Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 17

Morris Louis
Untitled (Wizard Fantasy)

1948

About the Item

Untitled (Wizard Fantasy) Pen and ink on paperboard, 1948 Signed and dated by the artist lower right Extremely rare "Middle Period" drawing. One of two drawings that were given by the artist to Jeanette Kear, Chevy Chase, MD which were signed and dated by the artist. All others in the exhibition are from sketchbooks and have the estate stamp and numbering. Exhibited at National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Dec. 6 1979-Feb. 3, 1980 and Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University, Feb. 22-April6, 1980 Illustrated twice in the resulting catalog, The Drawings of Morris Louis, by Diane Upright Headly, Harvard Univeristy and author of the catalog essay and entries. (See photos) Condition: Mounted to paper board by owner, Jeanette Kear for framing Glazed with glass Image size: 13 7/8 x 16 5/8 inches Frame size: 20 x 23 x 3/4 inches Provenance: Jeanette F. Kear, Chevy Chase, MD Illustrated: National Collection of Fine Art, 1979: "The Drawings of Morris Louis," Catalog No. 1, illustrated D1, reproduced p. 73 Morris Louis Bernstein (November 28, 1912 – September 7, 1962), known professionally as Morris Louis, was an American painter. During the 1950s he became one of the earliest exponents of Color Field painting. While living in Washington, D.C., Louis, along with Kenneth Noland and other Washington painters, formed an art movement that is known today as the Washington Color Schoo Early life and education From 1929 to 1933, he studied at the Maryland Institute of Fine and Applied Arts (now Maryland Institute College of Art) on a scholarship, but left shortly before completing the program. Louis worked at various odd jobs to support himself while painting, and in 1935 was president of the Baltimore Artists' Association. From 1936 to 1940, he lived in New York City and worked in the easel division of the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project. During this period, he knew Arshile Gorky, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Jack Tworkov. He also dropped his last name. Work Color field painting He returned to his native Baltimore in 1940 and taught privately. In 1948, he pioneered the use of Magna paint—a newly developed oil-based acrylic paint made for him by his friends, New York paintmakers Leonard Bocour and Sam Golden. In 1952, Louis moved to Washington, D.C. Living in Washington, D.C., he was somewhat apart from the New York scene and he was working almost in isolation. During the 1950s he and a group of artists that included Kenneth Noland, Gene Davis, Thomas Downing, Howard Mehring, Anne Truitt and Hilda Thorpe among others were central to the development of Color Field painting. The basic point about Louis's work and that of other Color Field painters, sometimes known as the Washington Color School in contrast to most of the other new approaches of the late 1950s and early 1960s, is that they greatly simplified the idea of what constitutes the look of a finished painting. They continued in a tradition of painting exemplified by Jackson Pollock, Barnett Newman, Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell, and Ad Reinhardt. Eliminating gestural, compositional drawing in favor of large areas of raw canvas, solid planes of thinned and fluid paint, utilizing an expressive and psychological use of flat, and intense color and allover, repetitive composition. One of Louis's most important series of Color Field paintings were his Unfurleds. Stain painting All of the Color Field artists were concerned with the classic problems of pictorial space and the flatness of the picture plane. In 1953, Louis and Noland visited Helen Frankenthaler's New York studio, where they saw and were greatly impressed by her stain paintings, especially Mountains and Sea (1952). Upon their return to Washington, Louis and Noland together experimented with various techniques of paint application. Louis characteristically applied extremely diluted, thinned paint to an unprimed, unstretched canvas, allowing it to flow over the inclined surface in effects sometimes suggestive of translucent color veils. The importance of Frankenthaler's example in Louis's development of this technique has been noted. Louis reported that he thought of Frankenthaler as the bridge between Jackson Pollock and the possible. However, even more so than Frankenthaler, Louis eliminated the brush gesture, although his flat, thin pigment is at times modulated in billowing and subtle tones. In 1954, Louis produced his mature Veil Paintings, which were characterized by overlapping, superimposed layers of transparent color poured onto and stained into sized or unsized canvas.[6] The Veil Paintings consist of waves of brilliant, curving color-shapes submerged in translucent washes through which separate colors emerge principally at the edges. Although subdued, the resulting color is immensely rich. In another series, the artist used long parallel bands and stripes of pure color arranged side by side in rainbow effects. The painting Tet is a good example of his Veil Paintings. The thinned acrylic paint was allowed to stain the canvas, making the pigment at one with the canvas as opposed to "on top". This conformed to Greenberg's conception of "Modernism" as it made the entire picture plane flat. Late paintings Louis destroyed many of his paintings between 1955 and 1957. He resumed work on the Veils in 1958–59. These were followed by Florals and Columns (1960), Alephs (1960), Unfurleds (1960–61)—in which rivulets of more opaque, intense color flow from both sides of large white fields of raw canvas—and finally the Stripe paintings (1961–62). Between summer 1960 and January/February 1961, he created about 150 Unfurleds, generally on mural-size canvases. Exhibitions A memorial exhibition of Louis' work was held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1963. Major Louis exhibitions were also organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 1967 and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., in 1976. In 1986 there was an important retrospective exhibition of his works at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. During 2007-2008 an important retrospective was held by museums in San Diego, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, in Atlanta at the High Museum, and in Washington, DC. at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. In 2024, both Beth Shin and Delta Eta, integrated Every Sound Is a Shape of Time: Selections from PAMM's Collection, at the Pérez Art Museum Miami. The show is curated by museum director and art historian, Franklin Sirmans. Art market In 2015, a striped canvas by Louis, Number 36 (1962), from the collection of Lord Anthony and Lady Evelyn Jacobs sold for £1.5 million at Christie's London. Personal life He married Marcella Siegel in 1947. She supported him throughout his career and in memory of him she supported one artist every year through the Morris Louis Fellowship at George Washington University. Death Morris Louis was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1962 and soon after died at his home in Washington, D.C., on September 7, 1962. The cause of his illness was attributed to prolonged exposure to paint vapours. The Estate of Morris Louis is represented exclusively by Diane Upright, a former professor of fine art at Harvard University. Courtesy Wikipedia
  • Creator:
    Morris Louis (1912 - 1962)
  • Creation Year:
    1948
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 13.88 in (35.26 cm)Width: 16.63 in (42.25 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Fairlawn, OH
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: FA60331stDibs: LU14015882612

