True art collectors see the inherent value in the early works of prolific artists because it captures their growing creativity in a time before they became famous for their more renowned pieces. Robert Colescott was a major artist of the 20th century, known mostly for his colorful satirical paintings. He began his career in California, creating works that conveyed his exuberant, comical, or bitter reflections on his experiences being African-American. His first paying job as an artist was actually teaching at Portland State University in the early 1950s to early 60s. Eventually he was discovered in 1961 and featured numerous times at Arlene Schnitzer's Fountain Gallery right here in Portland, Oregon.
It was at this time in the early 1960s that our client's husband was taking classes from Robert Colescott at Portland State. In 1964 Colescott was offered a two-year position at the American University of Cairo in Egypt. Before he left, he asked our clients if they could store his paintings in their big West Hills manor while he was abroad. From the 10-12 paintings kept in storage, Robert Colescott let them keep three of his early works from his time instructing our client in exchange for keeping the rest of his works safe.
Once he came back from Egypt the rest were taken to the Fountain Gallery, where they were put on display by Arlene Schnitzer. However, a tragic incident occurred in 1977 when the Fountain Gallery caught fire, burning a majority of Colescott's iconic paintings of his figurative depictions of African-Americans, along with other prominent works from up-and-coming PNW artists. Which makes the three pieces at The Kings Cumberland Estate Sale so special — they not only survived the fiery blaze at the Fountain Gallery, but are priceless artifacts of his earlier works, before his famous satirical African-American paintings.
The three paintings we have are very interesting early works of Colescott from before he became super famous. The biggest one is a landscape that illustrates billowing trees in a meadow or plains — based on its warm tones, it could even be an arid desert area of Eastern Oregon.
The littlest one is an abstract of colors, most likely a demonstration for one of his art lessons. The third piece in the collection is a still life painting of a small hexagonal table and vase of flowers with a window or landscape in the background.
