ROY NEWELL | WINGED

Estate of the artist

Carolina Nitsch, New York

Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2010

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.

“Each [painting] has its own physical density; all are clamped into place by the concentrated buildup of paint, laid on in small, jabbing brushstrokes. The tension is amazing.” (Roberta Smith, The New York Times, 2010)