Purvis Young
The Storyteller
Artists have long visualized the complexities of life and their own experiences through the media of painting. The majority of them who are familiar and successful have also relied on fixed social and aesthetic systems of meaning and analysis. They work within the traditional methodology and marketability of Western-European art history (with its “high-culture bias").
Purvis Young is different. He is self-taught and self educated. He works within his own system and it is no less valuable than the one described above. Unlike many self-trained personalities who are described as "outsider" artists because they work without the benefits of academic training, Purvis Young has substituted a lack of formal education with intensive reading and study and is incredibly knowledgeable and sophisticated about the history of art. He applies his own personal ideology and unique world-view to the media of paint to create a visual language that expresses his concerns as much as it captures the life of the people and city that surround him.
Purvis Young is a storyteller. Considering his obsession for books and his insatiable appetite for knowledge about art, it is not surprising that his paintings and his books of paintings appear to serve the purpose of books. They all contain, preserve, and document knowledge of real life situations. Whether it is in bound form or painted on any available material that he happens to find, the images created by Purvis Young tell a story. Like his African-American ancestors who maintained the traditions and values of their people through storytelling, he continues to record the struggles, the hopes, and the joys of his world, the inner city of Miami called Overtown. This continued struggle of 200-plus years is still apparent in today‘s ghetto. As Purvis says, "If you want to reach the colored town, cross over the railroad tracks. That‘s the story."
But the story he records in paint is also the story of everywhere. His concerns are universal. His view from the street is the view of the people, and although his visual language may be unsanctioned and unofficial, it is powerful and recognizable. It reaches the heart of everyone. Heads, figures, animals and icons Appear within the abstractions and marks of his complexly layered and colorful compositions. Nothing more than the banalities of the local landscape, they emerge as spontaneously as his reactions to events in the world that surrounds him. People on the street, animals, city buildings, trains, boats and trucks inhabit an imaginative painted surface. Consistent with his vernacular approach, Purvis Young eliminates all the traditional hierarchies of composition and perspectives while working the pigment until it seems as defined as an old public wall.
Purvis Young works with materials that he finds, recycles, puts together, recreates and constructs. It may be paper from old books or other discarded documents. It may be cardboard boxes, sheets of metal or pieces of wood. His contextually uncluttered approach to art makes no assumptions about what should or should not be used to produce his works, or how such materials should be combined. His style is aggressive and personal. Every stroke of color comes from his soul. Every figure, line, shape and form is essential to the story he tells. There are no extraneous details or insignificant marks. His kind of abstraction is not based on the lessons of the New York School, but on the necessities of his artistry alone. It is a more direct and spontaneous approach that allows him to reduce life‘s complexities to their most essential signs. Through art, he speaks the language of the people. Just as written language as communicated through a very condensed system of letters, Purvis Young tells his stories through paint to become the unofficial storyteller.
