Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 9

Harry Bertschmann
Large Harry Bertschmann Swiss American Abstract Expressionist Outsider Painting

About the Item

Harry Bertschmann (Swiss American, born 1931). Acrylic painting on paper. Artist signature to lower right. Provenance: Joy Moos Gallery (this was exhibited at the Outsider Art Fair) Work Size: 24 x 37.5 in. Framed 28 x 41. Harry Bertschmann (Swiss -American) was born in Basel, Switzerland in 1931. His fine art output defies easy categorization and spans genre genre as diverse as figurative, abstract, expressionist, hard edge, surrealist and constructivist. Bertschmann graduated at the top of his class of 1949 at the Basel School of Design (Kunstgewerbeschule) in Switzerland. They had an exceptional graphic design department where he excelled. He moved to the USA where his first champion was Henry J. Kurth, an internationally known set designer in Cleveland. Kurth curated two solo exhibitions for Bertschmann at the avant-garde Howard Wise Gallery, which would later move to New York and pioneer in kinetic art. Bertschmann soon achieved success as a young man with a first prize at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Consequently, in 1958 he was accepted to the prestigious Bicentennial in Pittsburgh known as the Carnegie International. At only twenty-seven, he was the youngest exhibitor, and one of his large canvases hung beside those by members of the first generation of the New York School Abstract Expressionism such as Mark Rothko, Franz Kline, Barnett Newman, Philip Guston, and Robert Motherwell. During that decade he was represented by the Howard Wise Gallery in Cleveland and New York City, where in 1961 his solo exhibition followed one for Elaine de Kooning. He later found great success as a graphic designer, first in Cleveland, and from 1962-on in New York. Every day throughout his life he broke from his design work and made visual leaps that challenged emerging movements. Persistently experimental, he delighted in discovering new dynamics — not only within abstract and figurative expressionism but in stylistic movements as seemingly disparate as Hard Edge, Photorealism, Minimalism, and Pop art. His iconic graphic design work is legendary having created the logos for Kent and Newport cigarettes, Nestlé’s, Advil, Excedrin, and Bufferin to name a few. By night he resolutely pursued his fine art, fluidly alternating between two paths of expressionism — figurative and abstract. Within these two major genres he produced series after series but largely avoided exhibiting them. Indeed, owing to his success in the commercial world, the pursuit of galleries was never a pressing matter. That is why his immaculate studio became an astonishing time capsule preserving hundreds of rolled canvases and seventy years of paintings on paper, pastels, and drawings in a series of large flat files. His total output of unique artworks approaches that of Pablo Picasso. In 1997 Swiss colleagues arranged for a retrospective at the Gewerbeverband Basel-Stadt of Bertschmann’s highly visible career in design as well as his relatively obscure fine art painting. His work has since been included in numerous private collections and museums. Joy Moos gallery was an influential gallery specializing in folk art, self-taught visionary, outsider and contemporary art (Galerie Moos, Montréal; Joy Moos Gallery, Miami. Joy was a recognized photographer, jewelry designer and interior decorator. She wrote a catalogue on Purvis Young and promoted Cuban artist Ramon Carulla. Her gallery also showed major contemporary artists such as Robert Rauschenberg of Captiva Island and Edward Ruscha of Los Angeles.
More From This SellerView All
  • Modernist Abstract Expressionist Mod Day Glo Neon Color Field Acrylic Painting
    By Lamar Briggs
    Located in Surfside, FL
    Large Abstract Expressionist color field painting. Similar in the manner of the colorful abstract works of Paul Jenkins. This one is a very vibrant day glo neon color. This is bein...
    Category

    1980s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Acrylic, Archival Paper

  • Stanley Boxer Mixed Media Abstract Expressionist Painting on Paper, Gold
    By Stanley Boxer
    Located in Surfside, FL
    Abstract, 1987 Hand signed and dated verso Not sure of technique. this might be a monotype or monoprint with hand painting. The handmade paper is cut somewhat irregularly as per the artists intentions. Stanley Boxer (1926-May 8, 2000) was an American abstract expressionist artist best known for thickly painted abstract works of art. He was also an accomplished sculptor and printmaker. He received awards from the Guggenheim Fellowship and the National Endowment for the Arts. Boxer was born in New York City, and began his formal education after World War II, when he left the Navy and studied at the Art Students League of New York. He drew, painted, made prints, and sculpted. His work was recognized by art critic Clement Greenberg, who categorized him as a color field painter, A group that included Barnett Newman, Clyfford Still, and Mark Rothko and was a form of Abstract Expressionism and later included Helen Frankenthaler, Ad Reinhardt, Kenneth Noland, Gene Davis, Jules Olitski, Raymond Parker and Morris Louis. Boxer himself was adamant in rejecting this stylistic label. Over the years, he remained loyal to the materially dense abstract mode on which his reputation rested.. Art critic Grace Glueck wrote "Never part of a movement or trend, though obviously steeped in the language of Modernism, the abstract painter Stanley Boxer was a superb manipulator of surfaces, intensely bonding texture and color." In 1953 Boxer had his first solo exhibition of paintings in New York City, and showed regularly thereafter until his death. His paintings and sculpture were represented in New York City during the late 1960s through 1974 by the Tibor de Nagy Gallery, then by the André Emmerich Gallery from 1975 until 1993, and finally by Salander-O'Reilly Galleries until its demise in 2007. Richard Waller...
    Category

