Ray Parker

"Untitled" Ray Parker, Blue Color Field Abstract Painting

1969

Sherron Francis Untitled, circa 1975 Acrylic on canvas 90 x 64 inches Artists such as Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, Dan Christensen, and Sam Francis are already well-known name...

Jay Rosenblum (1933 - 1989) Untitled, 1973 Acrylic on canvas 54 x 128 inches Signed twice and dated on the reverse Provenance: Private Collection, Long Island Jay Rosenblum experim...

SHERRON FRANCIS (AMERICAN, B. 1940) Pete's Neck, 1981 Acrylic on canvas 34 1/2 x 22 inches Signed, titled and dated on the reverse A reappraisal is lo...

SHERRON FRANCIS (AMERICAN, B. 1940) Trap Rock, 1972 Acrylic on canvas 22 3/4 x 16 inches Signed, titled and dated on the reverse A reappraisal is long overdue for the second-generation abstract expressionists. Artists such as Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, Dan Christensen, and Sam Francis are already well-known names. However, Sherron Francis, a female artist from the Midwestern United States, exhibited alongside many of these stars, yet has not been the recipient of a major exhibition in nearly 40 years. Francis was born in the Chicago suburb of Downers Grove, Illinois in 1940. She studied fine art at the University of Oklahoma from 1958 to 1960 before transferring to the Kansas City Art Institute for better educational opportunities. At the time, Francis remained loyal to figurative art. Philip Pearlstein, a contemporary artist and visiting professor once remarked at the confidence of Francis’ draftsman abilities. In the early 1960s, art dealers and gallerists from New York would visit the Institute to recruit artists by offering scholarships, but they only offered these scholarships to men. Francis was forced to plead with deans to allow a scholarship for women so that she could continue her studies. She ultimately graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1963. In Missouri, Francis met Dan Christensen (Class of 1964), an artist friend, who would play a key role in her career throughout the next two decades. Francis then received her MFA from the University of Indiana, where she was housemates with Mernet Larsen, before assuming a teaching position at Eastern Michigan University. In 1968, with only $300 on hand, Francis moved to 16 Waverly Place in Soho. At the time, the neighborhood boasted some of the biggest names in abstract expressionism. She quickly became friends with Peter Reginato, Walter Darby Bannard, Michael Steiner, Peter Young, Larry Zox, and Larry Poons, who all lived and worked in the neighborhood. In fact, Francis introduced Larry Poons to his now wife, Paula, a friend and student of Sherron’s. Francis helped to found The Bowery Gallery in 1969 and received her first solo exhibition there in 1970 for her figurative works. After this exhibition, Francis decided to switch to abstraction. By 1971, Christensen, who was exhibiting with Andre Emmerich, introduced Francis to the legendary gallerist. There was no better gallery to be showcasing abstract expressionism and color field painting during this decade for an artist. For example, in 1972, Emmerich held solo exhibitions by art titans, such as Hans Hofmann, Al Held, Esteban Vicente, David Hockney, and Morris Louis. In 1973 alone, Emmerich gave one-person exhibitions to Helen Frankenthaler, Kenneth Noland, Hans Hofmann, Jack Bush and a new discovery: 32-year-old Sherron Francis. The January 27 - February 14 exhibition for Francis was a great success with Peter Schjeldahl commenting in the New York Times: “Francis has…sidestepped the danger of seeming hopelessly derivative of such artists as Mark Rothko, Morris Louis and Helen Frankenthaler —by, it seems to me, the use of a single canny formal device. All her canvases are tall, vertical rectangles. What this shape achieves is a physical presence that supports the paintings' fragile play of color and texture. Bearing roughly the proportions of the human body, but bigger in size, her pictures confront the viewer with a satisfying firmness, inviting delectation.” Francis’s career now took off with the stain paintings. In a 1974 article in Arts Magazine, Whee Kim writes, “She has asserted the credibility of her own answer to the problem of the outer edge of a canvas by limiting her investigations to a singular central image. In her variations on this theme, an intuitive sense of color and touch is given restricted free-play.” Schjeldahl added, “Her paintings, stained and brushed to a suavely grainy texture, each float an area of warm, soft color in a somewhat less‐intensely colored field. The areas are amorphous in shape and closely related, by hue, to the surrounding fields. Her colors run to luxurious brown‐golds, dreamy bluegreens and dusty pinks, though each canvas is alive with a variety of evanescent hues and tints. The goal of her art is to be at once as gorgeous and as delicate as possible: she intends to ravish.” In 1973, Francis exhibited at the Whitney Biennial and then received a second solo exhibition at Emmerich the following year. Corporate collections and private enthusiasts, including Helen Frankenthaler, rushed to purchase her paintings. More than sixty of her paintings sold in one year at Emmerich’s gallery. Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, Francis exhibited at other leading American galleries, including Janie C. Lee Gallery in Houston, Barbara Kornblatt Gallery in Baltimore, Douglas Drake in Kansas City, Rubiner Gallery in Detroit, and Tibor de Nagy Gallery in New York. Francis always marched to the beat to her own drum. Although she admired the works of Jules Olitski, Jack Bush, and Kenneth Noland, Francis never felt that her work and lifestyle were influenced by others. When her friends summered in the...