© 1997 Carol Damian
Biography
Born: February 4, 1943, Liberty City, Miami, FL
Died: April 20, 2010: Overtown, Miami, FL
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2019 "Personal Structures" Palazzo Mora, Venice, Italy
2019 "Purvis Young" solo exhibition Salon 94 Freemans, New York, NY
2019 "Purvis Young" solo exhibition James Fuentes LLC, New York, NY
2018/2019 "Purvis Young" solo exhibition, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL
2018 "History Refused to Die", The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY NY
2017 "Revelations" Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, CA
2014 "Border Crossings", Purvis Young & Alejandro Santiago, Skot Foreman Gallery, San Miguel de Allende, MX
"Ebony, Jet & Contemporary Art", Studio Museum, Harlem, NYC
2012 "Visual Rhythms", California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
"No More Truth Than The Illusions of My Dreams", Skot Foreman Gallery, San Miguel, Mexíco
2011 "Important Late Works", Kenneth Plasket Gallery, W. Palm Beach, FL
2010 "Focus Gallery: Purvis Young", Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL
"Purvis Young + Grown and Sewn", NY, NY
2009 "Highlights from the Permanent Collection", Museum of Fine Art, St. Petersburg, FL
"Same Sweet Dream", Dieu Donné, NY NY
2008 "The Figure Past and Present: Selections from the Permanent Collection", Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL
"30 Americans", Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL
Morehouse College Permanent Installation, Atlanta, GA
"Protest: Purvis Young", GalleryBar, New York, NY
"Hexagone (a hex is gone)", MAS-Miami Art Space, Miami, FL
"Black: A Celebration of African American Art Sacramento-Area Collections," 40 Acres Art Gallery & Cultural Center, Sacramento, CA
2007 "Painted Protests", Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL
"Mixed Signals", Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York, NY
"Self Taught: Seven African American Vernacular Artists", Rebecca Randall Bryan Art Gallery, Costal Carolina University, Conway, SC
"Compelling Visions: Florida Collects Folk Art", Museum of Fine Arts, Sarasota, FL
2006 “Purvis Young: Paintings from the Street,” Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL “Outsiders In Paradise: Rev. Howard Finster and Company,” Cotuit Center For the Arts, Cotuit, MA “Miami in Transition," Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL “Inside the Outsider World: Folk Art from the Permanent Collection,” Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL “Outsider Art,” Art Access Gallery, Columbus, OH “The Mind of Young: Sketchbooks and Artist’s Books by Purvis Young and Works from the Permanent Collection,” Miami-Dade Public Library, West Dade Regional Library, Miami, FL
2005 “Coming Home! Self-Taught Artists, the Bible and the American South,” Museum of Fine Arts, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL , and The Museum of Biblical Art, New York, NY. Organized by The Art Museum, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN “Purvis Young Urban Painter Retrospective 1969-2004,” Hurn Museum of Contemporary Folk Art, Savannah, GA ”Rock Paper Scissors: American Collage Now,” The Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia, PA “At This Time: Ten Miami Artists,” Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL “African American Masters: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum,” Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT; traveled to Spelman College Museum of Fine Arts, Atlanta, GA “Revelations and Reflections of American Self-Taught Artists,” Museum of the Southwest, Midland, TX
2004 “Coming Home! Self-Taught Artists, the Bible and the American South,” The Art Museum, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN “African American Masters: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum,” Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH (traveled to Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH; The Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE; Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA “Revelations and Reflections of American Self-Taught Artists,” Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art, Great Falls, MT; traveled by ExhibitsUSA to Middlebury College Museum of Art, Middlebury, VT; Hearst Art Gallery, Saint Mary's College of California, Moraga, CA; and Loveland Museum and Gallery, Loveland, CO “Recent Acquisitions: African American Art in the South,” The Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA “African-American Art from MFAH Collection,” Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX “Outside/In: American Self-Taught Art from the Mennello Museum of American Folk and the City of Orlando Folk Art Collection,” The von Liebig Art Center, Naples, FL “Purvis Young: From the Rubell Family Collection,” The von Liebig Art Center, Naples, FL
2003 “African American Masters: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum,” New York Historical Society, New York, NY; traveled to Cheekwood Museum of Art, Nashville, TN; The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Jacksonville, FL “Revelations and Reflections of American Self-Taught Artists”, Southern Ohio Museum, Portsmouth, OH “Purvis Young: Art and Real Life,” Gallery 721, Fort Lauderdale, FL “Purvis Young: Artists' Books from the Permanent Collection Featuring the Work of Purvis Young,” Miami-Dade Public Library, Main Library, Miami, FL ”Young at 60, Paintings and Drawings by Purvis Young,” Miami-Dade Public Library, Main Library, Miami, FL ”At 60: The Art of Purvis Young,” Skot Foreman Fine Art, Atlanta, GA “Outsider Art,” Fox-Martin Fine Arts Gallery, Great Barrington, MA
2002 "Purvis Young: The Life I See”, Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL “Contemporary Folk Art: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum,” High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA "Recent Work: Purvis Young," Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL “Ancestors: Origin of Community,” Lyric Theatre, Miami, FL “Revelations and Reflections of American Self-Taught Artists,” The Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AK, traveled to Stedman Art Gallery, Camden, NJ "Urban Outsider and Visionary Folk: The Works of Purvis Young and Minnie Evans," Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, FL “Purvis Young Paintings and Books from the Permanent Collection," Miami-Dade Public Library, Culmer Overtown Branch, Miami, FL and Miami Beach Branch, Miami Beach, FL
2001 “Let It Shine: Self-Taught Art from The T. Marshall Hahn Collection,” High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA “Contemporary Folk Art: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum,” Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA; traveled to The Art Museum at Florida International University, Miami, FL 2000 "A Convergent Voyage," Skot Foreman Fine Art, Ltd., Dania Beach, FL “Contemporary Folk Art: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum,” Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL ”Purvis Young," at Kunst Koln, Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Germany
1999 “Purvis Young,” Springfield Museum of Art, Springfield, OH “Purvis Young: Walking Among the Peoples,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Lake Worth, FL “Purvis Young,” Frederic Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL “Self Taught Artists of the 20th Century: An American Anthology,” Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY ;Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH; and the Museum of American Folk Art, New York, NY. Organized by the Museum of American Folk Art, New York City, NY
1998 “Self Taught Artists of the 20th Century: An American Anthology,” Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA. Organized by the Museum of American Folk Art, New York City, NY; traveled to High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; and The Amon Carter Museum and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX “Purvis Young: Painting the Blues,” Springfield Museum of Art, Springfield, OH “Purvis Young,” Skot Foreman Fine Arts, Ltd., Dania Beach, FL
1997 “Pictured in My Mind: Contemporary American Self-Taught Art from the Collection of Dr. Kurt Gitter and Alice Rae Yelen,” DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA “Bearing Witness: African-American Vernacular Art of the South,” Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, NY “Purvis Young-The Streets of Overtown: Paintings on paper and scraps," Armory Art Gallery, Department of Art and Art History, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA ”Flying Free: Twentieth-Century Self-Taught Art from the Collection of Ellin and Baron Gordon,” Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Williamsburg, VA “Purvis Young: Paintings,” Pelegro Gallery, New Orleans, LA “Purvis Young: Paintings,” Leslie Muth Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
1996 “Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art of the South - The Arnett Collection,” Emory University Museum, Atlanta City Hall East for the 100th Cultural Olympiad, Atlanta, GA “Purvis Young: Paintings,” American Primitive Gallery, New York City, NY ”Purvis Young: Paintings, Drawings, Constructions and Books”, Janet Fleisher Gallery, Philadelphia, PA “Wrestling With History: Selections from the Shelp Collection,” Sidney Myhkin Gallery, Bernard Baruch College of The City University of New York, New York City, NY “Naives, Seers, Lone Wolves & World Savers VIII,” Dean Jensen gallery, Milwaukee, WI 1995 “Passionate Views of the American South: Self Taught Artists from 1940 to the Present,” Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL “Pictured In My Mind: Contemporary American Self-Taught Art from the Collection of Dr. Kurt Gitter and Alice Rae Yelen,” Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL ”The Outside Eye: Contemporary Art of the South, from the Collection of George Lowe,” Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL “Rare Visions: Works by Expressionist and Self-Taught Artists,” Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, Hollywood, FL “Contemporary Folk Art: A View from the Outside,” Nathan D. Rosen Museum Gallery, Adolph and Rose Levis Jewish Community Center, Boca Raton, FL