    1980s Abstract Expressionist Mixed Media

    Materials

    Archival Paper, Acrylic, Gouache

  • Modernist Abstract Expressionist Color Field Acrylic "April Dance Form" Painting
    By Lamar Briggs
    Located in Surfside, FL
    Large Abstract Expressionist color field painting. Similar in the manner of the colorful abstract works of Paul Jenkins. This one is a bit more muted in color. Lamar Briggs (1935-2...
    Category

    1980s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Acrylic, Archival Paper

  • Chinese American Abstract Expressionist Zen Space Painting WangMing Color School
    Located in Surfside, FL
    Wang Ming "Enter the World of Infinity" Acrylic paint on Japon paper mounted on canvas Dimensions: H: 39 inches: W: 25 inches WANG MING WANG Artist Ming Wang, born November 4, 1921, died peacefully on Sunday, June 26, 2016 in Bethesda. Ming Wang was born in Tianjin, China and was a pilot in Chinese Nationalist Air Force during WWII. Artist Wang Ming's journey began in the 1940s. As he worked as an air traffic controller in Taiwan, he became interested in the beauty of the sky. He was a young man then, having fled from Japanese-occupied China in 1939 at age 18. He came to the US for further military training where he met his first wife, the late Suen Chin. In 1949, Wang went Taiwan to escape the Communist takeover of China. He rejoined his wife and young son in Washington DC in 1951. To support a growing family, Wang founded the National Art and Frame shop in Washington DC. He studied art independently and developed his unique artistic style melding modern art with traditional Chinese calligraphy. His paintings, done with a mixture of inks and acrylics on fine paper, are a happy marriage of traditional Chinese disciplines with Western art as it has been handled by Joan Miro and Paul Klee. His works are minimalist and abstract, marked with good design and extremely sensitive use of color. The influence of 1950s American art and abstract expressionism is also clear in his work, and he exhibited with such Washington Color School luminaries as Kenneth Noland and Gene Davis in the 1960s. He later taught calligraphy at George Washington University. Years before the Hubble Telescope began broadcasting images of rainbow clouds and blood red stars, Ming used art to convey what he imagined space to be. His work captured the attention of James Dean, the National Air and Space Museum's first art collector, who purchased two of his pieces. In the 1960's and 1970's, Wang was represented by the Franz Bader Gallery in Washington DC. 1980: Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York American Drawing in Black & White: 1970-1980, by curator Gene Baro. “The visitors are invited to enjoy the rich variety of marks and means used in attacking subjects that range from meticulous representational rendering to extemporaneous gesture.” Included among many other artists, were Anni Albers, Jasper Johns, Willem De Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, Jack Tworkov, Robert Motherwell and Andy Warhol. 1982: The Washington Post, by Jo Ann Lewis “His show at the Marvin Center at George Washington University, where he teaches calligraphy, should help clarify the unique nature of his art . ... ‘Independent Reality,’ in which dramatic curves dance across an opened scroll, taking on a life of their own-in any language. The show is filled with the artist’s very special of visual poetry.” He was included in the exhibition American Drawing in Black & White: 1970-1980, by curator Gene Baro at the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York. Included among many other artists, were Anni Albers, Jasper Johns, Willem De Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, Jack Tworkov, Robert Motherwell and Andy Warhol. Wang Ming was also included in the show Asian Traditions/Modern Expressions Asian American Artists and Abstraction, 1945 – 1970 at the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey New Brunswick. The senior curator Jeffrey Wechsler reviewed each artist for this traveling group exhibition, including C. C. Wang, Chen chi, Kenzo Okada...
    Category

    1980s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Linen, Acrylic, Archival Paper

  • Monumental Texas Modernist Abstract Expressionist Color Field Acrylic Painting
    By Lamar Briggs
    Located in Surfside, FL
    size is with frame. this is a very large piece. Bright, vivid, large Abstract Expressionist color field painting. Similar in the manner of the colorful abstract works of Paul Jenkins...
    Category

    1980s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Acrylic, Archival Paper

  • Gestural Abstraction, Miniature Abstract Expressionist Korean Modernist Painting
    By Don Ahn
    Located in Surfside, FL
    *Card pictured after painting not included. Dongkuk Ahn (1937-2013), better known as Don Ahn, was a South Korean artist and t'ai chi master who resided in New York City. Don Ahn (A...
    Category

    Late 20th Century Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Paper, Ink, Acrylic

You May Also Like

Recently Viewed

View All