Lot 212
  • 212

FRITZ GLARNER | Relational Painting Tondo No. 28

Estimate
100,000 - 150,000 USD
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Description

  • Fritz Glarner
  • Relational Painting Tondo No. 28
  • Inscribed Tondo #28 (on the reverse)
  • Oil on canvasboard in artist's frame
  • Diameter: 23 1/4 in.
  • 59.1 cm
  • Painted in 1953.

Provenance

Rose Fried Gallery, New York (acquired directly from the artist)
Private Collection, New York (acquired from the above on March 1, 1955)
Thence by descent

Exhibited

Paris, Galerie Louis Carré & Co., Glarner, Rythme de New-York, 1955, n.n.

Literature

Margit Staber, Fritz Glarner, Zurich, 1976, n.n., illustrated p. 132

Condition

Please contact the Impressionist & Modern Art department directly for a condition report for this lot prepared by Simon Parkes Art Conservation Inc
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

Part of a series of 63 works, Relational Painting Tondo No. 28 perfectly illustrates the singular compositional principles of Fritz Glarner. The innovative format of the tondo allowed Glarner to contrast two spatial systems: the horizontal-vertical of Mondrian with that of the concentric circle. The artist himself called the composition scheme for his circular pictures a visual squaring of the circle. “What holds good for the rectangular formats of Relational Painting also applies to the Tondo. For Glarner, the circle was the strongest and clearest form symbol that man—as opposed to the forms that are found growing in nature—had discovered. The circle is enclosed within itself and is still open to all sides. It is, at the same time, introverted and extroverted. Glarner used this dual quality of the circle and applied the counterpoint networks of the form and colour structure in such a way that they merge together without any empty spaces” (Margit Staber, op. cit., p. 47).

While Glarner had introduced a dynamic new form and color palette to the rigid dogma of Mondrian’s abstraction, the father of De Stijl maintained a strong influence over Glarner’s work (see fig. 1). After his arrival in New York in the fall of 1940, Mondrian established regular contact with Glarner: "In the three years and four months that Mondrian spent in New York until his death, he was a regular guest once a week at the Glarner's though the two painters generally met at Mondrian's apartment... Fritz Glarner had already been living in New York for four years when Piet Mondrian moved there from London. This fact is important to understand the relationship between the two painters. In his loyal attitude, Glarner always referred to the Dutch master of Neo-Plasticism, who was 29 years his senior, as a friend and teacher who provided him with stimulation. It would seem, however, in Mondrian's last creative phase, which coincided with Glarner's first independent period, that they stimulated each other to the same degree" (ibid., p. 17).