Skip to main content
Video Loading
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 14

Raymond Parker
Untitled - Bold & Vibrant Abstract Expressionist Oil Painting, 1954

1954

$95,000
£71,842.73
€82,291.74
CA$133,117.83
A$145,319.86
CHF 76,512.72
MX$1,740,763.25
NOK 978,569.55
SEK 893,450.27
DKK 614,738.45

About the Item

“Untitled” is a vibrant, abstract oil on canvas painting in bold, bright colors by American Abstract Expressionist painter, Ray Parker. The artwork is signed upper right, "Parker 54" Painted in 1954, this "Untitled" canvas exemplifies Ray Parker's early engagement with Abstract Expressionism, a moment when he was forging a language of bold color and gestural immediacy. Parker worked directly on unstretched canvas, building the composition through broad, saturated brushstrokes that retain a sense of spontaneity and improvisation. The edges of form remain fluid, emphasizing the immediacy of his process. Although Parker would later become best known for his "Simple Paintings," these early works are both rare and foundational, bridging the raw energy of Abstract Expressionism with the clarity of form that defined his mature style. With fewer than 310 works recorded at auction and very few from the 1950s, canvases of this scale and date seldom appear on the market. A related early abstraction, "Untitled" (1956), is in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art. "Untitled" (1954) represents a significant example of Parker's innovative contribution to postwar American painting. Raymond Parker (1922-1992) was an Abstract expressionist painter who also is associated with Color Field painting and Lyrical Abstraction. Ray Parker was an influential art teacher and an important Color Field painter and an instrumental figure in the movement coined by Clement Greenberg called Post-Painterly Abstraction. Originally from South Dakota, Ray Parker entered the University of Iowa in Iowa City in 1940; he earned his MFA in 1948. From 1948 to 1951 he taught painting at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. During the 1940s his paintings were heavily influenced by cubism. In the early 1950s, however, Parker became associated with the leading abstract expressionists of the day, including Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning. Parker soon began to simplify and refine his works realizing that through abstraction, and color his paintings could convey and express emotion. Like Piet Mondrian, Stuart Davis and Jackson Pollock, Parker was a fan of jazz music; and his interest in Jazz, combined with his interest in abstract expressionism, led to his improvised painting style. Parker was also a great admirer of the painter Henri Matisse and he looked to this artist’s work for inspiration in terms of color and form, especially in his paintings of the 1970s and 1980s. By the late 1950s, he taught at Hunter College in New York City and he developed a singular style of painting that focused on intense color and simple geometric shapes. He was represented by the Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, one of the leading contemporary galleries in New York City during the late 1950s through the mid-1960s. He is best known by his work of the late 1950s early 1960s called his Simple Paintings. These paintings are characterized by discreet cloudlike forms of clear, and intense color set against a white or an off-white background. Parker’s paintings utilizing this method of stacked, clearly colored lozenges and floating forms are straightforward and basically geometric in shape. Ray Parker’s works relate to and predict the minimalist and Color Field paintings of the 1960s, made popular by American artists such as Morris Louis, Friedel Dzubas, Jules Olitski, Kenneth Noland, Helen Frankenthaler, and Ellsworth Kelly. Provenance: Christie's Private Sales Private Collection, purchased from the above
  • Creator:
    Raymond Parker (1922 - 1990, American)
  • Creation Year:
    1954
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 52.25 in (132.72 cm)Width: 56 in (142.24 cm)Depth: 1 in (2.54 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Palm Desert, CA
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: 475891stDibs: LU9317387212

More From This Seller

View All
Untitled
By Raymond Parker
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"Untitled" is a watercolor painting by Raymond Parker. This work was painted in 1979, and is inscribed in pencil in the lower middle, "For Pat <3 RP 1979". The framed size is 25 1/4 ...
Category

Late 20th Century Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

Untitled
By Raymond Parker
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"Untitled" is an oil on canvas painting made by Ray Parker in 1965. The piece is signed verso, "R. Parker, 30 x 24, 1965". The art size is 30 1/8 x 23 1/4 inches. The framed size is ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

