Framed: 64 1/2 x 77 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
Joust is an important American modernist work. Painted the year that Samuel Kootz opened his gallery in New York, its possible that Holty painted this work bearing in mind it might be shown amongst the works of other peers there such as Picasso, Miro, Braque, Mondrian, Motherwell, Gottlieb, Baziotes and Beardon. Holty was one artist that always had in the forefront of his mind the theories and techniques of abstract painting. While Holty was an innovator and very much had his own style, he openly embraced and reacted against – in his works the ideas of artists before and around him. In Joust we feel that he would is nodding toward the work of Picasso both in that he had a “blue period” as well as his monumental cubist canvases.
In the 1940’s Holty made an interesting choice to bring figuration back into his work. Although he would often reference allegory he was the one artist who referenced “jousting knights” and or riders on horses, repeatedly. Holty wrote to Romare Bearden his close friend, “For myself, I know that a pictorial metaphor is the best way of working. I know there are no knights and I don’t even feel romantic about them, but that I feel best when I use something of that sort…”
We believe that Holty used the horse and rider or “jousters” for two reasons. One, was for formal compositional reasons. The rider often has a diagonal posture on the horse and then the horse itself allowed him to present further diagonal lines that create for dynamic movement on the picture plane. That these two forms offered him the best opportunity for endless abstracting forms. We see this in Joust as he is able to take every aspect of the figures and fracture them into movements.
The second reason is that this subject aligned with a personal and larger vision Holty had about life and what he was doing in general. It has been noted that he was often trying to simply express in his work at this time a freedom of movement and doing battle against unforeseen forces. Ideas that when he went to the canvas, sought to express themselves. A jouster and horse and rider are a perfect vehicle to work this idea out literally. Holty’s work also often touches upon the heroic which is why he sometimes turned to allegory as well. Battles, struggles and wars were all themes that lurk in his choice of reference when it does appear.
Around the time he painted this work, he wrote, “We will struggle long before we arrive at a complete new imagery and our work will perhaps have a fanciful character for a long while, but its indistinctness will be like the shadows on the wall from Plato’s fire. The images that cast the shadows cannot be discerned.”
An interesting note about Joust is for 1945, cubism was not a new art form. Holty was well aware of this but was reverting back to this approach to move forward with new structural explorations in color and space. Holty was an intellectual painter and not a sensational and one who felt an urgency to gain attention through shock. He would go back to fundamentals and work through spatial ideas which were always important to him and let new theories of his own open up through this path. The path opens up in Joust in the most unusual way. It is through the genius and subtle use of the reddish orange color at the bottom of the canvas. If you did an experiment and removed this one addition of color, the painting would die visually. And yet with great restraint Holty understood that by limited his use of the brilliant color in an offhand area, that he was opening up a new door of how to play with color and space. Going forward, Holty would use this technique again and again in subtle ways. Sometimes with just one color dash floating randomly on top of the canvas spatially and at other times using limited color and then introducing that one band of irrelevent color to finish off a composition.
Joust is also just a great painting, period. The rhythm of how he fractures the picture plane is harmonious and visually stimulating. It is an inviting work that allows the viewer to be energized by the movment and forms and also to have to work at knowing it better. Often a great work of art can be characterized by how long you want to look at it. How much it keeps giving as you get to know it.
The mid-1940’s were a great time for Holty as he had firm footing in the New York gallery world with the Kootz Gallery. This came to an end in a few years when Kootz let he, Romare Beardon and Byron Browne go from his roster as the tide was turning with art critics dominance on the artistic environment in New York. Joust stands as a strong work for the artist as within a few years he moved toward a prettier color palette and his “mosaic” work. This canvas is a summation work that has a gravitas and feel of a canvas that Holty meant to be commanding.
provenance
Provenance: Collection of James Snydle, San Francisco, CA until circa 2012
Private collection, Ken Marx, Milwaukee, WI circa 2012 - 2022
exhibitions
Exhibited Georgia Museum of Art 2020/21