Jef Bourgeau

"Color of Sky 7-594" Blue, Mixed Media, Conceptual Art

1992-1993

SALE ONE WEEK ONLY "Untitled" by Nicholas Bodde depicts vibrant layers of color on narrow aluminum strips. These pieces are interchangeable and can be hung in various ways. Each is signed on the verso and was created in 2013. All three are sold as a set. Each aluminum panel measures 39 " h x 2.5" w. Bodde was born in New York he lives and works in Germany. He considers himself a German painter, who uses lacquered aluminum to create works that are beautiful in their simplicity and in their joyful exploration of color. The artist drives upon the tradition of European constructivism as well as Colour Field Painting, noting influences by Mark Rothko and Barnett Newmann. Bodde claims that his paintings “reveal themselves differently from close up and from a distance. When viewed from a distance they clearly appear related to constructivist geometric tendencies. But from close proximity, one notices that my main objective is painting and not construction.” The artist has reduced his subject to parallel vertical or horizontal lines and fields that race across the hard surface in a controlled riot – as if the viewer were looking out of a fast moving car while driving by fields of colorful flowers. Bodde constantly questions the colors, focusing on creating a construction through using different colors. He sees his creations as a mode of communication with the world. He paints on aluminum plates by successive coats of painting that he applies with different utensils to finally obtain a result that imprints itself into the eye’s retina. The game of colorful stripes, more or less large, sometimes with the feeling of the brush, sometimes flat, reflects the light differently on each lap. The brightness of his palette, a willful choice, accentuates the vitality that emanates from this painting. His works hesitate between the vibrating and nearly irritating colors and the calm of a monastic construction.   Bodde received his formal education from the University of Arts in Bremen (1989) and has been exhibited in numerous solo and group shows across the world, including venues such as the Yeh Gallery in Seoul, Planet Art...

“Untitled #34” was created by Sam Gilliam, one of the great innovators in postwar American painting. It is dated and signed on the lower front. The thick handmade paper is rich with folds and texture and the colors lively. In addition to Acrylic paint on the surface there appears to be imbedded color in the handmade paper which has additional embossed accents. Unframed the piece measures 16 x 14. Provenance of Yaw Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan is on the verso along with the note that the Paper Surfaces in contact with this artwork are acid free. In the mid-1960s he emerged from the Washington D.C. scene with works that elaborated upon and disrupted the ethos of Color School painting. A series of formal breakthroughs would soon result in his canonical Drape paintings, which expanded upon the tenets of Abstract Expressionism in entirely new ways. One profound manner was the sculpture aspect of the painting giving it a free flowing expression of pure color. In the latter half of the 1950s, Washington D.C. saw a flourishing of abstract art that emphasized the form-making capabilities of pure color. Known as The Washington Color School, the loosely affiliated group of abstract painters knew each other through various teaching experiences. The moniker has an uncertain origin but likely originated with the title of a 1965 exhibition at the Washington Gallery of Modern Art, "Washington Color Painters," curated by Gerald Nordland. The show exhibited the works of Kenneth Noland, Paul Reed, Morris Louis, Howard Mehring, Thomas Downing, and Gene Davis. Additionally, Leon Berkowitz...

"Geostructure II" is an intensely colorful painting of the primary shapes of the circle, square, and triangle. Though the shapes are repetitive their mixed juxtapositions and the creative use of color moves the eye around the canvas with constant interest. This painting is an extraordinary example of Franklin Jonas...

"Geostructure X" is an intensely colorful painting of the primary shapes of the circle, square, and triangle. Though the shapes are repetitive their mixed juxtapositions and the creative use of color moves the eye around the canvas with constant interest. This painting is an extraordinary example of Franklin Jonas...

In the compositions, the gaze is attracted by an interplay of harmonious balances between full and empty spaces, which compel the regarding to an observation dynamic approach in orde...

In the compositions, the gaze is attracted by an interplay of harmonious balances between full and empty spaces, which compel the regarding to an observation dynamic approach in orde...

In the compositions, the gaze is attracted by an interplay of harmonious balances between full and empty spaces, which compel the regarding to an observation dynamic approach in orde...

In the compositions, the gaze is attracted by an interplay of harmonious balances between full and empty spaces, which compel the regarding to an observation dynamic approach in orde...