • Abstract
Object Number
2016.38.44
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2016.38.44

Artwork Description

Leroy Person lived near Albemarle Sound in North Carolina. He built his own home, and to decorate its windowsills and doorways, developed a distinctive style of saw-blade cuts into wood. He rubbed the wood with crayon, giving it a waxy sheen and color. He subsequently made an array of grooved and crosscut sculptural objects and home furnishings, including a fence from carved tree limbs. Person became known for unique chairs, small tables such as the one seen here, and carvings of woodland creatures such as snakes and birds. Some of his works are incised with a partially legible, code-like script, which Person devised to record his own views, beyond the boundaries of his limited formal education.
(We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection, 2022)

Exhibitions

Media - 2016.38.43R-V - SAAM-2016.38.43R-V_2 - 126225
We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection
July 1, 2022–March 26, 2023
Smithsonian American Art Museum
We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection traces the rise of self-taught artists in the twentieth century and examines how, despite wide-ranging societal, racial, and gender-based obstacles, their creativity and bold self-definition became major forces in American art. The exhibition features recent gifts to the museum from two generations of collectors, Margaret Z. Robson and Douglas O. Robson.