Lot 29
**Originally Listed At $600**
Harold Frank (American born in England, 1921-1995). "Five Nudes on Blue" mixed media painting on board, n.d. Signed at lower right. A striking composition by Harold Frank depicting five nude female figures standing with their arms over each other's shoulders, their bodies delineated with Frank's signature quick expressive brushstrokes, lyrical lines, and incised gestures likely made with the back of his paint brush. The figures are modeled in shades of white, rose, violet, gold, and russet with black to contour their features. They stand close to the picture plane, before a dreamy background of aqua and periwinkle color fields suggesting the space beyond. A mesmerizing painting by Harold Frank set in a custom frame. Size (painting): 18" L x 36" W (45.7 cm x 91.4 cm) Size (frame): 19.2" L x 37.125" W (48.8 cm x 94.3 cm)
Harold Frank was devoted to the female figure. According to Frank scholar Sandie Stern, "Like his idol de Kooning, Frank chose the human figure, as his principal subject. Variations on women became a lifelong, consistent, ubiquitous theme." (Stern, "H. Frank", p. 16) At the same time, Frank embraced Abstract Expressionism. Growing up in the tenements of the Lower East Side in New York City during the era of the Great Depression and World War II, Frank found Abstract Expressionism to be the ideal means to explore the angst of his world. He once stated, "I can live with the abstract. Life is a mystery."
Harold Frank studied art at the Art Students League in New York, the National Academy of Design, Pratt Institute, Chouinard Art Institute, and UCLA where he was a colleague of Richard Diebenkorn (American, 1922-1993), an artist who is oftentimes associated with Abstract Expressionism as well as a pioneer of the Bay Area Figurative Movement. In addition to Diebenkorn, Frank's influences include DeKooning, Picasso, Matisse, and Rouault. While he also created landscapes, non-objective abstract compositions, and still-life paintings, figures and head studies were the predominant theme of his oeuvre.
For more about Harold Frank, see Sandie Stern's monograph "Harold Frank Abstract Expressionist 1921-1995" (2001).
Provenance: private Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA collection, acquired via descent, purchased from artist on June 25th, 1973
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#175887
- Condition: Signed at lower right. A few areas of pigment loss have been professionally touched up and are virtually invisible. Verso shows paint splatters and normal age wear with a few stains that do not impact the painted imagery as well as old inventory labels. Fit with suspension wire. Frame has a few scuffs and abrasions as shown that are commensurate with age.
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