Lot 235
  • 235

ROY NEWELL | Untitled

Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 USD
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Description

  • Roy Newell
  • Untitled
  • oil on board
  • 12 1/4 by 20 in. 32.2 by 50.8 cm
  • Executed circa 1960.

Provenance

Estate of the artist
Thence by descent to the present owner in 2006

Condition

This work is in very good condition overall. There is light evidence of wear and handling to the edges, including pinpoint losses to the left edge in the pink band. Under very close inspection, there are stable drying cracks visible throughout, there is a brown pinpoint spot accretion in the yellow band 0.75-inches from the bottom and there is a 1.5-inch diagonal green mark in the pink band 2.75-inches from the top edge. Under Ultraviolet light inspection, there are no signs of restoration. Framed.
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

Roy Newell was a pioneering member of the Abstract Expressionist movement and a founding member of the Eight Street Club. His work from the 1940s and 1950s focused on gestural abstraction, much of which he destroyed prior to embarking on a new direction defined by small-scale geometric subjects. He continued to explore this subject matter for the remainder of his career. Newell’s work and his bold decision to aesthetically break with his peers and follow his own vision was well-regarded among artists of his generation including Franz Kline and Willem and Elaine de Kooning, who were also close personal friends.  His work has been included in exhibitions at the Whitney Museum, New York and the Museum of Modern Art, New York and his work is in the collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. In a 1986 New York Times review of a solo show of Newell’s work, Helen A. Harrison wrote: “The long-term, single minded pursuit of a narrow, self- imposed esthetic discipline is rare among visual artists, most of whom undergo the periodic changes in style or viewpoint that we associate with a developing career. Those uncommon few who commit themselves to an approach at once so clearly defined and so personal that it seems to exist outside of time exert a special fascination, especially on the imaginations of their fellow artists. As Morandi represents the ideal ‘painter’s painter’ for the gestural realists, so we might think of Roy Newell as a paragon for the geometric abstractionists” (“When a Period Lasts a Lifetime, ” August 31, 1986).