
CARL HOLTY(1900-1973)Suspension
1960
1960
Sold for US$50,312.50 inc. premium
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CARL HOLTY (1900-1973)
1960
signed; signed, titled and dated 1960 on the stretcher
oil on canvas
59 3/8 by 47 1/2 in.
150.8 by 120.6 cm.
Footnotes
Provenance
A gift from the artist to his wife, Elizabeth Holty, in 1960
Exhibited
Milwaukee, The Milwaukee Art Museum, Carl Holty, the World Seen and Sensed, 1980
A pioneering abstract painter, Carl Holty's artistic development closely tracked the leading avant-garde movements of the 20th Century. Born in Germany but raised in Wisconsin, the artist studied under Hans Hofmann in Munich, before relocating to Paris in 1930, finding himself engrained in an artistic milieu which included Robert Delaunay and Piet Mondrian, the latter being of great artistic influence on Holty, and a close friend.
Holty's early biomorphism transformed into a neoplasticism as he returned to the United States. Represented by Samuel Kootz in New York, along with luminaries such as Robert Motherwell and Adolph Gottlieb, Holty's work continued to mature. His mosaic paintings of the late 1940's and 1950's, tense and fragmented with riotous colors, eventually gave way to a softened abstraction as seen in the present work, Suspension from 1960. In this last period of artistic output, Holty seemingly surrendered to his materials, exploring light and movement through large scale and gloriously atmospheric Color Field paintings. Today, the artist's work can be seen in numerous museums and institutions including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.