More From This Seller

View All
Reclining Female Nude
By Emil Ganso
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Reclining Female Nude Charcoal on paper, c. 1933 Signed lower right (see photo) Provenance: Weyhe Gallery, New York (Ganso's dealer 1925-1941) Joseph Mark Erdelac, Cleveland, noted c...
Category

1930s American Modern Nude Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Graphite

Isadora Duncan
By Abraham Walkowitz
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Isadora Duncan Graphite with grey wash on paper mounted to cardstock Signed and dated in pencil lower right (see photo) Provenance: Charlotte Bergman, f...
Category

1910s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Graphite

Pablo Casals
By August F. Biehle
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Pablo Casals Graphite on paper, 1963 Signed in pencil lower right (see photo) Sheet size: 11 5/8 x 8 inches Condition: glue residue in all four corners of the sheet Drawn from life during an appearance at Carnegie Hall with the Cleveland Orchestra...
Category

1960s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Graphite

Seated Couple
By Raphael Soyer
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Inspiration (Seated Couple) Graphite on paper, c. 1967 Signed twice in pencil by the artist on recto (see photos) Condition: Excellent Image size: 13 x 16 inches Note: Although not t...
Category

1960s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Graphite

Untitled (Study for The Aerialists)
By John Steuart Curry
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled (Study for The Aerialists) Graphite on paper, 1932 Signed lower right in pencil: "John Steuart Curry" Dated: 1932 in pencil Exhibited: Schroeder Romero & Shredder, NYC (label), Master Drawings, Oct. 13, 2011-Nov. 12, 2011 (see photo of label) Arkansas Arts Center (label), 44th Collector Show & Sale, Nov. 30-December 30, 2012, Offered at $22,000. (see photo of label) This drawing is closely related to a painting by Curry entitled The Aerialists, 1932, once in the Erskine Collection, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It is part of a group of preliminary drawings and three finished paintings executed by Curry around 1932 which were based on The Flying Cadonas. The painting The Flying Cadonas is an icon of American art purchased by the Whitney Museum of Art and now on permanent exhibition. There are other know studies for these works, nos. 199 through 222 and in John Steuart Curry: Rural America, page 32 (Mongerson Wunderlich, Chicago, 1990. Provenance: Mrs. Kathleen Curry (artist’s widow), included in the estate schedule of works Treadway Toomey Auction, Oak Park, Illinois, 2009 Don Joint, New York An important American Regionalist drawing. Like Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry was a major American scene painter of the 1930s. His subjects were taken from American history and his most famous mural, The Tragic Prelude...
Category

1930s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Graphite

Two Studies of Henriette (Head of the artist's wife & The Artist's wife writing
By Leon Kelly
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Two Studies of Henriette (Left: Head of the artist's wife, Right: The Artist's wife writing a letter) Watercolor and graphite on paper, 1928-1930 Signed in pencil lower right (see photo) Image/sheet size: 9 3/8 x 11 inches Condition: Excellent Colors fresh and unfaded Provenance: Estate of the artist The Orange Chicken...
Category

