Willem de Kooning

Wow

1969

"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 ...

A painting by Karl Benjamin. “No. 36” is a hard edge, geometric abstract oil on canvas in a palette of dark blues and greens. The artwork is signed verso, "#36 1964 Karl Benjamin." ...

"Grey Red" is an oil painting on aluminum by Sean Scully. It is signed verso, " Gray Red, Sean Scully 1 12". The frame of reference for Irish American Sean Scully’s signature blocks and stripes is vast. From Malevich’s central premise that geometry can provide the means for universal understanding to Rothko’s impassioned approach to color and rendering of the dramatic sublime, Scully learned how to condense the splendor of the natural world into simple modes of color, light, and composition. Born in Dublin in 1945 and London-raised, Scully was well-schooled in figurative drawing when he decided to catch the spirit of his lodestar, Henri Matisse, by visiting Morocco in 1969. He was captivated by the dazzling tessellated mosaics and richly dyed fabrics and began to paint grids and stipes of color. Subsequent adventures provided further inspiration as the play of intense light on the reflective surfaces of Mayan ruins and the ancient slabs of stone at Stonehenge brought the sensation of light, space, and geometric movement to Scully’s paintings. The ability to trace the impact of Scully’s travels throughout his paintings reaffirms the value of abstract art as a touchstone for real-life experience. Painted in rich, deep hues and layered, nuanced surfaces, Grey Red is both poetic and full of muscular formalism. Scully appropriately refers to these elemental forms as ‘bricks,’ suggesting the formal calculations of an architect. As he explained, “these relationships that I see in the street doorways, in windows between buildings, and in the traces of structures that were once full of life, I take for my work. I use these colors and forms and put them together in a way that perhaps reminds you of something, though you’re not sure of that” (David Carrier, Sean Scully, 2004, pg. 98). His approach is organic, less formulaic; intuitive painter’s choices are layering one color upon another so that contrasting hues and colors vibrate with subliminal energy. Diebenkorn comes to mind in his pursuit of radiant light. But here, the radiant bands of terracotta red, gray, taupe, and black of Grey Red resonate with deep, smoldering energy and evoke far more affecting passion than you would think it could impart. As his good friend, Bono wrote, “Sean approaches the canvas like a kickboxer, a plasterer, a builder. The quality of painting screams of a life being lived.” Provenance: Timothy Taylor...

"Untitled" is a painting by artist David Smith. The work is signed and dated in the upper left "David Smith (symbol) 1936". When David Smith set up a workshop on the Brooklyn Navy Pier in 1933 to learn direct-metal techniques, he shared the space not with artists, but with professional welders. Yet as he stated in 1964, ‘…all my early friends were painters…I never conceived of myself as anything other than a painter because my work came straight through the raised surface.’ Picasso and Cubism would be dominant influences in Smith’s work. He understood that Picasso imagined the world as a sculptor might, and not necessarily limited to the unavoidable impact of Cubism. In addition to pursuing a kind of rethinking of the world in three-dimensionality on his own terms, by the late 1920s, Picasso had shown interest in surrealism. That meant drawing not as a depiction of reality, but rather as a reconfiguration of the body in an assemblage of often precariously balanced, interconnected forms — some expressed in a three-dimensional form, others as drawings or paintings. Those processes are reflected in this work by David Smith; three fanciful totemic assemblages set within a landscape perspective of ground, mountains, and sky and whose presence is surreal enough to cast shadows under a presumed solar presence. Untitled, 1936 embraces surrealism, yet also serves to demonstrate the extent to which his thought processes are inextricably linked to sculpture and related to scale, spatial orientation, and three-dimensionality. With that in mind, it is not surprising to know that Smith saw no demarcation between sculpture and painting, or that a painting such as Untitled (1936) can exist outside of planning or design for future three-dimensional work. Provenance: Estate of David Smith, New York Hauser & Wirth Private Collection Exhibition: Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, ‘David Smith: Skulptureen, Zeichnungen [David Smith: Sculpture and Drawings]’ Dusseldorf/DE, March 14 – April 27, 1986 (travelled to: Städtische Galerie im Stäelschen Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt/DE, June 19 – September 28, 1986: Whitechapel Art Gallery...

WILD HORSES-2, Original Contemporary Abstract Expressionist Painting, 2021 30" x 40" x 2" (HxWxD) Oil and Newspaper on Canvas Hand-signed by the artist. This large-format oil painting by artist William O'Connor is reminiscent of the abstract expressionist painter Arshile Gorky. With sporadic paint strokes and undulating organic shapes strewn about the canvas, this work has an energy and rhythm that carries the viewer on a journey. A golden yellow covers most of the composition, while shapes of red, blue, purple, and pink bring about moments of rest. Black and white contours...

WILD HORSES-1, Original Contemporary Abstract Expressionist Painting, 2021 30" x 40" x 2" (HxWxD) Oil and Newspaper on Canvas Hand-signed by the artist. This large-format oil painti...

Colourful, French mixed media abstract, acrylic, newsprint and ink from the 1980s. The canvas is signed and dated bottom right but we have not yet managed to decipher it. A colourful and engaging painting crossing over styles. The colourfield elements are reminiscent of the work of Mark Rothko, three defined bands of colour in orange/pink tones vertically dissecting the painting with one horizontal band across the top, and yet the elongated depiction of the female figures within the bands remind us of Gustav Klimt and his paintings of Adele. The background of the painting has been worked broadly with a palette knife whilst the detail has been added quickly and deftly with ink or finer brushstrokes. With the addition of newsprint (in French) the artist may...

Born in Vietnam’s Hung Yen Province in 1969, artist Nguyen Cong Cu has received recognition for his striking gritty urban commentaries on navigating contemporary life in Vietnam. His...