Lot 71: WILBERT WARREN

Three sketchbooks.

Pencil illustrations bound in hardcover sketchbooks, 1938. Each 180x125 mm; 7x4 7/8 inches. Each signed and inscribed "The Art of the African is always the art of his tribal or religious life--'Bey, "All passes, ART alone stays untiringly to us--Orient" and "A man should read a little poetry; Hear a little music; and see a fine picture every day of his life--Goethe" on the inside cover and "Sketches from Life" on the opening page in ink.

Masood Ali Wilbert Warren was an African American painter and sculptor known primarily for his portrait busts of famous people. He attended the Art Students League in New York in the 1930s, participated in the WPA artists program and earned a BA from New York University in 1939 and an MA from Temple University, Philadelphia, in 1961.

Warren has exhibited at the National Academy of Design, the American Watercolor Society, and the National Arts Club, and much of his work is now in the Richard Allen Museum in Philadelphia.