9000 and 9 Nights - Bright Colorful Abstract Painting, 11981
By Hassel Smith
Located in Palm Desert, CA
A painting by Hassel Smith. "9000 and 9 Nights" is an abstract, acrylic and graphite on canvas executed in a bright palette primarily of yellow, sky blues, greens and deep salmon and...
Category

1980s Post-War Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic, Graphite

Untitled
By Arne Hiersoux
Located in Palm Desert, CA
An abstract acrylic and paper on canvas painting by Post War artist Arne Hiersoux. This untitled work is executed in bold strokes, splashes and drips of white, black, red and blue ag...
Category

20th Century Post-War Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Paper, Acrylic

Landscape No. 108
By Hans Hofmann
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"Landscape No. 108" is an abstract Post War oil on panel painting by Hans Hofmann in 1941. The artwork is 23 1/4 x 29 1/4 inches and with the frame is 31 1/8 x 37 1/8 x 2 5/8 inches,...
Category

20th Century Post-War Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

The Indian
By Hans Hofmann
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"The Indian" is an abrtsact Post War mixed media on paper work by Han Hofmann in 1944. The artwork is 22 x 15 inches and, with the frame, is 29 1/4 x 22 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches, weighing ...
Category

20th Century Post-War Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Mixed Media

You May Also Like

1960s Mid-Century Abstract Expressionist Oil Painting in Primary Colors
By Florence Graziano
Located in Denver, CO
This original 1960s oil on canvas by American artist Florence V. Mercolino Graziano exemplifies the dynamic energy of the Abstract Expressionist movement. The composition showcases b...
Category

1960s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Abstract Expressionist Painting American 1960's Mid Century New York Colorful
Located in Buffalo, NY
Mid Century Modern, American Abstract Expressionist Painting on Masonite. This wonderful work in exciting colors is housed in a contemporary white wood frame presentation.. The art...
Category

1960s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Acrylic

Beverly Rosen 1964 Vintage Abstract Expressionist Oil Painting “Change World”
Located in Denver, CO
“Change World” is a striking original vintage abstract painting by Colorado artist Beverly Rosen, created in 1964 at the height of American Abstract Expressionism. This vibrant oil o...
Category

1960s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil

Dynamic & Colorful, Abstract Expressionist Painting, Dated 1957 by Harold Haydon
By Harold Haydon
Located in Chicago, IL
A dynamic & colorful, Abstract Expressionist Painting in Reds, Blues & Yellows by Artist Harold Haydon, Dated 1957. Framed in a dark, wood cube frame. Image size: 12" x 16". Fra...
Category

1950s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Board

Abstract Expressionist Gouache Painting by Sid Gross 1959
By Sidney Gross
Located in Long Island City, NY
An Abstract expressionist gouache painting by American artist, Sid Gross. Date: 1959 Gouache on paper, signed and dated lower right Image Size: 18.5 x 12 inches Frame Size: 28 x 22 ...
Category

