The Sweet Life
ca. 1970. 7½ x 9 ¼ inches. Housed in an inexpensive gilt frame with a linen liner. The liner shows some foxing but the painting is in very good condition and does not appear to have been cleaned. On the back of the painting the original brown paper backing is still intact and there is a label with Ayers’ name and the title of the work. The original asking price was $75.00. Item #20
Roland Ayers was born and raised in Germantown, outside of Philadelphia, studied painting at the Philadelphia College of Arts and after a number of trips to Europe to study, he returned home and began to focus his attention on African and African-American themes. It was in the early 1970’s that he exhibited some of his work at the Whitney in New York and developed a national and international audience.
In The Sweet Life Ayers captures the ambience of the bar room where men dressed in black tie and women in long dress gathered to enjoy a night out. He constructs his figures by connecting geometrical patterns using circles, squares, and triangles. His palette is soft and the convivial feeling of the bar room is conveyed in this small painting by melding color and form into a moment that is struck in time.
Price: $4,500.00