Baltimore Artist Pexcho Sells $2800 Boxing Painting for .50 ¢, Provided Buyer Carries 8-Foot Tall Piece on 4-Mile Walk.
Pexcho's Harry Jeffra painting to be physically walked from Made In Metal (MIM) Gallery to Buyer’s home via route through Baltimore’s Historic Clipper Mill and Hampden Neighborhoods.
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Baltimore, Maryland January 30, 2007 :
Peter Excho’s Oil and Mixed Media painting of Harry Jeffra, Baltimore’s First Two Division Boxing Champion, was executed on a canvas measuring nearly 5 feet wide and over 8 feet long. Pexcho’s massive painting depicts Jeffra’s second round knockdown of then World Featherweight Champion Joey Archibald, in which Jeffra won a 15 round decision. This historic Baltimore Coliseum bout of May 20, 1940 propelled Jeffra into Baltimore’s Boxing history with two titles; Bantamweight and Featherweight Champion.
Pexcho’s Jeffra painting was originally displayed at his MIM Gallery opening July 15, 2006 with a price tag of $2800, along with 6 smaller paintings and a set of Pen & Ink Drawings. The Pen & Inks were reproduced as a set of 22 Giclee Print Post Cards, depicting Baltimore’s Pugilistic History with cards of Joe Gans, the Finazzo Brothers, Al Herford, and even Sugar Ray Leonard.
Frustrated with the state of the Art Patron Communities in both Washington, D.C. and Baltimore City, artist Pexcho decided that enough was enough. “No one wants to pay for real art anymore”; Pexcho lamented in August of 2006 as he moved the Jeffra painting from MIM to his home/studio in West Baltimore. After about a week, Jo-Ann Aiken, the owner of MIM, decided she really liked the Jeffra painting and said “that it should stay in the Salon; it is a beautiful piece…certainly someone will buy it”. Coincidentally, the day Jo-Ann called Pexcho to ask him to bring the Jeffra painting back to MIM, Peter’s wife Tonya was trying to convince him not to “hack up” the canvas and wood frame. He did not have room in his home/studio to properly store the Jeffra painting, so Pexcho was going to recycle the huge painting into several smaller new paintings.
The painting depicting Harry Jeffra, standing over his opponent he just knocked down in the 2nd round, languished and collected dust in Made In Metal over the summer and fall of 2006. Pexcho, on a whim decided that he did not want to take his monstrous Jeffra Painting back home and essentially destroy the piece out of necessity. “Jo-Ann (Aiken) should sell it for .50 cents and make the buyer walk home with it in the cold and rain or even snow”. “If people don’t want to pay hard earned cash for my painting, then they should pay for it with their time and sweat”, says Pexcho. “Time is Money”. “Let’s just see if they can get this home in one piece.”
Nearly six months to the day after Pexcho’s Harry Jeffra Painting was put on public display at MIM Gallery & Salon, a buyer has been found. Since the Buyer lives only a short distance away from MIM, Peter Excho has laid out a route approximately 4 miles in length from Clipper Mill to the Buyer’s home in Hampden. To make this journey a worthwhile event, Pexcho hopes that sponsors will come forward, so funds can be raised to benefit disadvantaged youth in Baltimore City. “Someone should sponsor those who are going to walk the 4 miles with the Jeffra Painting in the wind and rain or snow”, says Pexcho. “It would be great if some money could be raised to buy some poor kids boxing equipment and to pay their fees at one of the local boxing gyms.”
“Kids need to get off their ass and do something”, says Pexcho. “They don’t have the eye of the tiger anymore. Maybe giving a young person in Baltimore a chance and a scholarship to a local Boxing Club, with new gloves and gear, will change their life, get them off the street and NOT make them a statistic.”
“No date has been set for this Three-Hour Tour”, says Peter Excho. “We would like this to happen before the end of February, since I want the weather to be a factor in the Buyer’s decision to try and take the easy way out”. Of the .50 cents paid for the Harry Jeffra painting, Pexcho will realize only .30 cents, after MIM’s sales commission.
Send an email to dinoseer of http://www.pexcho.com/
410.448.7624
Keywords:
Pexcho, Metal, Boxing
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