Items Similar to Untitled
Video Loading
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 10
Alan FentonUntitledca. 1960
ca. 1960
About the Item
Oil on canvas. Signed verso. Some scratched out, illegible writing in paint and graphite verso, which may have indicated the artist's original pricing, as well as a possible title.
50.25 x 36.25 in.
58 x 43.75 in. (framed)
Custom framed in a solid hardwood tray frame with a matte off-white finish.
Provenance
Private Collection, Cleveland
Private Collection, New York
Alan Fenton was born on July 29, 1927 in Cleveland, Ohio. A middle child of three, he grew up during the Depression in the difficult "Kinsman" neighborhood. As a child, Alan was a poor student and a dreamer, spending much of his day drawing. His teachers repeatedly rapped his offending hand with a ruler, not to punish him for drawing, but to "cure" his left-handedness.
When he was 17 years old, he joined the merchant marines and was stationed in Florida. Upon his discharge, he supported himself himself by boxing. In the interest of preserving his good looks and sharp mind, he hung up his gloves and returned to Cleveland to design the interior of a clothing store one of his high school buddies had just opened.
By the time he was 22 years old, Fenton had a successful career as a commercial artist and designer. He had legally changed his birth surname of "Freedman" to Fenton, presumably to avert assumptions regarding his ethnic heritage. In 1955, he married fellow Clevelander Naomi Feigenbaum, and the two newlyweds moved to New York so that he could attend Pratt Institute. He studied privately with Jack Tworkov and Adolph Gottlieb, with both remaining lifelong friends and mentors.
After the birth of his daughter Danielle, Fenton graduated with a degree in fine arts from Pratt at the age of 33. Instead of getting a job on Madison Avenue, he elected to become an abstract painter. During this period, he frequented Max's Kansas City, writing absurdist theater, poetry, and hanging with influential figures such as art dealer Dick Belamy, filmmaker/photographer Jerry Shatzberg, photographer Diane Arbus, and artists Mark Rothko, Paul Jenkins, Morris Louis, David Budd, Carl Holty, and Kyle Morris.
In 1959, Morris invited Fenton to participate in a group show of the New York School in the March Gallery on 10th Street. Shortly after the March Gallery Invitational, Fenton met the well known collector Vincent Melzac, who would later become CEO of the Corcoran Gallery. By 1960, Fenton's work was included in the Melzac Collection, alongside names such as Jack Bush, Willem de Kooning, Kenneth Noland, Morris Louis, Franz Kline, and Jackson Pollock. In the 1960s, Fenton participated in group shows in New York, San Francisco, Boston, and Connecticut, including a well-received solo exhibition at Pace Gallery. His work throughout this decade was large in scale, shifting away from expressionistic brush strokes and into color field lines and squares.
In 1966, he persuaded his real estate developer father-in-law to purchase the historic Tiffany factory at 333 Park Avenue South, and to convert into loft spaces for artists. Attracting an array of luminaries, Fenton created and managed one of Manhattan's first live/work buildings. This landmark building attracted many famous residents, visitors, and events, and became know as "Alan's factory." In 1968, Fenton's son David was born, and he began to teach at his alma mater, Pratt.
In 1977, the Phillips Collection, in coordination with the University of Iowa Museum of Art, gave Fenton a solo exhibition entitled "Alan Fenton: Washes and Drawings." This significant show ran in Washington from August 6-28, before traveling to the Iowa Museum of Art, the North Carolina Art Museum, and finally the Fort Wayne Museum of Art.
Since their introduction in 1959, Vincent Melzac was Fenton's collector, champion, dealer, and close personal friend. After Melzac passed away unexpectedly in 1989, the devastated Fenton sold his New York studio and returned to Cleveland to raise his family. He would spend the remainder of his life in his hometown, ultimately passing away on New Year's Day, 2000.
