Famous Works from South End Artist Found in Storage, Now Up for Auction
It sounds like the plot of a movie: Important works by a prominent South End artist were found recently in an abandoned locker in western Massachusetts. Now, the artwork, a unique collection of works from visual artist Allan Rohan Crite, who was a long-time resident, artist and important figure in the South End for much of the 20th Century, is being put up for auction this weekend. The collection features a selection of autobiographical sketches in pencil documenting the African American experience. The works include prints, drawings, and the artist’s personal documents and studio materials, including a mannequin and his mimeograph machines. The works were the content of Crite’s studio that were put into storage in the 1990s when he became ill. Crite lived and worked in Boston for most of his life, starting out as a student at the Children’s Art Centre at the United South End Settlements before graduating from English High School in 1929 and earning degrees from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Harvard, and Suffolk. In his later years, he returned to the South End to live at work at the Allan Rohan Crite Research Institute on Columbus Avenue. In 1986, the intersection of Columbus Avenue and West Canton Street was named Allan Rohan Crite Square. A 2002 Boston Globe review called Mr. Crite “the granddaddy of the Boston art scene,” naming him as “a master of his craft and a treasure of his community.” An African-American man, Crite’s works centered around telling about what he called the “African-American Experience.” “As a visual artist,” Mr. Crite said in a 1998 interview with the Harvard Extension School Alumni Bulletin, “I am . . . a storyteller of the drama of man. This is my small contribution – to tell the African-American experience – in a local sense, of the neighborhood, and, in a larger sense, of its part in the total human experience.” He died at the age of 97 in 2007. You can read more about Crite’s life in an obituary published by the Boston Globe. Crite’s works will be put up for auction at Grogan and Company, Fine Art Auctioneers and Appraisers in Dedham. The auction will be begin at 10 a.m. Sunday, June 16th, with a three-day exhibition opening on Thursday, June 13th. More information on the auction can be found here. SOUTH END PATCH: Facebook | Twitter | E-mail Updates South End Patch
South End Weekends: Children’s Show at BCA, Artist Talk
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South End Artist Trades Art For Smiles
A mysterious painting left at a New Jersey doctor’s office had the exact effect on its un-expecting recipient that the artist who painted it wanted – it made the doctor who found it smile. When chiropractor Dr. Mike Evangel walked into the waiting room of his Ramsay, NJ office last Friday morning, he found something that had not been there the night before – a painting of a cute white dog looking up at him. “I didn’t know what it was,” he said. Then, he saw the note that was attached to it, which read ‘this painting is yours if you promise to smile at random people more often.’ “Actually, I thought it was kind of cryptic and weird at first,” Evangel said. “But, I looked up the painting’s artist, and I realized it must have been left there on purpose.” Leaving his uplifting paintings in random spots across the globe is what South End-based artist Bren Bataclan does best. “I always wanted to do street art, but I’m definitely not the kind of person who could draw graffiti on a building or anything like that” said Bataclan, who works out of his South End studio at 59 Wareham St. “Ten years ago, I thought painting my characters [on canvases] and leaving them at some random places throughout Boston would be my version of street art.” Bataclan called his idea ‘Project Smile,’ asking the surprised recipients to pay forward the happiness they felt when finding the pieces of art. When Boston Magazine found one of the paintings and wrote a story about Project Smile, Bataclan said it inspired him to grow the simple idea into a bigger endeavor than he’d ever imagined. After Katie Couric featured his story on the CBS Evening News in 2009, the effort became global. Now, the artist and his band of friends and fans have left more than 800 paintings in 30 states and over 50 countries. For his 10th anniversary this year, Bataclan said his goal is to get to all 50 states. Dr. Evangel’s office was his first drop in New Jersey. “My sister-in-law actually lives in the area, so it’s weird that I haven’t left a painting there before,” he said. When he saw his sister-in-law this past Christmas, he gave her a pile of his paintings and asked her to drop them off at random places in the area. Though he’s not positive, Bataclan said he’s pretty sure she’s the one who chose the doc as a lucky artwork recipient. “Finding it was definitely a good experience,” Dr. Evangel told Patch. “You see so many bad things happening in the […]