Dick Wray

"Untitled, " Oil, Mixed Media on Canvas - Abstract painting

2004

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...

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...

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...

Mixed media work with various animals and the phrase, "very restful here...". Artist Biography: Dick Wray, a native Houstonian,born in Heights Hospital in 1933 was primarily educat...

'1997' oil and canvas collage on canvas 36x36" :: Painting :: Abstract Expressionism :: This piece comes with an official certificate of authenticity signed by the artist :: Ready to...

'Versions' oil, graphite, and canvas collage on canvas 36x48" :: Painting :: Abstract Expressionism :: This piece comes with an official certificate of authenticity signed by the art...

William Scharf Untitled, 1962 Signed lower left; signed and dated verso Oil on canvas 48 x 50 inches A visionary painter with ties to the avant-garde artistic community in New York at midcentury, William Scharf nevertheless defies art historical categorization. His abstracted compositions of organic and geometric formal elements recall the free associations of Surrealism and the all-over grandeur of Abstract Expressionism, and at the same time embody a very individual and immediately recognizable pictorial sense. Scharf combines virtuoso paint handling, vibrant color, and rich symbolic language in canvases that engage the viewer in a transcendent and emotional dialogue. This dialogue is accomplished in part through recurring symbols, which allude to hidden, mysterious narratives. Scharf plumbs the psychological wells of collective myths for symbolic content: the crown of thorns, the ladder, the fish, and the cross can be found throughout, functioning not, as one might expect, as religious symbols, but rather as a means through which to access a deeper, symbolic level of visual communication. Born in 1927 in Media, Pennsylvania, an early friendship with renowned artist N.C. Wyeth encouraged Scharf’s artistic efforts from a very young age. After a time with the Army Air Corps in the mid-1940s, Scharf formalized his art studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts under Franklin Watkins...