Lot 172
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Attributed to Paul Forster (American, 1925-2012). In the Gallery. Oil on board, n.d. A stunning and sizable painting depicting a lone figure gazing at paintings or photographs of Native American life as though peering through windows. The gallery glows a vibrant yellow, creating an almost ethereal space and nicely delineating the figure of the observer from her surroundings. Standing with both arms behind her back, she wears a simple long-sleeved dress or coat and grasps a folder - perhaps of sketches or notes. While the pictures are elaborately framed, suggestive of a museum setting, the figure is barefoot and colors from the scenes seem to reflect in her clothing, begging us to ponder what space she inhabits: is the figure in a gallery looking at stagnant images or are these alive and happening before her? And then, as we too are observers, where does this position our own space? Forster's vibrant use of color and skilled rendering of light causes us to further question the boundaries of art and reality. Size: 48" W x 48" H (121.9 cm x 121.9 cm)
Though this painting is not signed, it has been attributed to Paul Forster by a prominent collector of his work due to its similarities in style, medium, size, and subject matter with his other pieces.
At the age eight, Paul Forster became the youngest member of the Albright Art Gallery Association in Buffalo, New York and also started studying at the Museum School with watercolorist Robert Blair. During World War II, Forster served in the Army Air Corps, and in 1952, he graduated from Brigham Young University with a Fine Arts Degree. In the late 1950s, Forster had a studio in Nevada painted murals for the Mormon Church. In the early 1960s, he taught art and became Chairman of the Art Department of the L.D.S. Schools of the South Pacific in Tonga. In 1969 he left Brigham Young University to paint full time. For the greater part of the next decade, Forster traveled throughout the American Southwest in an Airstream trailer to paint the environment and its inhabitants. In time, he moved to Oregon followed by Kansas City, but eventually returned to Arizona.
Provenance: ex-private Bishop Family Trust collection, the Trust of the late Bill Bishop, a noted antiquarian with shops in Scottsdale, Arizona and Allenspark, Colorado, USA, acquired before 2010
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#173154
- Condition: Vertical scratch to left side and smaller scuff on right; neither affecting central imagery. A few miniscule nicks to peripheries. Painting is otherwise in very good condition with great preservation of pigments.
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