Enrico Donati

No Exit

1974

Signed lower right Agnes Hart was born in Meridan, Connecticut. She studied at the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida; at Iowa State University with Josef Presser, Paul Burlin and Lucile...

Signed lower left. “Abstract and Fractured Biomorphic and Geometric Forms” which was painted in the mid to late 1950’s is a nod to Picasso’s famous painting Guernica, which Hart may have seen when it was given to the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1958. Several elements in the painting clearly reference Guernica: the black geometric and cut-out shapes, the biomorphic shapes, the abstracted horse’s head and body, with a district reference to the bull’s tail, along with the black and white pallet choice and various details throughout-all hallmarks of Picasso’s Guernica. The abstracted reality Hart presents in these references go beyond a simple nod and reflect a personal interpretation reflected in the splintered abstraction and her bespoke interpretation. Agnes Hart’s first began her career as a social realist artist in the 1930’s. She was also WPA artist. Her longtime friend Milton Avery encouraged her, and she exhibited in the same gallery in the late 1940’s, the RoKo Gallery. Her instinctive and personalized modernist periods often reflected a similar path of her compatriot artists during the first half of the 20th century. Her early works were influenced by her teachers Josef Presser, Paul Burlin and Lucile Blanch, and Reginald Neal, and reflected historical modern trends-at times showing the influence of Avery and other modernist. Like Elaine DeKooning, Lee Kraser, Michael Corrine West...

Signed lower right. Description An example of Scarlett’s abstract drip painting, this untitled work has linear and geometric elements rendered in shades of black, rose, and blue and...

Signed verso & dated 2013. Dexter Holmes was born in Binghamton, New York in 1986 and is from first generation Italian heritage. His mother and fath...

Signed lower right and a double sided painting.

Signed & dated verso, 1992 Enrico Donati, a surrealist and abstract expressionist painter, was born in Milan, Italy in 1909 and died in Manhattan on April 25, 2008. He was known for his association with the surrealist movement of the 1940's, but his artwork continued to transform itself through the many trends that have occurred during his long career. In Italy he attended the Universita degli Studi in Pavia where he studied economics. In 1934, he moved to the United States settling in New York where he studied at the New School for Social Research and the Art Students' League. Considered the surviving dean of the Surrealist Movement and a member of the New York School, Donati painted with Ernst, Matta and Tanguy in the thirties and forties, and in particular with Andre Breton, regarded by many to be the grand master of Surrealism. He helped organize the Exposition Internationale du Surrealisme in Paris in 1947 where he exhibited three of his pieces. The Surrealists were known to avoid presenting or representing reality, and put the emphasis on invention and creativity by uncovering the poetic aspect of life with its kaleidoscopic multidimensional images, using reality only to enhance imagination. Donati survived the decline of Surrealism in the late 1940's by adapting his style to current art trends as he worked with new materials and textures throughout the 1950's. One trend with which he became involved was Abstract Expressionism, which originated in the 1940s, and became popular in the 1950s. It was a movement in which artists typically applied paint, rapidly and with force, to large canvases, in an effort to show feelings and emotions. Paint might be applied with large brushes, sometimes dripping or even throwing it onto canvas. Abstract Expressionist work is characterized by a strong dependence on what appears to be accident and chance, although it is actually highly planned. Donati held a retrospective at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels in 1961 and went on to exhibit at the Betty Parsons Gallery with other forerunners of American Abstract Expressionism: Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, and Jackson Pollock. It was at this time that Donati created some of his most inventive and extraordinary work, some of which was featured in a survey exhibition at the Alter & Gil Gallery, Beverly Hills, California, in January 2000. He has held many teaching positions and has been an active lecturer, while continuing to add to his artistic repertoire. From 1960 to 1962 he was a Visiting Lecturer at Yale University, and from 1962 to 1972 a Member of the Yale University Council for the Arts and Architecture. He has had seventy-five one-man shows, among them an exhibit of new paintings at the Maxwell Davidson Gallery (57th St., New York) in the fall of 1997. Donati's work is held in collections throughout the world, and his work has appeared in over 300 articles and publications, two hard cover books...

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...

"Untitled 121" Abstract Painting 79" x 59" inch by Ahmed Dafrawy * Due to the Ministry of Culture policy + COVID situation, handling time (paperwork) m...

Stanley Boxer devoted nearly five decades to the development of an expressive, abstract practice, encompassing drawing, sculpture, and printmaking. “In the manufacture of my art, I u...

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...

While this work may stray from the diverse range of color and textures that usually dominate Wray’s canvases, one can see how Wray’s compulsion towards exploration drives him to inco...