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L U D W I G S A N D E R o n p a p e r |
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This unique collection of oils, charcoals and prints by the New York painter Ludwig Sander offers a fascinating insight into the broader work of an artist known primarily for his late style of painting; the bold, flat canvases of the 1960s and 1970s, two or three colors, bisected at the edge of the field by a few stark horizontal and vertical black lines. The oils on paper in the first section here show the artist working out the issues of those paintings; they are his experiments with color and shape, the positions of the bisecting lines, color combinations, and other issues of composition and scale. In all of these oils there is also a striking looseness and spontaneity that is not present in the works on canvas. Charcoal can clearly be seen alongside the edge of the paint, color runs off from the edge of the image area, and paint is often applied in a thick, rich manner. The charcoals, in the second section, include two examples of Sander's work that also show this style of abstraction that he settled on in the early-1960s (and he frequently exhibited his charcoals alongside his canvases), but the five larger charcoals are remarkable works from the 1950s that show his progression towards this style. Monumental in scale, they are detailed, finished works that have a boldness and strength to them not always present in drawings, and they provide a clear visual link between his more figurative work of the 1930s and 1940s and his well-known paintings. Sander's work in the 1930s and 1940s had been a somewhat abstract style of landscape (he was a frequent visitor to the artist's community at Woodstock) which gradually evolved into a flatter, more formal abstraction. In these large charcoals there are still reminders of recognizable shapes and forms, but the strong black outlines and clear areas of white hint strongly at the simplification of style that was to come in the 1960s. All of these works come from the estate of the artist's widow. Click HERE for the artist's biography. |
click on an image for the full description |
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OILS FROM THE 1960s |
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CHARCOALS FROM THE 1950s |
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