Artist: Purvis Young
Title: Two Faces
Medium: Original Oil on Board
Size: 50.75" x 21"
Year: c. 2000-2008
Inscription: Signed "Young" on front
Condition: In the style of found art with an intentionally weathered appearance. Expected imperfections include heavy creasing, unfinished edges, and marks
Documentation: Includes a Certificate of Authenticity from the Purvis Young Foundation
In "Two Faces", Purvis Young employs gestural brushwork and repurposed support materials to create an image that merges figuration with abstraction. Painted in oil on board, the composition features two elongated heads, rendered in earthy tones of brown, ochre, and gray, set against a textured background of layered strokes in peach, cream, and muted blue.
The central form tilts diagonally across the panel, its features simplified into rounded contours and darkened eyes. A second, smaller face appears to the right, outlined in gray with hints of orange and yellow. The pairing of the two figures suggests interaction or observation, though their expression remains open to interpretation. Above the smaller face, Young's signature appears in black, anchoring the composition within his broader body of work.
As in many of Young's paintings, the emphasis is placed on immediacy of mark-making rather than on polished detail. Quick, layered brushstrokes create movement across the surface, while unfinished edges, visible scuffs, and textural irregularities emphasize the materiality of the board itself. These characteristics are consistent with Young's found art practice, in which imperfections and signs of wear become integral to the final work.
Created between 2000 and 2008, "Two Faces" reflects Young's recurring exploration of human presence through stylized portraiture. The simplified, elongated heads recall the artist's tendency to distort scale and proportion as a means of amplifying symbolic meaning rather than pursuing naturalistic representation. The weathered surface further underscores Young's connection to the urban environment of Overtown, Miami, where discarded supports often formed the basis of his practice.
The work is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity from the Purvis Young Foundation.
Note: This work is not framed; the pictures showing it with a frame are mockups for reference.
About Purvis Young
Purvis Young was an American artist whose work emerged from the Overtown neighborhood of Miami, Florida. Born on February 2, 1943, Young grew up in Overtown, a historically African American community shaped by segregation and later by the destructive impact of highway construction in the 1960s and 1970s. Largely self-taught, Young began drawing and painting at an early age, finding inspiration in books on art history and in the murals and visual culture that surrounded him.
Young's work is often described as belonging to the category of "outsider art," though his career also reflects affinities with contemporary muralism, assemblage, and social narrative painting. His practice incorporated discarded materials such as plywood, cardboard, and found wood, which he gathered from his immediate environment. Onto these surfaces, he painted recurring motifs that formed a personal iconography: elongated human figures, crowds, processions, pregnant women, horses, boats, and angels. These symbols carried layered meanings, often reflecting themes of hope, struggle, community, and transcendence.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Young gained local attention for a series of public murals he painted on abandoned buildings in Overtown, sometimes referred to as his "Good Bread Alley" works. These large, improvised compositions transformed derelict spaces into communal sites of visual storytelling, using art to comment on social and cultural life in the neighborhood. The murals attracted the attention of collectors and institutions, helping to bring Young's work beyond the boundaries of his local community.
Over the course of his career, Young created thousands of works, ranging in scale from intimate paintings on scraps of wood to large installations. His gestural brushwork and improvisational approach conveyed both urgency and expressive vitality. The use of found materials was not only practical but also symbolic, tying his work to the everyday realities of urban life. Critics and curators have often noted the ways in which Young's art reflects both the adversity of his environment and the resilience of the people within it.
Young's work has been exhibited widely, and his paintings are now included in major museum collections such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Rubell Museum in Miami. His career stands as a significant example of the ways in which self-taught artists have contributed to contemporary American art, broadening understandings of both community-based practice and modern visual culture.
Purvis Young continued to live and work in Miami throughout his life. He died on April 20, 2010, at the age of 67. Today, his art is recognized for its unique blend of personal symbolism, social commentary, and expressive form, offering insight into both the local experience of Overtown and the broader cultural history of late 20th-century America.
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