Simon Sparrow
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Simon Sparrow | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 16, 1914 |
| Died | September 26, 2000 (aged 85) |
| Education | self-taught |
| Known for | Painting and mixed media |
| Awards | Wisconsin Visual Arts Lifetime Achievement Award |
Simon Sparrow (October 16, 1914 – September 26, 2000) was an American folk artist, a painter and mixed media artist. He was born in Pennsylvania[1] or West Africa,[2] and grew up in North Carolina on a Cherokee Reservation. He was a self-taught artist and received a Wisconsin Visual Art Lifetime Achievement Award (WVALAA) in 2012.[3] Sparrow's work is considered folk art and his piece Assemblage with Found Objects is held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum on the 3rd Floor, Luce Foundation Center.[4]
Simon Sparrow began creating art at age seven and also began his practice of informal and street preaching in his youth.[5] He moved to Philadelphia and enlisted in the army in 1942. He later moved to New York before settling in Madison, Wisconsin.[6] He died in a Madison nursing home in 2000.[7]
Sparrow is best known for his mixed media constructions and paintings, which he began creating once he moved to Madison, Wisconsin in the 1970s.[6] One of his pieces, "Simon Sparrow Outsider Art Picture, ca. 1980" was appraised on Antiques Roadshow in July 2009 for $6,000-8,000.[8] On 20 May 2012, Sparrow was posthumously awarded a WVALAA along with 13 other honorees.[9]
