Lowell Nesbitt (American, 1933-1993), "Azalea Landing", 1983 CE. A lovely oil on canvas landscape painting by American artist Lowell Nesbitt, signed, titled, and dated on the verso, depicting a three-point linear perspectival view of a verdant, blooming azalea garden. Nesbitt was one of the most notable 20th century artists who focussed on floral subjects and is often associated with the Photo-Realist Movement of the 1960s and 1970s; however, his compositions are more loosely painted than those of most Photo-Realist painters. He is best known for his large, close-up imagery of irises, roses, orchids, lilies, and other flowers where the petals are pressed to the picture plane. In a similar spirit to Georgia O'Keeffe's floral paintings, Nesbitt's works have been described as dramatic and sensual by critics. Nesbitt had his first exhibition in 1957, and since that time has had more than eighty solo exhibitions. His paintings, drawings, and prints are in the collections of numerous prestigious institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art in New York, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the High Museum of Art, the Hirshhorn Museum, the Yale University Art Gallery, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, and the National Gallery of Fine Art in Washington, D.C. The Baltimore native received his arts education at the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia and the Royal College of Art in London, where he actually studied stained glass and etching. According to the artist, it was a short-term job in security for the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. that inspired him to begin painting. An impressive landscape painting created by this highly celebrated American Artist, set in an attractive gold-hue trimmed wooden frame. Size: 26" L x 20" W (66 cm x 50.8 cm); 27.5" L x 21.5" W (69.8 cm x 54.6 cm) framed

For those who wish to learn more about this artist: Interestingly in 1976, Mr. Nesbitt moved from his West 14th Street New York studio to a larger one at 389 West 12th Street. This location was the former site of a police stable in excess of 12,500 square feet. His new lavish studio, dubbed "The Old Stable" by Nesbitt, included an indoor swimming pool, a four-story atrium, and a rooftop entertainment area. The setting inspired many Nesbitt paintings, and the Old Stable became a popular gathering place for major players in the art world, including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Indiana, Jasper Johns, Robert Motherwell, Larry Rivers and James Rosenquist. Nesbitt's monumental studio space attracted the attention of journalists who wrote feature articles about the facility for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Architectural Digest Magazine in the late 1970s. Following Nesbitt’s death the "Old Stable" was purchased by fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg who lived in it and used it as her primary design studio until the early 2000s when sadly it was sold and later demolished to make space for a new high-rise building.

Nesbitt is also known for being loyal to his friend, the controversial photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. In 1964, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington granted Nesbitt one of his first museum exhibitions, and in the mid-1970's Nesbitt had decided to leave the Corcoran a bequest amounting to $1,500,000. However, Mr. Nesbitt publicly revoked the bequest in 1989 after the Corcoran controversially canceled a disputed exhibition of Robert Mapplethorpe's "sexually suggestive" photographs. Instead, Mr. Nesbitt named the Phillips Collection as his beneficiary.



Provenance: Private Colorado collection, purchased in 1993 (the year Nesbitt passed away) directly from artist at his studio in New York City.

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