Beschreibung:

Morris Louis Roseate 1960 acrylic on canvas 82 1/4 x 105 1/4 in. (208.9 x 267.3 cm.)
Provenance André Emmerich Gallery, New York Marcella Brenner, Washington DC Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, 1978 Private Collection, New York Christie's, New York, Contemporary Art, May 12, 2010, lot 270 Acquired at the above sale by the present owner Exhibited London, Hayward Gallery, Morris Louis June 27 - September 1, 1974, then traveled to Düsseldorf, Städtische Kunsthalle (Septrember 27 – November 19, 1974), Humlebaek, Louisiana, Museum of Modern Art (January 18 1975 – February 13, 1975), Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts (February – April, 1975) Literature D. Upright, Morris Louis The Complete Paintings, New York, 1985, no. 295, p. 159 and 216 (illustrated) Morris Louis Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1986, p. 58 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay The lasting influence of the of Morris Louis’ brief but prolific career reverberates more intensely with each passing decade. His reputation as a pioneer of color-field painting was established as he eliminated the gestural brushstroke from his work; pouring diluted acrylic down the sides of an inclined, unprimed canvas. With this singular contribution to the history of painting, Louis was able to create works of lush and exuberant color. Roseate, 1960, is a paragon of his final years, where stark simplicity is at a crossroads with chromatic richness. Part of his Columns series, the present lot is comprised of only three bands of acrylic staining, bisecting Louis’ enormous canvas in perfect balance. The columns progress in saturation from right to left, first a gleaming blood-orange, then a deep crimson, before finally adopting a dark shade of burnt sepia. The title of the piece, Roseate, beautifully reflects an innocence that Morris disallows his colors, the delicacy of rose coloring eluding the sharper stains of his chromatic scheme. from its fascinating progression of hues, the present lot also gives us an illusion of depth in Louis’ fat surface—three isolated stairs seem to indicate that a simple gesture of a few related colors in tow can create multiple dimensions on a canvas. This was, after all, one of Morris Louis’ greatest achievements; as we see in Roseate, 1960, Louis’ use of color was only a jumping-of point for the mysterious qualities that follow. Read More