Between the Covers

Unbound. Watercolor or gouache on artists board. Signed "W. Simon" in lower right corner. Framed and matted. Image size approximately Measuring 13½" x 16". Unexamined out of the frame, but appears fine. Angular and abstract buildings in reds, pinks, oranges, browns. and blues, one labeled "Men's Furnishings," another "Times," and two others more cryptically label "B2" and "K4."

Walter Augustus Simon (1916 - 1979) was an African-American artist, foreign service officer, and later an art teacher. He studied at Pratt, the National Academy of Fine Arts in Harlem, and later at NYU where he was mentored by Hale Woodruff. After serving in the military in WWII and beyond, he became one of very few Black foreign service officers, serving mostly in the Middle East. Upon returning to the U.S., he completed his education and taught at numerous schools including Atlanta University, Georgia State College, Virginia State University, and Patterson State College. He was known for his abstract oil paintings, which have brought as much as $30,000 at auction, but we prefer his acrylics, which are clean, exhilarating, and direct.

Item #457960