Larry Potter (1924-1966)
Two Figures, c. 1960
gouache on paper
signed
11-1/2 x 8-1/4 inches
framed

Examined out of frame, no holes, tears, abrasions or retouch. Matted and framed.
Provenance: Doug Crutchfield (1938-1989), African American ballet dancer who resided in Denmark in the early 1960’s, opening his own studio at Vimmelskaftet in Copenhagen. He also taught in Sweden. He was a collector of African American art and friends with fellow African-American expatriates in Scandinavia. ??Hugh Lawrence Potter was born in Mount Vernon, NY and was raised in Harlem. His parents had emigrated from St Kitts in 1914. Potter enrolled in the Cooper Union School in 1950. He left for Paris in 1956 (possibly at the suggestion of his friend Bob Blackburn who went there for a year in 1953; Potter managed Blackburn's Printmaking Workshop in his absence). Potter believed racism would drain his energy from his creative concerns. In 1964, he exhibited in 10 American Negro Artists Living and Working in Europe, Copenhagen, Denmark, June 11-30, 1964. (Den Frie). Potter's work became increasingly abstracted, influenced by the Paris School artists. Sadly, his life was cut short when he died of an asthma attack at the age of only 40.
His work from the 1960s was exhibited at the June Kelly Gallery in 1991, and also in Explorations in the City of Light: African-American Artists in Paris, 1945-1965. (Studio Museum in Harlem, 1996).