John Atherton

Landscape in Winter

1950

When it comes to abstract painting, the creation date is important. At the height of Abstraction Expressionism, overlooked Academic Artist John Atherton created a wonderfully complex painting that embodies many of the characteristics of what was going on in Mid-Century American Art. The work is simultaneously abstract as it is representational. Like a Bento Box, it's divided into sections by dividers. On close inspection, each section stands on it's own as a beautiful mini-painting yet coalesces as part of the whole. From a distance, it is eye-pleasing, but as the view gets closer and closer, new structures and details gloriously reveal themselves. This is an important painting and not unlike the work of Joaquín Torres-García. It was done in the last year of the artist's life. Signed lower right. Canvas is relined. Framed size: 30 x 41.25. The work is best viewed with top gallery lights to bring out color. Color will look different under different lighting conditions. Atherton exhibited at the famous Julien Levy Gallery in New York and his fine art is mainly associated with Magic Realism. He participated in the seminal 1943 Museum of Modern Art exhibition, American Realists and Magic Realists. The Museum of Modern Art has 4 Atherton paintings in its collection. As an Illustrator, Atherton did covers for the Saturday Evening Post, Fortune and Holiday Magazine...

Squares is a bridge between Mondrian and the Hard-edge abstraction movement. Clearly, this is a very early work because the artist has not yet found his mature style. The flat squares of uneven proportion, are in a formal but off-axis vertical /horizontal grid structure. Perhaps it's the artists take on a "drunk Mondrian" where the squares stumble to align themselves. Each square shape is different in shape and color and with visible brushstrokes and light impasto. Look carefully at the gray squares. They all have a slightly different hue. The squares are all unique individuals and not a repetition To Goodnough this was his departure from his influencer. Squares show the influence of his teachers including Hans Hofman...

Quick and confident brush strokes describe the gritty forms of perhaps steam engines or railroad yards. Luks bravura style of putting paint to canvas anticipates action painting of ...

An early example of Abstract Expressionism executed in 1955 during the movement's heyday and it's period of peak inventiveness. However, this work is still rooted in representation. The dark area the runs along the base of the picture is the ground and to the left, right and center there are black structures that represent trees. The work is very tactile and is composed of globs of paint that grow out from the surface and form a thick impasto. Rich vibrant saturated blues, reds and oranges create optical drama. The work look better in person. frame: 29 x 39 1/2 inches , Provenance: Kennedy Galleries The Currier Gallery of Art...

In "Vestige d’Horizon", Sophie Dumont offers a work where abstraction becomes a space for contemplation, an invitation to navigate the layers of a fragmented and sublimated reality. ...

Very Large Square Painting of New York City Skyscrapers USA - Red Blue & Yellow - by Polish Artist, Katarzyna Szulc. Signed Kasha on the front of the canvas. Art measures 47.2 x 47....

Dietmar Gubsch is a sculptor and painter from Dresden (Germany) who has created numerous architectural and spatial works and is known for his abstract geometric works. His work is c...

Charles Green Shaw Harvard vs. Yale, 1944 Signed and dated on the reverse Oil on canvasboard 9 x 12 inches Provenance: Harvey and Francois Rambach, New Jersey Private Collection, California Washburn Gallery, New York D. Wigmore Fine Art, New York Private Collection, New York Charles Green Shaw, born into a wealthy New York family, began painting when he was in his mid-thirties. A 1914 graduate of Yale, Shaw also completed a year of architectural studies at Columbia University. During the 1920s Shaw enjoyed a successful career as a freelance writer for The New Yorker, Smart Set and Vanity Fair, chronicling the life of the theater and café society. In addition to penning insightful articles, Shaw was a poet, novelist and journalist. In 1927 he began to take a serious interest in art and attended Thomas Hart Benton's class at the Art Students League briefly in New York. He also studied privately with George Luks, who became a good friend. Once he had dedicated himself to non-traditional painting, Shaw's writing ability made him a potent defender of abstract art. After initial study with Benton and Luks, Shaw continued his artistic education in Paris by visiting numerous museums and galleries. From 1930 to 1932 Shaw's paintings evolved from a style imitative of Cubism to one directly inspired by it, though simplified and more purely geometric. Returning to the United States in 1933, Shaw began a series of abstracted cityscapes of skyscrapers he called Manhattan Motifs which evolved into his most famous works, the shaped canvases he called Plastic Polygons. The 1930s were productive years for Shaw. He showed his paintings in numerous group exhibitions, both in New York and abroad, and was also given several one-man exhibitions. Shaw had his first one-man exhibition at the Valentine Dudensing Gallery in New York in 1934, which included 25 Manhattan Motif paintings and 8 abstract works. In the spring of 1935 Shaw was introduced to Albert Gallatin and George L.K. Morris. Gallatin was so impressed with Shaw's work, he broke a policy against solo exhibitions at his museum, the Gallery of Living Art, and offered Shaw an exhibition there. In the summer of 1935 Shaw traveled to Paris with Gallatin and Morris who provided introductions to many great painters. Shaw regularly spent time with John Ferren and Jean Hélion. The following year Gallatin organized an exhibition called Five Contemporary American Concretionists at the Reinhardt Gallery that included Shaw, Ferren, and Morris, Alexander Calder, and Charles Biederman...