William Scharf

"Tropic of Crucifix" William Scharf, Abstract Expressionist, New York School

1957

Alan 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...

Alan 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...

Alan Fenton (1927 - 2000) Untitled, 1958-1960 Oil on canvas 90 x 84 inches Fenton's quiet and contemplative nonobjective paintings and drawings were widel...

Alan 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...

Alan 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...

Alan Fenton (1927 - 2000) Untitled, 1958-1960 Oil on canvas 96 x 78 inches Fenton's quiet and contemplative nonobjective paintings and drawings were widel...

Johannes Boekhoudt is a Dutch artist born on October 20, 1966. In 1973, Boekhoudt immigrated with his parents to Costa Rica, eventually working as a commercial and air ambulance pilo...

Medium Sized Floral Abstract Geometric Oil Painting on Canvas. BIO: Carrie Johnson was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in the Chicago subur...

Medium Sized Abstract Geometric Oil Painting on Canvas. BIO: Carrie Johnson was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in the Chicago suburbs. She ...

Represented by George Billis Gallery. When a simple vertical line finds itself in the midst of accidental organic chaos, a sense of directionality and stability is introduced. The l...

Ripples in Space - Abstract Composition Original Oil Painting Vibrant abstract composition of paint, paper, enamel, and glitter by unknown artist "DeZulio" or "Dejulio". Several pie...

Divide by artist Doug Freed is a deep blue contemporary abstract landscape oil on canvas painting that measures 72 x 96 and is priced at $18,000. Doug Freed attempts to capture the mystical light found in natural atmospheric effects: the haze in the distance on humid summer days, the overcast gloom of winter skies, and the softness of landscape bathed in fog, and the quieting mood of approaching darkness. In his luminescent multi-paneled oil paintings Freed tries to find the gray area between traditional landscape painting and its abstraction into color fields. Artist Statement For nearly twenty years, I made non-objective grid structured paintings. I started to see references to landscape in these works. I've literalized those references by painting oil landscape vistas of horizons, clouds and bodies of water. These paintings consist of two or more vertical panels. Usually one panel is landscape imagery. The adjacent panels are often atmospheric voids with vestiges of recognizable landscapes. I try to capture the mystical light found in natural atmospheric effects: the haze in the distance on humid summer days, the overcast gloom of winter skies, and the softness of landscape bathed in fog, and the quieting mood of approaching darkness. My intent is to create paintings imbued with a meditative, spiritual presence suggesting issues about time and ecology. I do this by softly modulating color, tone and value. The color varies from quiet, monochromatic works to fully orchestrated chromatic ones. By blending from one hue to another I create color which makes its self gradually felt, weeping forth. In this manner, I create illusions of mysterious emanations of light, places where ones eyes and spirit are invited to linger. I try to imbue my work with a monumental presence, epic in both size and scope. I do this by orchestrating the separate elements of color, texture and structure into a harmonious whole. I seek a somewhat reductive image rich in value and contrast. The surface of the work is devoid of textural incidence. I don’t want anything to distract from the illusion of depth so I deny any marks which would hold the viewer on the surface of the painting. In my luminescent multi- paneled oil paintings I try to find the grey area between traditional landscape painting and its abstraction into color fields. The compositions are about ambiguities of form and void, foreground and background and surface and deep space. My roots lie in tonalism, color field painting and minimalism. However, my work contains an ever-present awareness of the dramatic use of light of the post-renaissance chiaroscurists. It combines a classical awareness of structure with a romantic use of color always in combination with a unique sense of ambiguity. My work continues in its evolution of style the search for an abstract means of probing the ambiguities of physical and spiritual experience of light, and its power to foster a more intense life of the spirit through profound emotional experience of form, color and composition. SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS K.U. Medical Center, Wichita, KS Museum of Art & Archeology University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri Hoecht Marion Roussel (Commission), Kansas City, Missouri FBL Financial Group, Des Moines, IA Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri Wichita Center for the Arts, Wichita, Kansas Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, Missouri The Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, Missouri Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Steinberg Collection, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, Arkansas College of Architecture and Design, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas Fort Hays, Kansas State University, Hays, Kansas Memorial Union Collection, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri Norman R. Eppink Art Gallery, Emporia State University,, Emporia, Kansas Hutchinson Community College, Hutchinson, Kansas Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, Kansas Lincoln College, Lincoln, Illinois State Fair Community College, Sedalia, Missouri Hallmark Cards Inc., Kansas City, Missouri Sprint Corporation, Kansas City, Missouri MacGraw Hill Publishing Co., New York City, New York Pioneer Hybrid, Des Moines, Iowa Pella Corporation, Pella, Iowa Fort Smith Public Library (Commission), Fort Smith, Arkansas Deloitte & Touche (Commission), St. Louis, Missouri Publishing Enterprises, Inc. (Commission), Sedalia, Missouri Parks & Recreation Department, Columbia, Missouri United Telephone Systems, Inc., Kansas City, Missouri American Family Doctors, National Headquarters, Kansas City, Missouri DST Corporation, Kansas City, Missouri Crown Center, Hallmark Art Collection, Kansas City, Missouri Hewlett Packard Corporation, St. Louis, Missouri Emerson Electric (Commission), St. Louis, Missouri Mark Twain Bank, Creve Coeur, Missouri Boone County Bank, Columbia, Missouri Landmark Bank, Madill, Oklahoma Septagon Industries (Commission), Sedalia, Missouri KEO Building Corporation (Commission), Sedalia, Missouri D & W Leasing, Sedalia, Missouri 1st National Bank, Rockford, Illinois Mark Twain Bank Shares, Ladue, Missouri Bank of Olathe, Olathe, Kansas Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Missouri, St. Louis, Missouri Cessna Aircraft...