Fenton's solo exhibitions included the Pace Gallery, Phillips Collection, Isetan Galleries (Tokyo), the New York Cultural Center Museum, Barbara Fiedler Gallery, and at several state, municipal, and university art museums. Selected group shows included the Corcoran Gallery, Aldrich Museum, Pace Galleries (Boston and New York), Cleveland Museum, and numerous other galleries throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia. His work has been reviewed in Art News, Arts Magazine, The New Yorker, The New York Times, the New York Post, the Village Voice and Art International.
Source: Danielle Fenton (accessed via askART)
- Creator:Alan Fenton (1927 - 2000, American)
- Creation Year:ca. 1960
- Dimensions:Height: 50.25 in (127.64 cm)Width: 36.25 in (92.08 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:Overall good and stable condition. No evidence of restoration. Not examined under UV light. Please contact for full condition report and additional photos.
- Gallery Location:Austin, TX
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU2287214215072
Fenton's quiet and contemplative nonobjective paintings and drawings were widely recognized for their demanding yet understated means of revealing a serious and sober essence. He identified greatly with Mark Rothko, a friend, as well as Adolph Gottlieb and Jack Tworkov, with whom he had studied privately. Fenton painted in New York City in the late 50's as the explosion of Abstract Expressionism turned into a rebellion against gestural, emotional painting. More concerned about his art than his posture, he expanded upon a tradition in painting with influences as diverse as Whistler and Turner as well as Ad Reinhardt and Joseph Albers. Alan Fenton was born in Cleveland in 1927, studied at the Cleveland School of Art, The Arts Students League, The New School, and at NYU, earning his BFA at Pratt Institute, where he later taught painting for many years. At seventeen, Fenton served in the Merchant Marines where he began a career as a professional boxer, a skill he had honed on the streets. He moved successfully through the graphic design business en route to becoming a painter in New York at the height of the art revolution of the fifties and sixties. Fenton enjoyed success with his subtle washes and pencil drawings as well as large abstract canvases in acrylic, landing one-man shows at the prestigious Pace Gallery in New York, The New York Cultural Center Museum, The Barbara Fielder Gallery in Washington, et al. In his introduction to Fenton's exhibition catalogue for his one-man show at the Phillips Collection in Washington, Vincent Melzac wrote, ''Fenton is his own man, producing work that is uniquely his...in his work one feels that Fenton is testing the accepted and pushing for a newer and richer visual experience.'' In the late 60's he turned his artistic vision and business savvy towards developing creative environments where ''good and beautiful people'' could live and work together. His first endeavor was to turn the Tiffany Glass Building on lower Park Avenue into an artistic community where notable photographers, painters, and filmmakers moved in, setting the stage for a modern, hip, yet warm and friendly working space for the community which he had nurtured. He later developed the first live/work loft in Cleveland, where Fenton resided during his last years. Fenton said about his own work, ''All that happens in my work is natural and human, hard and soft, large and small, heaven and earth. All this with the image of man, (my glow) forms a system to attain the sublime. All of these paradoxes form a triad that is the way of everything. The line is the 'hard', the formless form and the imageless image is the 'soft'. They are inseparable, one cannot exist without the other.'' Fenton's work resides at The Hirschhorn Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Phillips Collection, the North Carolina Museum of Art, and The Cleveland Museum of Art, and countless others as well as in private collections.
About the Seller
No Reviews Yet
Vetted Seller
These experienced sellers undergo a comprehensive evaluation by our team of in-house experts.
Established in 2020
1stDibs seller since 2023
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Austin, TX
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 30 days of delivery.
