Sale 2471 - Printed & Manuscript African Americana, March 29, 2018

78 c   (ART.) Coleman, Felton E.; artist. “Camp Meeting” (supplied title).Oil on artist’s board, 16 x 20 inches; a couple of tiny chips, framed; signed “F. E. Coleman” in the lower right corner. Np, circa 1940s [1,000/1,500] Felton E. Coleman (1911-2002) worked as a janitor for the art department of Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge from at least 1940 through 1948. During that time he developed a career as an artist, culminating with a one-man show at the Carl Ashby Gallery in NewYork in 1949. Coleman’s work was discussed in at least two reviews: Elaine de Kooning,“Reviews and Previews: Felton Coleman,”Art News 48 (April 1949), page 55; and Jo Gibbs, “Louisiana Primitive,” Arts Magazine 23 (15 March 1949), page 15, where he was described as “a new Negro primitive with a certain freshness of vision and honesty of approach.” Coleman’s art career seems to have ended after his NewYork debut, though he went on to a long life. His obituary mentions 71 years of service at his Baptist church in East Baton Rouge, but nothing about his art career.