Sherron Francis Untitled, 1973 Acrylic on canvas 70 x 48 inches Artists such as Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, Dan Christensen, and Sam Francis are already well-known names. How...

Knox Martin (1923 - 2022) Untitled Signed to lower edge Acrylic and gold foil on canvas 9 x 9 inches Knox Martin (1923-2022) was an esteemed New York School painter. Knox Martin was born in 1923 in Barranquilla, Colombia. He was the son of the aviator, painter, and poet William Knox Martin, the first man to fly over the Andes Mountains. After serving in World War II, Knox Martin attended the Art Students League of New York on the G.I. Bill from 1946-1950, where he studied with Harry Sternberg, Vaclav Vytlacil, Will Barnet, and Morris Kantor. In 1954, Knox Martin's friend Franz Kline placed a painting of his in the Stable Gallery Annual. Charles Egan of the renowned Charles Egan Gallery saw Knox Martin's painting at the Stable Gallery and asked Martin to show his work in a one-man show for the tenth anniversary of the Egan Gallery. Since then, Knox Martin was a celebrated painter, sculptor and muralist. Knox Martin had an extensive exhibition record and his work is in museum, corporate and private collections worldwide. His two best-known murals in NYC are Venus and Woman with Bicycle...

Abstract expressionist work of art by Joseph Hicks. Joseph Hicks’s works are bright and colorful, full of life and creativity. His canvases are full of energy and dynamism due to t...

Tondo. Clifford Singer had done several tondo paintings in the late 1980s which work with spirals.

Acrylic on canvas. Signed, titled, and dated on verso. 86 x 74 in. 87.25 x 75.25 in. (framed) Please note: Our framing studio could not accommodate the scale of this work, so it is being sold as-acquired. The canvas is housed in an original “studio strip” frame installed by the artist. Please see condition notes below for additional details and an assessment of condition. Provenance Steve Chase Design, Palm Springs, CA Ronnie Landfield was born in the Bronx, NY on January 9, 1947 - the same day as his older brother. As a teenager, he was encouraged to pursue a career as an artist, subsequently creating his first real paintings around the age of 14. He was particularly influenced by a Life magazine article from 1961 on the Abstract Expressionists, most notably: Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Adolph Gottlieb, Hans Hofmann, Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still, Robert Motherwell and Franz Kline. After stints at the Art Students League, the Kansas City Art Institute, the San Francisco Art Institute, and the University of California at Berkeley, Landfield’s professional career as a painter began in New York in 1965. The following year, after completing a major series of hard-edge border paintings, success as a painter began to materialize. The famous architect and collector Philip Johnson and the collector Robert Scull each acquired large paintings works, as did the Sheldon Memorial Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1967, Landfield was invited to participate in the Whitney Annual at the end of the year. His work attracted considerable attention, and he was invited to participate in important group exhibitions at the Bykert, Bianchini, and Park Place Galleries in New York. Landfield joined the David Whitney...

An emblematic example of Paul Jenkins mastery. It is not by hazard that Phenomena West Mantle was chosen as the cover of the catalogue for the groundbreaking exhibition "Paul Jenkins...

Charles Arnoldi, is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker. He was born April 10, 1946 in Dayton, Ohio. Charles Arnoldi has been described as an artist who “draws in space” to...

Charles Arnoldi, is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker. He was born April 10, 1946 in Dayton, Ohio. Charles Arnoldi has been described as an artist who “draws in space” to...