More From This SellerView All
- UntitledLocated in Austin, TXOil on canvas. Signed lower right. 50.5 x 38.25 in. 51.5 x 39 in. (framed) Custom framed in maple. Theodore Franklin (“Ted”) Appleby, Jr. was born January 28, 1923 in Asbury Park, New Jersey to a very prominent family in Monmouth County. He attended the Pauling School in New York and studied at the atelier of John Corneal. On December 12, 1942, Appleby enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, subsequently seeing action in the Marshall Islands. Upon the conclusion of the war, he was stationed for a year in Yokohama, Japan, where he studied local engraving techniques. In 1947, after returning home, Appleby moved to Mexico for a year to study mural painting in San Miguel de Allende. Following his sojourn in Mexico, Appleby briefly returned home to the U.S. before ultimately relocating to Paris. There, he joined a lively community of expatriate American artists involved with what would come to be known as the “School of Paris.” Appleby befriended fellow Americans Sam Francis and Jackson Pollock, exhibiting extensively throughout France with the former. He also regularly visited the atelier of Fernand Léger, and was represented in the "Salon de Réalités Nouvelles" and the “Salon d’Automne” during the 1950s and 60s. From 1955 to 1961, Appleby participated in group exhibitions in Chicago, Leverkusen (Germany), Lisbon, London, and Paris. He also had three notable solo exhibitions during this period: Studio Facchetti, Paris (1956); Martha Jackson Gallery, New York (1957); and the American Cultural Center, Paris (1959). In 1957, Appleby’s work was presented at the 62nd American Exposition of Painters and Sculptors at the Chicago Art Institute, where he was awarded the Norman Wait Harris Bronze Medal and Prize. Answering the famed artist André Lhote’s call to help save the village of Alba-la-Romaine in the Ardèche, Appleby and his wife - the artist Hope Manchester - purchased a home in the village in 1950, ultimately settling there until their deaths. Source: Taylor Graham GalleryCategory
1950s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
- Paysage aux RochersBy Gabriel GodardLocated in Austin, TXOil on canvas. Signed and dated lower left. 51 x 38 in. 52.5 x 39.25 in. (framed) Framed in maple. Gabriel Godard, a self-taught painter, was born in 1933 in Delouze, France. Hist...Category
1960s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
- Komposition rot/schwarzLocated in Austin, TXOil on canvas. Signed and dated lower left, inscribed label verso. 59.25 x 55.25 in. 61 x 57 in. (framed) Custom framed in a wooden double tray frame, hand-painted white. Provenance Galerie Lovers of Fine Art, Gstaad, Switzerland This work has been recorded under no. 1531 in the digital Catalogue Raisonné of the artist, prepared by Michel Reymondin, Montreux, Switzerland. Carl Walter Liner was born in the Swiss canton of Appenzell, near the border with Liechtenstein, in 1914. The son of famed artist Carl August Liner, the younger Liner enjoyed more critical and commercial renown for his landscapes. In 1938 at the age of 24, he undertook what would become the first of several residencies in Paris. This particular sojourn helped to establish the trajectory of his career, as Paris would provide the setting in which he became acquainted with early twentieth century masters Maurice de Vlaminck, Georges Braque, Ossip Zadkine, Gérard Schneider, and Erich Heckel. The stylistic and technical influence of his contemporaries is clearly evident in Liner’s work from this point forward. Unfortunately, the dawn of the 1940s would bring about a number of challenges for Liner. With the outbreak of war, Liner was mobilized for the Swiss Border Guard, and returned home to Switzerland in 1939. He remained on active duty until 1945, only to lose his father the following year. The death of the elder Liner left a profound impact on his son, who eventually made his way back to Paris in 1947 and embarked upon what would become a very successful series of nudes. By his own admission, 1948 was a pivotal year in Liner’s career, as a particularly spiritual trip to Algeria would foment the emotions led to the beginning of his practice with abstraction. Henceforth, Liner would vacillate between the figurative and abstract, creating parallel oeuvres. His abstraction from the 1950s and 60s mirrored...Category
1960s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
