Blue Meat200028 × 16 × 17"Mixed media with found objects and boneGift of Evelyn S. Meyer2005.10.501545663411Kevin Blythe SampsonSculptureCopyright for this work is under review.NewarkNewarkUnited StatesNew JerseyThree Dimensional WorksNewark
Sculpture and Three Dimensional ObjectsArtmaking became an act of healing for Kevin Sampson after the tragic personal loss of lives close to him. Now a retired police officer living in Newark, New Jersey, Sampson collects ephemera and discarded objects from the streets and creates sculptural portraits, or tributes to people. Blue Meat considers aspects of personal history, survival, and spirituality. The title comes from conversations between the artist and his Southern father, who shared memories of eating the “blue” meat of crows to survive the hardships of the Depression. Repulsed yet fascinated, Sampson recognized the spiritual dimension of crows, an intangible quality he was then exploring through a series of three artworks. He fixed on the idea of using organic materials that had once been living, and whose animus would infuse the work with a sort of magic. According to the artist, “This particular piece deals with the Garden of Eden and the apple. If you look inside . . . I have constructed the biblical Garden of Eden complete with miniature landscape and waterfalls. This piece is in fact a biblical landscape.”
Stacy C. Hollander, "Blue Meat," exhibition label for Jubilation|Rumination: Life, Real and Imagined. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2012.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.org
Kevin Blythe Sampson was raised in an Elizabeth, New Jersey, home where doing what was right was never in question. Sampson’s father, Stephen, was a powerful advocate for equal opportunities, labor, and voting rights. The house was a center of activist planning during the civil rights era, and the young Sampson had the opportunity to listen, observe, and learn from the most prominent black men and women of the day. After a few years of college, Sampson entered the Scotch Plains, New Jersey, police force as an officer and then a detective. His artistic affinity was already recognized when he became the first African American uniformed police composite sketch artist in the country. In 1993, Sampson moved to Newark following the tragic deaths of his wife and son. He left the police and devoted himself instead to reclaiming identity and order through an alternative means: artmaking. From his activist roots, he was well versed in the issues underlying Newark’s struggles. He began to use the very stuff of urban decay, detritus from the streets and abandoned buildings, in artmaking, which became an act of healing after the devastating loss of those whom he loved. He reinfused these objects with meanings that time and circumstance have stripped. Now a retired police officer living in Newark, Sampson continues to collect ephemera and discarded objects from the streets to create sculptural portraits, memorials, and tributes, as well as monumental and powerful expressions of social action against the sacrifice of humanity in the cogs of corporate America.
Blue Meat considers aspects of personal history, survival, and spirituality. The title comes from conversations between the artist and his Georgia-born father, who shared early memories of eating the "blue" meat of crows to survive the hardships of the Depression. Repulsed yet fascinated, Sampson recognized the spiritual dimension of crows, an intangible quality that he was then exploring through a series of three artworks. He fixed on the idea of using organic materials that had once been living, and whose animus would infuse the work with a sort of magic. According to the artist, "This particular piece deals with the Garden of Eden and the apple. If you look inside…I have constructed the biblical Garden of Eden complete with miniature landscape and waterfalls. This piece is in fact a biblical landscape.
Stacy C. Hollander, "Blue Meat, 2000" exhibition copy for American Perspectives: Stories from the American Folk Art Museum Collection. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2020.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.org20002000 2005 10 5 Sculpture and Three Dimensional ObjectsArtmaking became an act of healing for Kevin Sampson after the tragic personal loss of lives close to him. Now a retired police officer living in Newark, New Jersey, Sampson collects ephemera and discarded objects from the streets and creates sculptural portraits, or tributes to people. Blue Meat considers aspects of personal history, survival, and spirituality. The title comes from conversations between the artist and his Southern father, who shared memories of eating the “blue” meat of crows to survive the hardships of the Depression. Repulsed yet fascinated, Sampson recognized the spiritual dimension of crows, an intangible quality he was then exploring through a series of three artworks. He fixed on the idea of using organic materials that had once been living, and whose animus would infuse the work with a sort of magic. According to the artist, “This particular piece deals with the Garden of Eden and the apple. If you look inside . . . I have constructed the biblical Garden of Eden complete with miniature landscape and waterfalls. This piece is in fact a biblical landscape.”
Stacy C. Hollander, "Blue Meat," exhibition label for Jubilation|Rumination: Life, Real and Imagined. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2012.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.org
Kevin Blythe Sampson was raised in an Elizabeth, New Jersey, home where doing what was right was never in question. Sampson’s father, Stephen, was a powerful advocate for equal opportunities, labor, and voting rights. The house was a center of activist planning during the civil rights era, and the young Sampson had the opportunity to listen, observe, and learn from the most prominent black men and women of the day. After a few years of college, Sampson entered the Scotch Plains, New Jersey, police force as an officer and then a detective. His artistic affinity was already recognized when he became the first African American uniformed police composite sketch artist in the country. In 1993, Sampson moved to Newark following the tragic deaths of his wife and son. He left the police and devoted himself instead to reclaiming identity and order through an alternative means: artmaking. From his activist roots, he was well versed in the issues underlying Newark’s struggles. He began to use the very stuff of urban decay, detritus from the streets and abandoned buildings, in artmaking, which became an act of healing after the devastating loss of those whom he loved. He reinfused these objects with meanings that time and circumstance have stripped. Now a retired police officer living in Newark, Sampson continues to collect ephemera and discarded objects from the streets to create sculptural portraits, memorials, and tributes, as well as monumental and powerful expressions of social action against the sacrifice of humanity in the cogs of corporate America.
Blue Meat considers aspects of personal history, survival, and spirituality. The title comes from conversations between the artist and his Georgia-born father, who shared early memories of eating the "blue" meat of crows to survive the hardships of the Depression. Repulsed yet fascinated, Sampson recognized the spiritual dimension of crows, an intangible quality that he was then exploring through a series of three artworks. He fixed on the idea of using organic materials that had once been living, and whose animus would infuse the work with a sort of magic. According to the artist, "This particular piece deals with the Garden of Eden and the apple. If you look inside…I have constructed the biblical Garden of Eden complete with miniature landscape and waterfalls. This piece is in fact a biblical landscape.
Stacy C. Hollander, "Blue Meat, 2000" exhibition copy for American Perspectives: Stories from the American Folk Art Museum Collection. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2020.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.org