Antonio Santafé

Impro I - Abstract Painting, Oil on Canvas, Contemporary, Art, Antonio Santafé

2018

Oil, 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...

Thick layers of paint foster an unctuousness commonly found in Dick Wray’s work. The treatment of the medium reflects a tendency toward impulse, whimsy, and vigorous expression, whil...

Thick layers of paint foster an unctuousness commonly found in Dick Wray’s work. The treatment of the medium reflects a tendency toward impulse, whimsy, and vigorous expression. I...

Thick layers of paint foster an unctuousness commonly found in Dick Wray’s work. The treatment of the medium reflects a tendency toward impulse, whimsy, and vigorous expression. I...

Here the boundary between line and form seems blurred. While still spontaneous in application, Wray’s treatment of the paint suggests an oscillation between sudden and more deliberat...

Encouraged by spontaneity, this work uses line and texture to invigorate the painting’s picture plane in a way that is sudden and playful. In 1958, Wray embarked on a trip to Europe...