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Rolph ScarlettGeometric Abstract
$50,000
£37,169.31
€43,513.20
CA$69,928.65
A$78,077.18
CHF 40,727.17
MX$960,075
NOK 514,027.73
SEK 483,939
DKK 324,608.63
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About the Item
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. Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Rolph Scarlett was born in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, in 1889. During his childhood he received painting lessons from his grandmother. He later took art classes at the secondary school level. Upon graduating, he began an apprenticeship in his family's jewelry firm, where he learned to design and execute settings for precious and semi-precious stones. In 1907 Rolph Scarlett traveled to New York in order to refine his skills as a craftsman. He returned to Canada in 1914 and for several years continued to work in the family business.
In 1918, Rolph Scarlett emigrated permanently to the United States. Over the next few years, he worked as a commercial designer in New York and Toledo and painted during his spare time. He also spent many years in Southern California, designing sets for the Pasadena Playhouse and for various motion pictures. During a trip to Europe in 1923, he was introduced to the work of Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky, both of whom exerted important influences on his art.
Rolph Scarlett settled in New York City in 1936. He soon learned of the collection of art being formed by Solomon and Irene Guggenheim under the direction of the German-born curator, Hilla Rebay. The group of paintings assembled by Rebay, which included works by Kandinsky and Klee, was established in 1939 as Art of Tomorrow, the Museum of Non-Objective Painting, and is known today as the Guggenheim Museum.
Rolph Scarlett subsequently attended Rebay's lectures on modern art and sent her numerous examples of his work. By this time, he had developed a non-objective geometric style, distinguished by a poetic delicacy and a unique sensitivity towards color. Rebay eventually became one of Scarlett's strongest supporters, awarding him a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1938, and acquiring many of his paintings for the Guggenheim collection. Scarlett, who shared Rebay's belief that art was a reflection of the spirit, also served as the Guggenheim Museum's chief lecturer from 1939 until 1947. In this respect, he played an important role in disseminating Rebay's theories about art.
Rolph Scarlett spent his later years in Woodstock, New York, where he divided his time between painting and jewelry design. Examples of his work can be found in many public collections, including the Museum of Art, at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, and the University of Guelph. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum owns over sixty of Scarlett's oils, watercolors, and drawings. Credit: askart
- Creator:Rolph Scarlett (1891-1984, American)
- Dimensions:Height: 48 in (121.92 cm)Width: 36 in (91.44 cm)Depth: 3 in (7.62 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Saratoga Springs, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU170212429942
Rolph Scarlett
Rolph Scarlett was a painter of geometric abstraction during the American avant-garde movement of the 1930s and 1940s. Scarlett was born in Guelph, Ontario, Canada in 1889, he left Canada at the age of 18 to go to New York City and returned to Canada during the years of World War I. However, by 1924, Scarlett had established New York City as his home. While he was beginning his career as an abstract painter, he was designing stage scenery for George Bernard Shaw's play, Man and Superman and the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall. In 1939, while creating the Museum of Non-Objective Painting (later the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum), Director Hilla Rebay began to take an interest in Scarlett's work. By 1940, he had become the new museum's chief lecturer. By 1953, the Guggenheim owned nearly 60 of his paintings and monoprints. Scarlett later became a resident of the Woodstock art colony for more than 25 years and showed his work in the Woodstock exhibits.
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By Rolph Scarlett
Located in Saratoga Springs, NY
Signed lower left.
About the artist:
Rolph Scarlett was a painter of geometric abstraction during the American avant-garde movement of the 1930s and 1940s. Born in Guelph, Ontario,...
Category
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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...
Category
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Signed lower right.
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