9: FLORENCE JOSYLN PAINTING 1937 TULSA WPA ART ASSOCIATION

Florence Brown Josyln (Around 1892-1954)
The Green Cafe (1937)
The Modernist cityscape at night is signed lower left front in red pigment, and displayed in a classic molded wood frame of the period, probably the original.

The reverse of this oil on canvas is replete with information about the artist, the scene, and the Arts community in Depression-era Oklahoma.

Florence Brown Joslyn was a widely recognized and documented Oklahoma artist and art instructor. As such, she gave talks, taught classes, curated art exhibits at the local WPA Art Gallery, and occasionally exhibited her own works. She is even credited with creating the masthead design of Oklahoma City's African American newspaper The Black Dispatch, founded in 1915. She studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League. Her works were included in exhibitions from Oklahoma to Los Angeles.

Per the label verso, this work was exhibited at the Eighth Annual Tulsa Art Association Exhibition of Oklahoma Artists, 1937, sponsored by that Association, and the WPA federal art project. The Santa Fe artist Raymond Johnson judged the show and fellow participants included Doel Reed and Lester Raymer. Raymer won first prize for painting that year.

Clearly, art and life go on during difficult times, as is evidenced by the degree of organization and support for the Arts in this part of America during the Great Depression.
Image measures 15.5 x 19.5 with a framed size of 21.5 x 25.5 inches.
Very good original untouched condition. There are no issues of major scratches, losses, repairs, in-painting or touch-up. Two dime size areas of possible touch-up lower left and right corners, under UV light.
$1,000 - $1,500