- UntitledBy Michael GoldbergLocated in Austin, TXOil, pastel, and paper collage on canvas. Signed and dated verso. 52.75 x 47.75 in. 54 x 49 in. (framed) Gilded floater frame. Provenance Compass Rose, Chicago Born Sylvan Irwin Goldberg in 1924 and raised in the Bronx, Michael Goldberg was an important figure in American Abstract Expressionism, who began taking art classes at the Art Students League in 1938. A gifted student, Goldberg finished high school at the age of 14 and enrolled in City College. He soon found New York’s jazz scene to be a more compelling environment, and he began skipping classes in favor of the Harlem jazz clubs near campus. Goldberg’s love of jazz would become a lifelong passion and a key component to his approach to composition in his paintings. From 1940 to 1942, like many of the leading artists of the New York School, Goldberg studied with Hans Hofmann. In 1943, he put his pursuit of painting on hold and enlisted in the U.S. Army. Serving in North Africa, Burma, and India, Goldberg received a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star before being discharged in 1946. After his service, he traveled and worked in Venezuela before returning to the United States, settling back in New York and resuming studies with Hofmann and at the Art Students League. Living downtown and frequenting the Cedar Bar, Goldberg befriended many of the artists of the New York School. In 1951, his work was included in the groundbreaking Ninth Street Show, co-organized by Leo Castelli, Conrad Marca-Relli, and the Eighth Street Club, and featuring the work of - among others - Hofmann, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Franz Kline. In 1953, the Tibor de Nagy...Category
1980s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Pastel, Mixed Media, Oil, Handmade Paper
- July FourthLocated in Austin, TXOil on canvas. Signed and titled verso. 40.25 x 56.25 in. 40.75 x 56.75 in. (framed) Custom framed in a whitewashed cherry closed-corner frame. Aaron Levy was born in New York Cit...Category
1960s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
- UntitledBy John OpperLocated in Austin, TXOil on canvas. Signed lower right, signed and dated verso. 62.25 x 56.25 in. 64 x 58 in. (framed) Custom framed in a natural cherry wood floater. Provenance Washburn Gallery, New York Behnke Doherty Gallery, Washington Depot, CT Born in 1908 in Chicago, John Opper moved with his family to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1916. In high school, he began studying art and attending classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art. After graduation, he enrolled in the Cleveland School of Art (now Cleveland Institute of Art), only to withdraw after a year and move to Chicago, where he took classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. He eventually returned to Cleveland, enrolling at Western Reserve University (now Case Western Reserve), receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1931. The Depression has taken hold during this period, so Opper found work by teaching metalworking and sketching classes at the Karamu Settlement House, the oldest African American theater in the United States. In 1933, Opper traveled to Gloucester, Massachusetts, eventually connecting with the artist Hans Hofmann, who was teaching at the school run by Ernest Thurn. Hofmann encouraged Opper to work “in a more modern vein and start finding what it’s all about.” Heeding this advice, Opper relocated to New York, co-founding a mail-order club of American and British prints for dissemination to schools and museums. By the mid-1930s, he joined the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Easel Division, and also began attending the 57th Street school that Hans Hofmann had established after leaving the Art Students League. Looking back at his time at the school, Opper felt that beyond Hofmann’s teaching, most advantageous was his contact with fellow artists, including Byron Browne, Rosalind Bengelsdorf, and George McNeil. At the time, he also met Giorgio Cavallon and the sculptor Wilfrid Zogbaum. In 1936, Opper became a founding member of the American Abstract Artists, along with Balcomb and Gertrude Greene. The organization was formed to provide an opportunity for artists to show abstract works at a time when such opportunities were scarce. This led to his first solo show in 1937 at the Artists’ Gallery in New York. During his summer in Gloucester in 1933, Opper came to know Milton Avery. Painting in Avery’s informal studio in New York City the following winter, he became acquainted with Adolph Gottlieb and Mark Rothko. Opper participated in a couple of shows during the 1930s of the American Artists Congress Against War and Fascism, whose president was Stuart Davis. About the same period, Opper joined the Artists’ Union and served as the business manager of its publication, Art Front. During World War II, Opper worked for a ship design company creating drawings for piping systems used in PT boats...Category
