John Rozelle, American b. 1944, Middle Passage Series

Lot description

John Rozelle American, b. 1944 Middle Passage Series 1988-1994 sculptural assemblage; wooden ironing boards, found objects, printed cotton and rope 55 x 15 inches (each component); installed: 55 x 51" (with 3" gap between the two components) hangs on the wall signed verso In an interview with the St Louis Post-Dispatch...the artist explains that the ironing board symbolizes the domestic labor to which African American women were relegated and also the shape parallels that of the slave ships. These symbols were also used by artists such as Willie Cole and Malcolm Bailey in their work. A St Louis native, John Rozelle graduated with a B.F.A. from Washington University in St Louis (formerly known as the St Louis School of Fine Art), and a Masters of Fine Art from Fontbonne University (also in St Louis). Rozelle later taught at Fontbonne before becoming a tenured Associate Professor of Drawing and Painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He was an Artist-in-Residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1989 and was included in the exhibit, 25 Years of African-American Art at the Studio Museum. He has participated in exhibitions across the country at venues including the St Louis Art Museum; African American Cultural Center, University of Illinois-Chicago; Elmhurst College; Margaret Harwell Museum; St Louis Community College at Forest Park; Fontbonne University; University of Minnesota; Iowa State University; Isobel Neal Gallery (Chicago); Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago); South Side Community Art Center; Spertus Museum; Art Institute of Chicago; Gettysburg College; University of Wisconsin-Green Bay; University of Michigan; California African American Museum; J.B. Speed Museum; Peg Alston Fine Arts (NY); Studio Museum in Harlem; African American Museum, Philadelphia; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; Washington University (St Louis); and the Corcoran Gallery (Washington, D.C.). Rozelle worked in various mediums, often combining them, including painting, collage, photography, and sculpture. He was included in the exhibition, African American Abstraction: St Louis Connections in 2008 at the St Louis Art Museum, a show which also featured work by Norman Lewis, Beauford Delaney, Oliver Jackson, and Phillip Hampton. In 1990, he was a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. In 1998, he was commissioned to install his Middle Passage Project at the Dred Scott Courthouse in St Louis. His work is in the collections of several museums, including the St Louis Art Museum, The California Afro-American Museum, The Museum of African American Art (Tampa), Mississippi Museum of Art, Spertus Museum, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Margaret Harwell Museum.