1920s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor

You May Also Like

Male Lying Nude
By Jackson Lee Nesbitt
Located in New Orleans, LA
This is a drawing from the artist's sketchbooks. This pencil drawing shows a nude male in repose, The drawing is dated November 30 '36 (1936). Clearly the works are authentic and this sketch is signed "Jackson Lee Nesbitt...
Category

Late 20th Century American Modern Nude Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Graphite

Moonlight, oversize drawing of contemplative young woman, monochromatic
By Audrey Anastasi
Located in Brooklyn, NY
This work was intentionally torn and mended along the curve through the center of the work. It predates the artist's full immersion, years later into torn and re-pasted collages, us...
Category

2010s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Mixed Media, Watercolor, Archival Paper, Graphite

Eve Asleep, nude, female figure graphite drawing archival paper monochromatic
By Audrey Anastasi
Located in Brooklyn, NY
These recently discovered 1984 oversize nudes on mylar and/or archival papers were created working quickly, from a live model. The series shows the last existing observational drawi...
Category

2010s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Mixed Media, Archival Paper, Graphite

"Sons and Lovers" Drill Drawing, #5
By Michael O'Keefe
Located in Dallas, TX
Signed by artist "M. O'KEEFE 2013" at lower left. Media is graphite on clay-coated panel. Overall dimensions including the frame are 18 x 15 inches.
Category

2010s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Clay, Panel, Graphite

Cows by Woodland Pond, Toledo, Ohio, Early 20th Century Cleveland School
By Frank Wilcox
Located in Beachwood, OH
Frank Nelson Wilcox (American, 1887-1964) Cows by Woodland Pond, Toledo, Ohio, c. 1920 Watercolor and graphite on board Signed lower right 22 x 30 inches Frank Nelson Wilcox (October 3, 1887 – April 17, 1964) was a modernist American artist and a master of watercolor. Wilcox is described as the "Dean of Cleveland School painters," though some sources give this appellation to Henry Keller or Frederick Gottwald. Wilcox was born on October 3, 1887 to Frank Nelson Wilcox, Sr. and Jessie Fremont Snow Wilcox at 61 Linwood Street in Cleveland, Ohio. His father, a prominent lawyer, died at home in 1904 shortly before Wilcox' 17th birthday. His brother, lawyer and publisher Owen N. Wilcox, was president of the Gates Legal Publishing Company or The Gates Press. His sister Ruth Wilcox was a respected librarian. In 1906 Wilcox enrolled from the Cleveland School of Art under the tutelage of Henry Keller, Louis Rorimer, and Frederick Gottwald. He also attended Keller's Berlin Heights summer school from 1909. After graduating in 1910, Wilcox traveled and studied in Europe, sometimes dropping by Académie Colarossi in the evening to sketch the model or the other students at their easels, where he was influenced by French impressionism. Wilcox was influenced by Keller's innovative watercolor techniques, and from 1910 to 1916 they experimented together with impressionism and post-impressionism. Wilcox soon developed his own signature style in the American Scene or Regionalist tradition of the early 20th century. He joined the Cleveland School of Art faculty in 1913. Among his students were Lawrence Edwin Blazey, Carl Gaertner, Paul Travis, and Charles E. Burchfield. Around this time Wilcox became associated with Cowan Pottery. In 1916 Wilcox married fellow artist Florence Bard, and they spent most of their honeymoon painting in Berlin Heights with Keller. They had one daughter, Mary. In 1918 he joined the Cleveland Society of Artists, a conservative counter to the Bohemian Kokoon Arts Club, and would later serve as its president. He also began teaching night school at the John Huntington Polytechnic Institute at this time, and taught briefly at Baldwin-Wallace College. Wilcox wrote and illustrated Ohio Indian Trails in 1933, which was favorably reviewed by the New York Times in 1934. This book was edited and reprinted in 1970 by William A. McGill. McGill also edited and reprinted Wilcox' Canals of the Old Northwest in 1969. Wilcox also wrote, illustrated, and published Weather Wisdom in 1949, a limited edition (50 copies) of twenty-four serigraphs (silk screen prints) accompanied by commentary "based upon familiar weather observations commonly made by people living in the country." Wilcox displayed over 250 works at Cleveland's annual May Show. He received numerous awards, including the Penton Medal for as The Omnibus, Paris (1920), Fish Tug on Lake Erie (1921), Blacksmith Shop (1922), and The Gravel Pit (1922). Other paintings include The Trailing Fog (1929), Under the Big Top (1930), and Ohio Landscape...
Category

1920s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Graphite

Final Study for Atalanta, Girl with Apple
By Will Barnet
Located in Greenwich, CT
Will Barnet is one of America's best loved and known artists of the Post War era. He is highly distinctive for his figurative and narrative work and in some ways he is the Edgar All...
Category

1970s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Watercolor, Vellum, Color Pencil, Graphite

Recently Viewed

View All