11
●
HENRY W. BANNARN (1910 - 1965)
Cleota.
Painted plaster, 1932. 432x191x234 mm; 17x7
1
/
4
x9
1
/
4
inches. Signed, dated “6/9/32” and inscribed
“To Cleota” in the plaster, at the rear of the neck truncation.Titled in the plaster, at the front edge
of the base.
Provenance: private collection.
This impressive portrait is the first known sculpture by this artist to come to auction, and is a very
scarce, early example of his work before the WPA.
Born inWetumpka, OK on July 17, 1910, Bannarn moved with his family to Minneapolis when he
was a child.This sculpture was made before Bannarn had won two first place prizes in sculpture at
the Minnesota State Art Fair Art Galleries and showed at the Harmon Foundation in NewYork in
1933. He moved to NewYork in 1934 after leaving the Minneapolis School of Art. He and Charles
Alston rented the studio that became the HarlemWorkshop or the “306.”
Cleota Josephine Collins (1893 -1976) was a soprano singer from Ohio who enjoyed some acclaim
during the Harlem Renaissance. She was a member of the Tuskegee Institute faculty at the time of
this portrait. Powell/Reynolds pp. 173-174.
[6,000/9,000]