Marcus John Rabun

Marcus John Rabun: (1960s - 1990s). Painter/artist born in the Charleston, SC area in the 1960s. Traveled and lived back and forth from Charleston, SC, to Atlanta, GA. Died in the late 1990s from AIDS. Works include acrylic on canvas, landscapes, and murals. Marcus gave and sold many of his art pieces to friends in Atlanta and Charleston. Marcus showed and sold several African themed pieces (ironic because Marcus was caucasian) in Charleston at the annual Spoletto Festival USA. He thought it was funny because many of the buyers were African American and were surprised when they inquired AbOUT the artist and found it was him. These "African pieces" were flat to hang on the wall, but also had a 3-dimensional effect in that the content of the subject matter was painted wood cutouts (people, plants, etc.) and were painted in a style that had little dots all over them. The dots were far apartment, more like small polk-a-dots, not like "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" by George Seurat. He also painted a huge mural in a bank in some small town in South Carolina, and did a “storm clouds” ceiling in a restaurant/bar on East Bay Street in Charleston. He was really upset because of the owner of the restaurant said that he did not want Marcus’ signature on the piece in the ceiling and requested (or did have) him to paint over it. Marcus also sold several room divider screens made out of tri-fold doors, and sold some of these commercially through a business called Twentieth Century Antiques, located in the Virginia Highlands of Atlanta on Highland Avenue. He also did a few murals in private homes in a prestigious area of Atlanta called Buckhead. During the last few years of his life his paintings became more dreary and ominous, like the “stairway to heaven” piece sold to a lady in Buckhead. Late works include "Skyward" 1990, "Freedom" 1991, and (Untitled) "For Steven Haynes" written on the back of the canvas frame 1992.