1950s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Gouache

1960's Large Colorful Abstract Expressionist Swiss Oil Painting Robert Lauro
Located in Surfside, FL
Oil Painting on canvas Hand signed to lower right Lauro. Provenance: Eleonore Austerer Gallery, San Francisco, CA Work Size: 39.5 x 39.5 in. framed 44 X 44 inches. Roberto Lauro is a British-Swiss Post War & Contemporary artist who was born in 1932. Roberto Lauro was born in 1932 in Gorey Harbor on the island of Jersey (Great Britain) the son of a Swiss mother, Rosa Ramseier, from Oberdiessbach / Emmental, Switzerland, and and Italian father Innocenzo Roberto Lauro, born in Mondovi, Italy. In 1941 he moved to Switzerland with his mother. 1949-1953 he lived in Gunten (Switzerland) where he did an Apprenticeship as a lithograph and offset printer and graphic designer in Thun. There he was introduced to the color theory of Johannes Itten by Hermann Oberli at the Bern School of Applied Arts. From 1953 to 1955 he worked as a fine art printer in Norway where he was influenced by the color theory of Edvard Munch. These works bears the influence of Russian artist Andre Lanskoy, Tachisme and the Cobra artists Karel Appel, Constant, Corneille, Christian Dotremont, Asger Jorn, and Joseph Noiret. In 1955-1956 he worked as an offset printer in Amsterdam (Netherlands). Visit to the Instituut voor Kunstnijverheidsonderwijs. In 1957 he returned to Gunten, Switzerland. Where he started working in printmaking and and oil painting. He resumed his studies at the Bern School of Applied Arts. He was greatly impacted and influenced by abstract art on the occasion of a large Paul KIee exhibition. In 1958 he moved to Zurich where he worked part-time work as an offset copyist; fulfilling graphic orders for advertising agencies. In 1962 he took his final examination as graphic designer at the Zurich School of Applied Arts. In 1980 he begins his development of three-dimensional picture objects, Sculpture, detachment from the canvas, using metal as a support and play space for light and color. By 1981 he has turned full time to fine art. He spends the next years growing and developing his considerable talent. Inspired by classical music, the rhythm, mood and lightness of which form the basis for the large swings and loops of his colorfully lacquered metal and blown glass sculptures. These are "pensieri", thought sketches that capture the emotions in countless versions. There is something dance-like about his rotating sculptures. Everything becomes music and the rhythm of colors. In 1988, after exhibitions in Europe, he has his first exhibitions in Atlanta and San Francisco (USA), In 1989 he does his first glass and metal sculptures at the Roberto Niederer glassworks, Hergiswil (Switzerland). In 1992 has a retrospective exhibition in the Tan Gallery, Zurich, and the Eleonore Austerer Gallery, San Francisco. They Publish a catalogue raisonne, Eine Retrospektive, covering a 45 year career. In 1993 he creates A Retrospective, a unique sculpture in a table top form that contains his catalogue raisonne and an original lithograph. 1993–1995 he begins work on a number of large scale public outdoor commissions, including Light Columns for a Bank building, and a commission of a sculpture-fountain in Oetwil am See. In 2001 he creates a wall sculpture entitled "Color Poems of the Yearly Cycle. A linen bound book enclosed in a unique plexi display with a one - of a - kind metal and glass sculpture,containing 12 linocuts each printed in colors and signed. Roberto Lauro's sculptural work work is spontaneous and loaded with energy. The furrows, rifts, cracks and scars in the metal allow light to enter; it is then reflected back by the glass. His work is a clear statement of our times, uniting the intellect and the heart in search of the spiritual. Like the interplay of light and shadow, his sculpture combines fragile, transparent glass with solid, heavy iron. These colorful and luminous sculptures convey a powerful presence and emit vibrant positive energy. With their jagged exteriors and translucent cores, the spectacular sculptures created by the synergy of metal and glass are powerful - yet fragile. Lauro has created and mastered his own idiom and proven that through the artist sheer will and vision, seemingly incompatible materials such as iron and glass can indeed be combined. In 2004 he has an anniversary exhibition Light and Color, Love of Life on the island of birth, Jersey. Ceramic works (raku with glass inclusions). Roberto Lauro's works have been shown in numerous exhibitions in Europe and the USA around the world, and he has also realized projects such as "KUNST AM BAU" in public spaces and for industry. He lives and works in Switzerland. Select Exhibitions Eleonore Austerer Gallery, Palm Desert ART IN THE FRAME FOUNDATION: The Harbour Gallery, Isle of Jersey Galerie fur Gegenwartskunst,, Bonstetten, Switzerland Galerie Annamarie Anderson, Zurich, Switzerland “Color and Light,” Austerer-Crider Gallery, Palm Springs, CA, USA “Color and Light: the art of Roberto Lauro,” Eleonore Austerer Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA “Flower Power,” with Ed Baynard, Roberto Azank, Siegward Sprotte, and Daniel Phil...
Category

1960s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil