Purvis Young (1943–2010)

PURVIS YOUNG (1943–2010)
Thelonius Monk, Jazz in Colored Town, early 1970s
Paint on canvas, 48 x 68 in.
Signed (at upper right): Young 

EX COLL: the artist; to Silo Crespo (1929–2003), early 1970s, and by descent, until the present

For the residents of Miami's Overtown––once viewed as the Southern equivalent of New York’s bustling Harlem district––life was bleak and urban decay and economic stagnation were keynotes of the day. As an artist keenly attuned to his own feelings as well as the tempo of his immediate surroundings, Young responded accordingly, forging a personal iconography that included themes in which he paid tribute to his African American heritage in relation to jazz––an original and highly spontaneous genre of music, invented by blacks, that first became popular during the 1920s. 

Such is the case with Thelonius Monk, Jazz in Colored Town, which features the famed pianist and composer seated at a piano, his back towards the viewer as he plays one of his highly personal compositions that, in its unorthodox style––with its “oddly balanced melodies and wry, angular manner of playing”––earned him a reputation as one of the most innovative exponents of modern jazz and an originator of bebop (John S. Wilson, “Thelonius Monk, Created Wry Jazz Melodies and New Harmonies,” New York Times, February 18, 1982, sec. D, p. 20). This painting represents a rare instance in which Young worked on canvas. To be sure, with no money for or access to traditional artists’ materials, he typically worked on pieces of wood, metal, and cardboard, as well as discarded books, doors, file folders, and even rusty nails. In all likelihood, Young’s canvas support for the present painting once graced the interior of a house in Overtown, whose poorest residents installed pieces of this coarse, heavy-duty fabric as room dividers or curtains. Certainly, the use of canvas in Thelonius Monk, Jazz in Colored Town underscores Young’s practice of using discarded objects, and by recycling them for artistic purposes, giving them new life.

Whether Monk (1917–1982) ever performed in Overtown remains a mystery, but in the Hirschl & Adler painting Young shows him playing in a local venue, as evident by architectural elements––the blocky, abandoned brick structures that the artist would have encountered every day––and most importantly, the reference in the title to “Colored Town,” Overtown’s original name from its creation in 1896 until about 1950. Wearing one of the signature hats for which he was known (its upturned lips resembling a fedora), Monk sits before a trio of bandmates interpreted as large, oval-shaped heads. Like his fellow musicians, Monk’s figure is simplified to the extreme, his upper torso carefully silhouetted against a circular halo. a symbolic device that Young often used to equate his subject with an angel. The pulsating, repeated shapes, the bright colors, and the lively gestural handling go hand in hand with the improvisational and intuitive aspect of jazz, especially as exemplified in Monk’s complicated yet oftentimes playful compositions. Like Young himself, Monk was also a non-conformist who made his mark by working outside the mainstream.