36
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WALTER W. ELLISON (1900 - 1977)
Untitled.
Oil on canvas, 1937. 508x406 mm; 20x16 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right.
Provenance: private collection.
This fascinating, surreal image of a woman receiving a facial is a very scarce, early painting by this
Chicago painter and printmaker about whom little is known. This is only the third painting by
Ellison to come to auction. It is believed he migrated to Chicago from rural Georgia via a train
boxcar. Ellison studied briefly at the Art Institute of Chicago and was active at the South Side
Community Art Center, where he was employed by the easel division of the Illinois Art Project of
theWPA in the 1930s. In 1940, he exhibited in the important Tanner Galleries
Exhibition of the Art
of the American Negro (1851-1940)
in Chicago, and in 1942 in the first
Negro Annual Exhibition
at
Atlanta University. Today, his work is found in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the
St. Louis Art Museum, and the Chicago Public Library. Schulman p. 109.
[5,000/7,000]