Lot 20
  • 20

Alfred Leslie

Estimate
200,000 - 300,000 USD
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Description

  • Alfred Leslie
  • Quartet #1
  • signed and dated 58 on the reverse of the lower left panel
  • oil on canvas in four parts
  • 84 x 98 in. 213.4 x 248.9 cm.

Provenance

Martha Jackson Gallery, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above in 1977

Exhibited

New York, Allan Stone Gallery, Alfred Leslie, Expressing the Zeitgeist,  October - December 2004, cat. no. 13, illustrated in color

Condition

20 ALFRED LESLIE Quartet #1 This work is in good condition overall. All four canvases have been relined and the heavy multi-layered paint film is cracked throughout, with widely scattered areas of restoration and consolidation of the cupping and tenting of the paint. Under UV light, a signature and date ('58) is visible in the lower right panel. Each panel is unframed. Under UV, all four panels reveal retouching overall and intermittent scattered restoration along all edges of the canvases. Following are areas of particular note for cracking or restoration: Top Left panel - There is a t-shaped crack, slightly lifted, with a pinpoint loss located 3–3 7/8 in. from right and 19½-20 5/8 in. from bottom. Under UV, there are networks of restoration throughout but primarily in the upper half of the panel. In the lower half, there are areas below center, located 9–20 in. from bottom and 21½-25 in. from right, and a yellow area located 6¾ -8¼ in. from bottom and 11½ -12 in. from right. Top Right panel – There are scattered networks of fine cracks throughout particularly in the upper half. Under UV, there is a concentration of 7 circular areas of restoration in the center varying in size from 1 in. in diameter to 2½ in. in diameter. There are 2 circular areas of restoration in the upper left (8–11 in. from the top and 7½ - 10¼ in. from the left) and 2 circular areas in the bottom right (1 in. and 2x 3 in. in size). Lower Left panel – along the bottom edge (10½-10¾ in. from left corner), there is a paint fragment adhered to the canvas perhaps from leaning against another panel while still wet. In the lower left, there is a raised t-shaped crack 4- 6½ in. from left and 22-23¼ in. from bottom. Under UV, the more notable restorations are: a circular area 14–15¾ in. from left and 5-6¼ in. from bottom with 2 attendant linear areas; a circular area 1½-2¾ in. from left and 10½-11½ in. from the bottom; a circular area of restoration 4¾-5¾ in. from bottom and 20¼-20½ in. from left; 22½-24½ in. from left and 5-5¾ in. from bottom. In the upper left, there are networks of linear restoration of fine cracking overall, and one area associated with the stretcher bar, located 3 in. from left and 13¼-14½ in. from top. In the upper right, there are scattered areas of inpaint and linear networks of cracks, particularly 6½-8½ in. from top and 25–27 in. from right, and 15-17 in. from top and 12–15 in. from right. In the lower right, there is a circular area located 19– 20 1/3 in. from bottom and 8½ -10¾ in. from right. Lower Right panel - Restorations are particularly concentrated in the upper right quadrant and located: 17–21 in. from top and 7½-13 in. from right; 2-4½ in. from top and 10–10¾ in. from right; and 3½-8½ in. from the top extending 5½ in. in from the right edge.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

The monumental Quartet #1 features the intensity and dynamism of the painterly surfaces most celebrated in Alfred Leslie's Abstract Expressionist compositions. Throughout the 1950s, Leslie was considered a seminal figure of the New York School's younger Second Generation along with Michael Goldberg, Joan Mitchell and Grace Hartigan. In 1951, Leslie participated in the fabled and influential artist-organized Ninth Street Show and in 1952 he had his first solo exhibition at Tibor de Nagy Gallery where he would subsequently exhibit throughout the 1950s. In 1959, he was included in the ground-breaking 16 Americans exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.

Unlike some of his contemporaries, Leslie worked directly on canvas frequently without producing preparatory studies or sketches. The artist layered heavy pigment using thick brushstrokes and overlapped squared-off areas of color much like the work of Hans Hofmann in whose class Leslie had modeled at the Art Students' League. With abandon and gusto, Leslie splashed paint like fireworks exploding across the blocked areas of impasto. His palette was equally bold and virile as Quartet #1 blazes with verdant greens, flanked by intense yellows and punctuated by glimpses of red that balance the softer eddies of swirling blues in the opposite quadrant. The two-by-two quadrant format was perhaps inspired by Leslie's earlier collages and the stacking of individual panels has a similar flexibility and variation as the parts coalesce into a unified whole.  In Quartet #1, each block of color and each panel is audaciously assembled to forge an intricate and harmonious opus.

Quartet #1 also features the two parallel narrow vertical zips of color – here in white – that were a signature motif for Leslie in his expressionist style. In 1960, historian Dore Ashton reviewed a show at the Martha Jackson Gallery where Allan Stone would later acquire Quartet #1. Ashton considered Leslie's work in the context of an evolution away from his Abstract Expressionist forerunners: "While Mr. Leslie has taken the foot-wide stroke and casual way of applying paint initiated by Mr. de Kooning, he has lately sought to endow his huge canvases with a calm enforced by horizontal and vertical structures" (Dore Ashton, "Art: Two Abstractionists," New York Times, January 6, 1960).