1950s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
You May Also Like
- Hot Fox in the Henhouse - Large Scale Abstract Expressionist PaintingBy Wesley KimlerLocated in Chicago, ILWesley Kimler (born 1953) an American artist based in Chicago, Illinois, is known for his colossal paintings, up to 15 feet high and 27 feet wide. According to critic Kevin Nance, th...Category
2010s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Mixed Media, Oil
- "Pond I, " Alan Fenton, Abstract Expressionism, New York School, Color FieldLocated in New York, NYAlan Fenton (1927 - 2000) Pond I, 1958 Oil on canvas 81 x 90 inches Signed, titled and dated on the reverse Fenton's quiet and contemplative nonobjective paintings and drawings were...Category
1950s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
- "Untitled, " Alan Fenton, Abstract Expressionism, New York School, Color FieldLocated in New York, NYAlan Fenton (1927 - 2000) Untitled, 1958-1960 Oil on canvas 90 x 84 inches Fenton's quiet and contemplative nonobjective paintings and drawings were widely recognized for their demanding yet understated means of revealing a serious and sober essence. He identified greatly with Mark Rothko, a friend, as well as Adolph Gottlieb and Jack Tworkov, with whom he had studied privately. Fenton painted in New York City in the late 50's as the explosion of Abstract Expressionism turned into a rebellion against gestural, emotional painting. More concerned about his art than his posture, he expanded upon a tradition in painting with influences as diverse as Whistler and Turner as well as Ad Reinhardt and Joseph Albers. Alan Fenton was born in Cleveland in 1927, studied at the Cleveland School of Art, The Arts Students League, The New School, and at NYU, earning his BFA at Pratt Institute, where he later taught painting for many years. At seventeen, Fenton served in the Merchant Marines where he began a career as a professional boxer, a skill he had honed on the streets. He moved successfully through the graphic design business en route to becoming a painter in New York at the height of the art revolution of the fifties and sixties. Fenton enjoyed success with his subtle washes and pencil drawings as well as large abstract...Category
1950s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
- "Untitled, " Alan Fenton, Abstract Expressionism, New York School, Color FieldLocated in New York, NYAlan Fenton (1927 - 2000) Untitled, 1958-1960 Oil on canvas 90 x 84 inches Fenton's quiet and contemplative nonobjective paintings and drawings were widel...Category
1950s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
- "Untitled, " Alan Fenton, Abstract Expressionism, New York School, Color FieldLocated in New York, NYAlan Fenton (1927 - 2000) Untitled, 1958-1960 Oil on canvas 88 x 82 1/2 inches Signed on the stretcher Fenton's quiet and contemplative nonobjective paintings and drawings were widely recognized for their demanding yet understated means of revealing a serious and sober essence. He identified greatly with Mark Rothko, a friend, as well as Adolph Gottlieb and Jack Tworkov, with whom he had studied privately. Fenton painted in New York City in the late 50's as the explosion of Abstract Expressionism turned into a rebellion against gestural, emotional painting. More concerned about his art than his posture, he expanded upon a tradition in painting with influences as diverse as Whistler and Turner as well as Ad Reinhardt and Joseph Albers. Alan Fenton was born in Cleveland in 1927, studied at the Cleveland School of Art, The Arts Students League, The New School, and at NYU, earning his BFA at Pratt Institute, where he later taught painting for many years. At seventeen, Fenton served in the Merchant Marines where he began a career as a professional boxer, a skill he had honed on the streets. He moved successfully through the graphic design business en route to becoming a painter in New York at the height of the art revolution of the fifties and sixties. Fenton enjoyed success with his subtle washes and pencil drawings as well as large abstract canvases...Category
1950s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
- "Untitled, " Alan Fenton, Abstract Expressionism, New York School, Color FieldLocated in New York, NYAlan Fenton (1927 - 2000) Untitled, 1958-1960 Oil on canvas 89 x 83 inches Signed on the stretcher Fenton's quiet and contemplative nonobjective paintings and drawings were widely r...Category
1950s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Oil
