Jonathan Higgins

Untitled IV

KENNETH NOLAND Untitled, for Trustees of the Honolulu Museum of Art, 1984 Mixed Media collage with silver and colored foil on board. Signed on verso (back) with personal inscription. "for Twig and Laila" (Trustees of the Honolulu Museum of Art), Deaccessioned from the Honolulu Museum of Art Collection Inscription done in black marker and reads: "A Little Exercise For Twig and Laila With Thanks For A Wonderful 3 Days At ' Cedar House' On The 'Big Island'... 1 Sept 1984 Honolulu Hawaii." Frame included Measurements Framed: 12.5" x 12.5" x .3" Artwork: 8.75" x 8.75" This reflective Chevron collage was de-accessioned by the Honolulu Museum of Art. In 2018, it was exhibited in the show "On Black Mountain: The Bauhaus Legacy in America", April 5, 2019-April 27, 2019 at the Sager Braudis Gallery in Columbia, Missouri, and is reproduced in the exhibition catalogue. Unique signed and dedicated mixed media collage with silver and colored foil on board by the important Color Field painter Kenneth Noland. It's quite a dazzling work, combining color field, geometric abstraction with Op Art, as the work changes appearance and color with the reflected and refracted light. - sometimes appearing light; sometimes darker. See the photos -- there's a light one and a darker one - and they both depict the same work. What's so impressive is that this work literally changes color depending on how the light reflects against it. The artist wrote a personal and heartfelt inscription on the verso to "Twig and Laila". (Twig (sic), which the artist deliberately misspells, is Thurston Twigg Smith, former publisher of The Honolulu Advertiser, who was married to New York philanthropist Laila Twigg Smith. Laila had lived in Hawaii since 1970, where she and her husband had put together a substantial collection of contemporary art. Unfortunately, the two divorced in 1996 and soon after she returned to New York. Two years later, in 1998, Laila died of liver failure at the young age of only 53. Laila was a major philanthropist and art collector who moved from Manhattan to Hawaii. She was a board member of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York and a major donor the Honolulu Museum in Hawaii. Laila donated the present Ken Noland...

Drawing / Geometric Abstraction / Mythology and Religion / Bright and Vivid Colors / Black and White Enamel, ink, colored pencil and alcohol ink on paper....