sun-sentinel.com/entertainment/sfl-ent-purvis-young-obit-042010,0,633749.story
South Florida folk artist Purvis Young dead at 67
By Ben Crandell, SunSentinel.com
3:47 PM EDT, April 20, 2010
Acclaimed South Florida folk artist Purvis Young, who died Tuesday morning in Miami at age 67, leaves a legacy that spreads across the globe.
“Purvis really gave credibility to the South Florida art community. He legitimized it in the eyes of the world,” said Skot Foreman, a New York gallery owner currently showing Young’s paintings and a friend of the painter for more than 20 years. “He was doing it way before [ Art] Basel.”
Young, born and raised in the Overtown section of Miami, was famous for intensely colored urban landscapes, drawings and mixed-media constructions.
He had been in declining health in recent years, and used a wheelchair to get around, according to Foreman. Young was living in a nursing home when he suffered a cardiac arrest and later died at 5 a.m. at Jackson Memorial Hospital, Foreman said.
“He had been doing some sketching, but no real painting,” said Foreman, recalling his last visit with Young earlier this year. Foreman previously handled Young’s works at Skot Foreman Fine Art in Dania Beach and Gallery 721 in Fort Lauderdale. “I think the strength was no longer there. He had lost the fire in the belly. ”
Foreman thinks Young knew the end was near.
“When a man loses his dignity, he loses his will to fight. I think that’s the position Purvis found himself in,” he said. “And when you’ve said everything you’ve wanted to say … I think he was ready to move on to the next plane.”
Foreman said funeral arrangements are pending, but likely would be held Friday in Miami.
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