1994 “Purvis Young: Books and Works on Paper,” Janet Fleisher Gallery, Philadelphia, PA “Passionate Visions of the American South: Self-Taught Artists from 1940 to the Present,” New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA “Purvis Young”, Galerie Karsten Greve, Paris, France “Purvis Young: Art and Real Life,” Gallery 721, Fort Lauderdale, FL “New Works, Galerie Moos, Toronto, Canada "Purvis Young," Edward Thorpe Gallery, New York City, NY “Purvis Young”, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL “Street Vision: The Works of Purvis Young,” Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, FL “Purvis Young: From the Street,” Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, Hollywood, FL 1992 “Purvis Young,” Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Germany “Purvis Young Works of Paper (The Books),” Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York City, NY “Sam Doyle, William Hawkins, Purvis Young.” Edward Thorpe Gallery, New York City, NY
1991 “Purvis Young,” Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York City, NY “Purvis Young: Paintings, Books, Sculptures," Joy Moos Gallery, Miami, FL
1988 “Three From Miami: Carlos Alfonzo, Deborah Schneider, Purvis Young,” The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL “Purvis Young," Joy Moos Gallery, Miami, FL ”Purvis Young: Me and My Mink,” Artists Space, New York City, NY “Purvis Young: Books & Paintings,” Miami-Dade Public Library, Miami Lakes Branch, Miami Lakes, FL
1987 “Purvis Young: Books & Paintings,” Miami-Dade Public Library, Homestead Branch, Homestead, FL ”A Separate Reality: Florida Eccentrics,” Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, FL; traveled to Valencia Community College, East Campus and Performing Arts Center Galleries, Orlando, FL “Purvis Young,” Greene Gallery, Coral Gables, FL
1986 “Transculture Transmedia,” Exit Art, New York City, NY “Purvis Young Recent Works,” Artifacts Art Salon, Miami, FL Artist completes Miami-Dade County commissioned Art In Public Places mural, Northside Metrorail Station, Miami, FL
1985 “Burnt Toast,” Joy Moos Gallery, Miami, FL “Images of Everyday Life (Paintings and Books),” Miami-Dade Public Library, Culmer/Overtown Branch, Miami, FL
1984 "Book Exhibition," Katherine Markel, New York City, NY Get Fresh,” Joy Moos Gallery, Miami, FL
1983 "Purvis Young: Books,” Miami-Dade Public Library System, Miami, FL Artist completes Mural for the Miami-Dade Public Library, Main Library, Miami, FL 1981 "Purvis Young," Miami-Dade Public Library System, Miami-Dade Public Library, Miami Branch Branch, Miami Branch, FL
1977 "Contemporary Black Art: A Selected Sampling," Florida International University Art Gallery, Miami, FL
1973 "Purvis Young,” Miami-Dade Community College North Campus, Miami, FL
1972 "Purvis Young," Miami Museum of Modern Art, Miami, FL Young installs paintings on exterior walls of buildings in Goodbread Alley, Overtown (Miami), FL
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
ABCD (Art Brut Connaissance & Diffusion) Paris, France
American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY
The Art Museum of Western Virginia, Roanoke, VA
Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL
Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL
Block Museum of Art, Evanston, IL
Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL
City of Miami, FL
City of Orlando Public Art Collection, Orlando, FL
The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Fayette Art Museum, Fayette, AL
Federal Reserve Board of Atlanta, GA
Frost Museum of Art, Miami, FL
The Hampton University Museum, Hampton, VA
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
House of Blues, Chicago, IL
House of Blues, Las Vegas, NV
House of Blues, Los Angeles, CA
House of Blues, Myrtle Beach, SC
House of Blues, New Orleans, LA
House of Blues, Orlando, FL
Hurn Museum of Contemporary Folk Art, Savannah, GA
Kentucky Folk Art Center, Morehead State University, Morehead, KY
Kohler Foundation, Kohler, WI
Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL
The Mennello Museum of American Art, Orlando, FL
Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL
Miami-Dade Public Library, Miami, FL
The Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA
Motorola Corporation, USA
Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, FL
The Museum for Biblical Art, New York, NY
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Museum of Art, Deland, FL
Naples Art Association, Naples, FL
National Museum of African American History & Culture (NMAAHC), Washington, DC
The Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA
Ogden Museum of Southern Art, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL
Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL
Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL
Sackner Archives, University of Oregon, Portland, OR
Springfield Museum of Art, Springfield, OH
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
Studio Museum of Harlem, New York, NY
Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL
Tufts University, MA
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Arnett, William, Paul Arnett, and Lowery Sims. Souls Grown Deep Vol. 2: African American Vernacular Art. Atlanta, GA: Tinwood Books, 2001.
