Framed: 24 x 32 inches
artist
The German-born American Abstractionist Carl Robert Holty became known for his biomorphic abstract forms as well as his geometric abstractions that he painted with a vibrant color palette. Indelibly linked to both the Abstract Expressionist and Geometric Abstractionist art movements, Holty was a major proponent of Modernism in the United States and was a contributory influence to the world of American painting. By the 1960's Holty was creating paintings that were dominated by large color fields rendered with thinly washed fluid areas within subtly toned spaces that revealed the influences of such Abstract Expressionist artists as Morris Louis and Helen Frankenthaler. A student of Hans Hofmann and his color theories of expanding dimensions and exuberant colors in abstractions, Holty created large, soft-edged color forms that were either mixed or floated on chromatic stains, experimenting with the relationship of space and form within a two-dimensional plane. In his own words Holty explained:
"No one had ever talked to me about conceptual drawing, about knowing what I'm looking at from the point of view of my tactile knowledge as well as my visual knowledge. Hofmann did. And the world opened up just like that."
Holty experimented with the relationship of space and form within a two-dimensional plane. His works in many ways can be viewed as a celebration of color. There are no obvious images, only large forms that create a rhythmic movement of subtle, toned-down colors and shapes with differing densities. Such works challenged the American art world to look at art in a bold and new fashion. This advocacy for new and cutting edge kinds of works helped to establish Holty as a leading American abstract painter. Along with his friends Stuart Davis and Vaclav Vytlacil Holty established the ground-breaking group that came to be known as the American Abstract Artists. Throughout his life as an artist, Holty was constantly developing his vision of abstraction. An icon in the annals of American contemporary art, Holty is best remembered for his use of color, shape and form.
Description
This clear, crisp and pastel colored abstraction by Carl Holty is a marvelous example of his abstracted work from the 1950’s. He went through a period where he broke up a somewhat representation subject that could still be discerned, by almost square like swathes of color. This one is very tightly and precisely fractured into color elements and is evocative of a landscape and perhaps even the intimation of Spring and or fresh elements in nature.
The word Federation can mean a group of elements that when they are together still have autonomy and that is perhaps the reference here. All these little swathes and brightly colored parts are together in unison but each represents its element or part of nature.
Holty was a very cerebral and articulate artist who shaped the abstract movement in art in the United States. He was a spokesman for many, always an innovator and had a long career that began with the formation of the American Abstract Artists to the end of his career that examined elements of Color Field abstraction.
provenance
Spanierman Galleries, New York
Rago Auctions, Lambertville, NJ