By Lionel Gilbert
Located in Hudson, NY
Mid-century modern abstract still life painting in pastel pink, green, and dark brown tones painted by New York City artist c. 1965.
24 x 36 inches, oil on linen
25.5 x 37.7 x 2 inches framed
Custom black stained wood Larson Juhl 'floater' frame
This horizontal painting was painted by Lionel Gilbert c.1965. The mid-century modern, abstracted still life is created with a cubist influence where three-dimensional objects are depicted in multiple perspectives. Fruits on a table or traditional cubist imagery is created with a playful palette of pink, rose, orange red, dark brown, and light green. Gestural brushstrokes loosen geometric shapes and perspectives. The oil painting is signed in the lower left corner.
About the work:
Lionel Gilbert moved back and forth between abstraction and figuration, at once describing specific objects and presenting flat, unrecognizable forms. The artist, born in 1912, was a prolific painter from the nineteen-thirties until his death. For years, Gilbert worked as a mural artist and an illustrator, creating images that not only represented reality, but documented history. In the sixties, Gilbert’s direction shifted: no longer using the paint to tell stories, Gilbert began to explore what the paint itself—its materiality, color—can reveal, independent of its descriptive capacity. Gilbert's work calls to mind Matisse, Braque, and Leger in their cubist sensibility and handling of space.
The Lionel Gilbert estate is represented exclusively by Carrie Haddad Gallery based in Hudson, NY.
About the Artist:
Gilbert fell in love with art at an early age and began his training at the age of 12 at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art in 1924. Upon graduating, Gilbert moved to France to study at L’Academie de la Grande Chaumier for five years. The young artist returned to the US in 1938 and like many artists living during the Great Depression, Gilbert sought employment with the nation’s W.P.A program, creating large murals in many public buildings in the US. During WWII, he was sent to England as an official U.S. Air Force artist to portray various aspects of Air Force life. After the war, Gilbert became a full time artist and instructor. He went on to show his work in various galleries in New York City through the 1980’s and taught at the 92nd Street Y Art Center. Rather than placing focus on the act of painting itself, as many Abstract Expressionists did, Gilbert chose to involve himself with the abstraction of his subject matter. This led him to replace rapid brushstrokes for blocks of color that were oftentimes organized around semi-automatist forms, which is reminiscent of the work that preoccupied Hans Hoffman in the 1950’s.
Lionel Gilbert (Born in Newark, NJ)
1924 Began studying at the Newark School of Fine & Industrial Art in their Saturday program for children.
1933 Graduated from the Newark School of Fine & Industrial Art, Newark, NJ.
1933-37 Studied in Paris at L’Academie de La Grande Chaumiere and privately with Salcia Bahnc...
Category
1960s Abstract Lionel Gilbert Art