Becker, Robert. “Art: Urban Renewal. Creating a Scene.” Andy Warhol's Interview, Vol. 16 (XVI), no. 9, September 1986.
Bennett, Lennie. “Museum Gets 91- Painting Gift.” St. Petersburg Times, August 3, 2005.
Conwill, Kinshasha, and Arthur C. Danto. Testimony: Vernacular Art of the African-American South: The Ronald and June Shelp Collection. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2001.
Crown, Carol, editor; foreword by Lee Kogan. Coming Home! Self-Taught Artists, the Bible, and the American South. Jackson, MS: The University Press of Mississippi/The Art Museum of the University of Memphis, 2004.
Damian, Carol. “The Unofficial Storyteller,” in Purvis Young, edited by Kenneth Plasket, Dania,FL: Skot Foreman Fine Art, Ltd., 2000. (exh. catalogue)
Danto, Arthur C.; Elsa Weiner Longhauser, Jane Kallir, Michael D. Hall, Harald Szeemann, and Lee Kogan. Self-Taught Artists of the 20th Century: An American Anthology. New York: Museum of American Folk Art, 1999, pp 180-186.
Delehanty, Randolph. Art in the American South: Works from the Ogden Collection. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State U P, 1996.
Ebony, David. ”Trustees to Buy Contemporary Museum in Florida - Museum of Contemporary Art, Lake Worth, Florida.” Art in America, June, 1999.
Everett, Gwen. African American Masters: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum. New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., 2003.
Feinstein, Roni. "Report from Miami: Part II - Miami Heats Up." Art in America, November 1999, pp 58-59. (review)
Fine, Gary Alan. Everyday Genius: Self-Taught Art and the Culture of Authenticity. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
Foreman, Skot. “Keeper of the Flame,” in Purvis Young, edited by Kenneth Plasket, Dania,FL: Skot Foreman Fine Art, Ltd., 2000. (exh. catalogue)
Fox, Catherine. “Forever Young. A self-taught colorist shows expressionistic energy.” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 14, 2003. (review)
Gonzalez, Fernando. “Local artist is no longer an ‘outsider’,” The [Miami] Herald, May 13, 1999, pp.1E, E4.
Gordon, Ellin; and Barbara R. Luck, and Tom Patterson. Flying Free: Twentieth-Century Self-Taught Art from the Collection of Ellin and Baron Gordon. Williamsburg, VA: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and University Press of Mississippi, 1997.
Harper, Paula. “Purvis Young,” in Purvis Young, Miami, FL: Joy Moos Gallery, 1992. __________. “Urban Expressionist.” Art in America, January, 2003, p. 37. (review)
Hartigan, Lynda Roscoe. “Going Urban: American Folk Art and the Great Migration.” American Art magazine [Smithsonian American Art Museum] Vol. 14, No. 2, Summer, 2000, pp. 26-51.
Hartigan, Lynda Roscoe. African-American Art: 19th and 20th-Century Selections. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art , n.d. (brochure)
Hay, David. “Art/Architecture: The Scene Heats Up Under the Miami Sun." The New York Times, February 27, 2000.
Hersh, Allison. “Purvis Young and Ricardo Manuel Díaz offer a darker, deeper vision of folk art.” Savannah Morning News, April 23, 2005. (review)
Husband, Bertha. “A Fine Dividing Line - Purvis Young & Ricardo Manuel Diaz at the Hurn Museum.” Connect Savannah, April 20, 2005.
Laffal, Florence and Julius. American Self-Taught Art: An Illustrated Analysis of 20th Century Artists and Trends With 1,319 Capsule Biographies. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2003.
Lunsford, Darcie. "Rubells Buy a Building From Liberty City." South Florida Business Journal, November 19, 1999.
Meadows, Gail. "New Art Director [for the Rubell Collection]." The Miami Herald, November 18, 1999.
