Discovering Ellis Ruley. [The Story of Ellis Ruley; In the Garden; Portrait of the Artist; Back to Norwich; Up in Smoke; Filtered Images : The Art of Ellis Ruley; The Paintings]

New York : Crown Publishers, 1993., 1993. Fine. 1st edition, 1st printing ; 108 pp. ; illustrated ; 62 color plates ; 26 cm. ; ISBN: 0517590700 :; 9780517590706 LCCN: 92-40230 ; LC: ND237.R729; Dewey: 759.13 ; OCLC: 27068076 ; by Glenn Robert Smith with Robert Kenner ; preface by Barbara A. Hudson ; foreword by Robert Farris Thompson ; introduction by Gerard C. Wertkin ; art study essay by Stacy Hollander and Lee Kogan of the Museum of American Folk Art. ; white boards with black lettering in color pictorial dustjacket ; dustjacket spine su nned ; "...[T]he fascinating and passionate story of this gifted self-taught African-American artist...lived in Norwich, Connecticut...owned a small house in an all-white neighborhood...and was found quite suspiciously dead on the road in front of h is house on January 16, 1959. Though many questions about Ruley were answered, just as many still remained...The book discusses Ruley's painting methods and his sources of inspiration. For example, he used common house paint as his medium and posterboard as his canvas, painting in a tiny room at the back of his house while he looked out on the animals in the woods...It is rare that a talent such as Ellis Ruley's remains a secret for so long...today his paintings are recognized as important w orks of outsider art by major collectors and museums across the country...all of his sixty-two known works [are] together for the first time."--dustjacket ; "The first published record of the work, life, and mysterious death of Ellis Ruley. Includes all of his 62 known works, plus an introduction by the director of the Museum of American Folk Art.Full color and black-and-white photographs." ; FINE/FINE