A young Bahamian girl named Closma Rosa stands before the American flag. Her shadow drapes across its front, her sloping stare engaging the viewer to ponder, what’s behind her gaze?
This watercolor portrait, titled “Freedom,” is by Stephen Scott Young, hailed as an “American realist master” inspired by Winslow Homer and Andrew Wyeth. Young, born in 1957, will have works spanning 20 years of his career presented in a unique selling exhibition in Christie’s Private Sales Galleries in Manhattan. The exhibit and sale, in collaboration with Adelson Galleries, runs from May 14 through June 11.
“He’s the best I’ve seen. His work is gripping, intense, classic realism. Yet something about his work is modern like Wyeth; there is a mystery behind his pictures. His compositions are visually strong, high-keyed, and sympathetic to our time,” says Eric Widing, Christie’s deputy chairman.
“He’s an extraordinary craftsman,” says Widing. “He is an American artist with an unbroken tradition. His greater appreciation of realism was under-emphasized.”
Young is known best for depicting the people, landscape, and architecture of the Bahamas, Florida, and coastal South Carolina.
Coinciding with the show is the launch of a book on Young: “Once Upon an Island: Stephen Scott Young in the Bahamas,” by Dr. William H. Gerdts. Gerdts is a professor emeritus of art history at The City University of New York and author of more than 25 books on American art. Young and Gerdts will attend the opening reception on May 14, signing copies of the new book.
The co-organizer of the show, Warren Adelson, has followed Young’s career for almost three decades and has represented him for the past five years.
To get an idea of the value of his works, his painting “Lucky Shot,” dated 1999, sold for $50,000 one year ago in a Christie’s auction, while “The Blues,” another of his works, sold for $86,250 last year at the Charleston Art Auction in South Carolina.