McEvilley, Thomas. “The missing tradition - African American art, Atlanta City Hall; Thornton Dial, Michael C. Carlos Museum, Atlanta, Georgia.” Art in America, May, 1997. (review)
Maresca, Frank, and Roger Ricco with forward by Lanford Wilson. American Self-Taught: Paintings and Drawings by Outsider Artists. New York: Alfred a Knopf, 1993.
Monroe, Gary. Extraordinary Interpretations: Florida's self-taught artists. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2003. (exh. catalogue)
Moreno, Gean. “Purvis Young’s Predicament.” Raw Vision: International Journal of Intuitive & Visionary Art. London: Raw Vision Ltd, vol. 36, Winter 2000/2001.
Painter, Nell Irvin. Creating Black Americans: African-American History and its Meanings, 1619 to the Present. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Patterson, Tom. Contemporary Folk Art: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum Series). New York, NY: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2001.
Pau-Llosa, Ricardo. "Miami: Glass Dragonfly," [artists Carlos Alfonzo, Humberto Calzada, Enrique Castro-Cid, Christine Federighi, Christopher Mangiaracina and Purvis Young], Art International, Vol.1, No.5, Winter 1988. (review)
Purvis Young., Joy Moos Gallery, Inc. Miami, FL, 1993. (exh. catalogue)
Rosenak, Chuck and Jan Rosenak. Contemporary American Folk Art: A Collector's Guide. New York: Abbeville Press, 1996. _____________. Museum of American Folk Art Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century American Folk Art and Artists. New York: Abbeville Press, 1990.
Sanders, Vicki. "Like Rembrandt, I'm Walking Among the People," The Miami Herald, February 2, 1983. (review) Sellen, Betty-Carol with Cynthia J. Johanson. Outsider, Self taught, and Folk Art, Annotated Bibliography: Publications and Films of the 20th Century, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co Inc., 2002. ________________. Self-Taught, Outsider, and Folk Art: A Guide to American Artists, Locations and Resources, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. Inc., 2000. ________________. Twentieth Century American Folk, Self Taught, and Outsider Art. New York, NY: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 1993.
Shepherd, Lindy T. “Purvis of Overtown, directed by Shaun Conrad and David Raccuglia” in “Florida Film Festival Reviews” Orlando Weekly, March 23, 2006
Smith, Roberta. “Art in Review: 'The Outsider Art Fair' The Puck Building Lafayette and Houston Streets SoHo Through Sunday,” The New York Times, January 28, 1994. (review) Spriggs, Lynne E; Joanne Cubbs; Lynda Roscoe Hartigan; Susan Mitchell Crawley; Michael E. Shapiro; Peter Harholdt. Let It Shine: Self-Taught Art From The T. Marshall Hahn Collection. Atlanta: High Museum of Art, 2001.
Stevens, Isabel. “Rubell Family Collection.” Contemporary Magazine [London], Issue 80, 2006.
Tyehimba, Afefe L. “Tell My Horse: The Ancestral Spirits of Purvis Young,” in Purvis Young: Possession, edited by Skot Foreman. Dania,FL: Skot Foreman Fine Art, Ltd., 2001.
Trechsel, Gail Andrews, editor. Pictured in My Mind: Contemporary American Self-taught Art from the Collection of Kurt Gitter and Alice Rae Yelen. Birmingham: Birmingham Museum of Art, 1996.
Tresobares, Ceasar. Purvis Young/Me and My Mink. New York, NY: Artists Space, 1988. (exh. catalogue) Turner, Elisa. "Miami: Purvis Young" ARTnews, December 1987. (review) __________. "Purvis Young, Frederick Snitzer," ARTnews, December 1999, pp 178,180. (review) __________. "Young American," The Miami Herald, February 3, 2003. (review) __________. “With renovations at home, art collection hits the road.” The Herald, April 3, 2004.
Yelen, Alice Rae, Passionate Visions of the American South: Self-Taught Artists from 1940 to the Present, New Orleans Museum of Art, distributed by University Press of Mississippi, 1993.