Rudolph Bostic (1944-2021) African American, Oil on Cardboard. Depicts a town and the countryside around in with stunning colors. Signed bottom middle. Prior gallery label and a bio of the author with photo attached to the back. 

Overall Size: 29 x 35 in. 

Sight Size: 24 x 30 in. 

Rudolph “Rudy” Valentino Bostic was born on August 16th, 1944 in Savannah, Georgia. As a poor African American child with few toys and a massive imagination, he took to the arts for practicality, making his own playthings first by drawing and cutting out cowboys and horses and later by constructing them from household objects and scavenged items from his neighborhood. When he was seventeen he was asked to draw some religious paintings to be displayed at his church, and while working the night shift at a local bakery he brought home dozens of cardboard boxes to be his canvas. His unique combination of enamel house paints with broad stylistic influences and Biblical themes swiftly brought him national attention. Although he became a prolific artist working with many movements, mediums, and modes, cardboard remained his favorite surface to work with because of its smoothness. His fame brought him exposure to many art forms, and he was drawn to the works of the Old Masters, incorporating all he learned into his pieces to create contrasting light and shadow with bright colors using unconventional materials. He passed away at home on June 4th, 2021, and his work is now in the permanent collections of the Mennello Museum of American Folk Art in Orlando, Florida, the High Museum in Atlanta, the Hurn Museum in Savannah, and the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum in Washington, D.C.