Lot 253B
Harold Frank (American born in England, 1921-1995). "Nude on Purple" oil on Masonite, n.d. A bold painting of a standing nude female by Harold Frank. The woman is rendered with Frank's signature expressive loose brushwork and gestural style in a vibrant color palette. The figure presents with a curvaceous form, voluptuous breasts, arms at her sides, and parted legs delineated to the knees. While contoured in black, her body is modeled with a myriad of colors, and the background consists of vertical color fields in shades of purple, red, and green. According to 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) Size: 16" L x 12.125" W (40.6 cm x 30.8 cm)
Harold Frank immigrated with his family to the US through Ellis Island. 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."
Frank studied at the Art Students League in New York, the National Academy of Design, the Pratt Institute, the 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 De Kooning, 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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#175897
- Condition: A few minute scuffs and nicks to the peripheries that do not impact the central imagery. There is a collection label on the verso.
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