Marian Sampler Sold at Auction Prices

MARION SAMPLER (1920 - 1998) Untitled.

MARION SAMPLER (1920 - 1998) Untitled. Oil on cotton canvas, 1965. 1219x1219 mm; 48x48 inches. Signed and dated in oil, down the lower left side. Signed and dated in oil, upper left verso. Provenance: acquired directly from the artist; private collection, CA. Illustrated: Atkinson, J. Edward, Black Dimensions in Contemporary American Art, p. 105. This elegant geometric abstraction is a significant painting, and the first artwork to come to auction by this Californian artist/designer. Born in Anniston, Alabama in 1920, Marion Sampler went on to graduate from the University of Southern California in 1955. Sampler became an accomplished graphic designer; in fact, he became one of the first African-American architectural graphic designers in Los Angeles while working for Victor Gruen and Associates. The stained glass dome in South Coast Plaza's Jewel Court that Sampler designed while at Gruen and Associates illustrates his geometric design aesthetic. Concurrently, Sampler practiced painting in a similar geometric minimalist fashion. He blurred the lines between design and art--participating in the Los Angeles County Museum's design and typography program, in which graphic designers created the images for the museum's promotional materials. Sampler's work has appeared in significant indexes of African-American Art including J. Edward Atkinson's Black Dimensions in Contemporary American Art (1971) and Samella Lewis' African American Art and Artists (2003). Frank Gehry, the prolific American architect, was a friend and colleague of the artist, who credited Sampler with exposing him to gallery scene in Los Angeles. Sampler, who died in 1998, has art work in the permanent collection of the California African American Museum.