Paul Reed

Orange Circle

1965

Signed lower right. A major exponent of non-objective painting, Rolph Scarlett's career and artistic philosophy is closely linked with the early history of the Solomon R. Guggenhei...

Signed & dated 2020 lower right. His father nearly sold 5-year- old Erik Johnsen in 1965 for $600. What followed was a chaotic journey into beatings, sexual abuse and groundlessness...

Rolph Scarlett (Canadian/American, 1889 - 1984) “Geometric Composition” Signed lower right, circa late 1930’s early 1940’s 19 ½ x 26 inches Mixed media, Price on request About Rolph Scarlett was a painter of geometric and linear forms, an industrial designer, and a pioneer in helping establish non-objective art as an aesthetic in America. He also worked in an abstract art style during the American avant-garde movement which extended into the 1940s. He was born in Guelph, Ontario, Canada and travelled to New York City as an 18-year-old. By 1924 he made New York City his home. In 1939, Scarlett was one of the founding members and forces which steered the development of the Museum of Non-Objective Painting in New York. (later, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum). Guggenheim was the sponsor behind the Avant Garde and pioneering, philosophy of Baroness Hilla Rebay who founded the early museum. She was both the founding curator and director of the museum, as well as an abstract artist. She encouraged and worked with Scarlett in the early museum years, together promoting the concepts of non-objective painting. In Scarlett’s aesthetic these where geometric elements intuitively placed in non-descript flat and three-dimensional space. Any discussion of the history of the Guggenheim Museum must include four key figures: Hilla Rebay (1890-1967), Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), Rudolf Bauer (1889-1953), and Rolf Scarlett...

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...

Represented by George Billis Gallery, NYC & LA -- JOHN BELINGHERI ​Artist Statement "Thoughts are patterns that bounce back and forth expressing the vacillating dialogue in my ...

JOHN BELINGHERI ​Artist Statement "Thoughts are patterns that bounce back and forth expressing the vacillating dialogue in my thinking, they become a constant conversation in my he...

Represented by George Billis Gallery, NYC & LA -- JOHN BELINGHERI ​Artist Statement "Thoughts are patterns that bounce back and forth expressing the vacillating dialogue in my ...

Represented by George Billis Gallery, NYC & LA -- JOHN BELINGHERI ​Artist Statement "Thoughts are patterns that bounce back and forth expressing the vacillating dialogue in my ...