Simon Sparrow

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Simon Sparrow
Born(1914-10-16)October 16, 1914
DiedSeptember 26, 2000(2000-09-26) (aged 85)
Madison, Wisconsin, US
NationalityAmerican
Educationself-taught
Known forPainting and mixed media
AwardsWisconsin Visual Arts Lifetime Achievement Award

Simon Sparrow (October 16, 1914 – September 26, 2000) was an American folk artist, a painter and mixed media artist. He was born in Pennsylvania[1] or West Africa,[2] and grew up in North Carolina on a Cherokee Reservation. He was a self-taught artist and received a Wisconsin Visual Art Lifetime Achievement Award (WVALAA) in 2012.[3] Sparrow's work is considered folk art and his piece Assemblage with Found Objects is held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum on the 3rd Floor, Luce Foundation Center.[4]

Simon Sparrow began creating art at age seven and also began his practice of informal and street preaching in his youth.[5] He moved to Philadelphia and enlisted in the army in 1942. He later moved to New York before settling in Madison, Wisconsin.[6] He died in a Madison nursing home in 2000.[7]

Sparrow is best known for his mixed media constructions and paintings, which he began creating once he moved to Madison, Wisconsin in the 1970s.[6] One of his pieces, "Simon Sparrow Outsider Art Picture, ca. 1980" was appraised on Antiques Roadshow in July 2009 for $6,000-8,000.[8] On 20 May 2012, Sparrow was posthumously awarded a WVALAA along with 13 other honorees.[9]

Exhibitions[edit]

Some exhibitions of note for Sparrow's work include:

Sponsored by Comcast Corporation and Duane Morris, this exhibition was organized around self-taught artists that worked in "remote or rural places with unconventional methods and with materials such as reclaimed wood, sheet metal, house paint, and stove soot."[6]

  • "Off Center: Outsider Art in the Midwest" - Minnesota Museum of American Art (1996)
  • "Visionaries, Outsiders and Spiritualists: American Self-Taught Artists" (1994)

Organized by Entourage: Exhibitions of Horsham, PA. this exhibit of 16 self-taught artists included some of Sparrow's "masklike heads (that) appear to radiate auras of energy, as if embodying a spiritual force."[10]

  • "Structure and Surface: Beads in Contemporary American Art" - Renwick Gallery (1990)

Featuring some of Sparrow's "untitled collages (that) combine commercial beads, stick figures and found objects such as rocks, metallic chains, glitter and tinsel to portray religious imagery."[11]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JP8S-6ZK : 19 May 2014), Simon Sparrow, 26 Sep 2000; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
  2. ^ Krug, Don Herbert; Parker, Ann; Cardinal, Roger (2005). Miracles of the Spirit: Folk, Art, and Stories from Wisconsin. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi. p. 116.
  3. ^ "Wisconsin Visual Art Lifetime Achievement Awards: Simon Sparrow". Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  4. ^ "Assemblage with Found Objects by Simon Sparrow". Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Center. Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  5. ^ "Simon Sparrow". Raw Vision. Spring 2001. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  6. ^ a b c Philadelphia Tribune. 03 March 2013. ""Great and Mighty Things" presents drawings, paintings, sculptures, and other objects by twenty-seven self-taught artists." pg 4-5
  7. ^ "Madison Artist Simon Sparrow Dies at Age 85". Wisconsin State Journal. September 28, 2000. p. 1. Retrieved March 19, 2019 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  8. ^ "Antiques Roadshow, Madison Hour 3 (#1409)". Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  9. ^ "Local artist Evelyn Patricia Terry to be honored on May 20". Milwaukee Courier. 11 May 2012.
  10. ^ The New York Times. Sunday, 1 May 1994. "Outsider Artists and a Beginner at Nearly Age 80." pg 34
  11. ^ Stonesifer, Jene (9 August 1990). "Beads: More than Art on a String". The Washington Post. p. 30.

External links[edit]

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