Untitled (Composite Figures in Purple), 1985.

Colored pencil on paper. Framed.

Inscribed on the upper margin, "27 Sept 85; SGD for PCG". 

Sight: 19 x 22 in (48.3 x 55.8 cm)

Framed: 35 x 26 1/4 in (88.9 x 66.7 cm).

Notes: 

Laurence Scott was an academic, translator, printer, publisher, illustrator, and activist whose influence extended across literary and artistic circles in the United States. He was closely connected with modernist literary figures such as Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore, and T.S. Eliot.

Born in Detroit, he was raised in Ann Arbor and graduated from the University of Michigan in 1955. He earned a MA from Harvard University and continued to pursue doctoral work there in Slavic Studies. A consummate polyglot, Scott was fluent in eight languages including Russian, Czech, and Polish. [1] 

Scott co-founded the first pro-feminist gay liberation group in the United States named the Basic Education Project. [2] The main political activities of the BEP comprised the distribution of feminist literature and anti-sexist reading lists, the provision of consciousness-raising sessions, and personal counseling for closeted and politically disengaged gay men. [3] 

The BEP was closely aligned with the first radical feminist organization established in the Boston area, Cell 16. Both organizations pioneered a self-defense program by running karate lessons for gay men and women who faced violence and discrimination in the streets. [4]

Scott maintained a private artistic practice centered on drawing. Scott lived as an openly queer artist when such disclosure could involve considerable personal and professional risk. His loosely drawn male nude works tend to focus on and emphasize a single aspect of the model and move in quick and often wild lines to create just enough to give the viewer an impression of the subject, and then often emphasize one feature of the subject (e.g., feet, hands, torso, etc.). 

[1] Edward M. Burns, ed., Questioning Minds: The Letters of Guy Davenport and Hugh Kenner (Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 2018), p. 56.

[2] “Harry Kevorkian, Ann Arbor gay and labor activist, dies at 54”, Between the Lines 28 (21 February 2002), p. 10.

[3] “who what when where”, The Gay Liberator 28 (July 1973), p. 10.

[4] Alice Echols, Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America, 1967-1975 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989), p. 158.

Some paper toning along the left side of the sheet.

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