Beschreibung:

Property from a Prominent American CollectionROBERT COLESCOTT (1925-2009)White Boy, 1989 signed and dated 'R Colescott 89' (lower left); signed again, titled, inscribed and dated again '"WHiTE BOY" © Robert Colescott Tuscon AZ, July 1989' (on the stretcher) acrylic on canvas 84 x 72 in. 213.4 x 182.9 cm. FootnotesProvenance Laura Russo Gallery, Portland, OR Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 1996 Exhibited New Orleans, Arthur Roger Gallery, Paintings, 1990 Venice, Italy, United States Pavilion, 47th Venice Biennale, 1997, p. 714 Minneapolis, Walker Art Center; New York, Queens Museum of Art; Arizona, University of Arizona Museum of Art; Oregon, Portland Art Museum; California, University of California, Berkeley; Nebraska, Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery & Sculpture Garden; New Mexico, SITE Santa Fe; Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans; The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu; Robert Colescott Recent Paintings 1987-1997, 1998-2000, p. 18, 19, 55, illustrated Literature Brooke M. Lampley, Analyzing the Abstract with Colescott, The Harvard Crimson, 4 December 1998 L. Kent Wolgamott, Race, Sex, Social Politics at Center of Colescott's Art, Lincoln Journal Star, 3 October 1999 "His slurred shapes, wobbly drawing and patchy brushwork imply that no truths can be held to be self-evident, that life is mired in slippery layers of false piety, self-interest and greed, but also lust, pleasure and irreverence." (Roberta Smith, New York Times, 9 June 2009) Robert Colescott's groundbreaking figuration and resonant artistic style have identified him as one of the most significant and compelling artists of the 20th century. Included in the seminal 1997 Venice Biennale, the present lot, White Boy, is a quintessential example from Colescott's oeuvre typifying his iconic and discordant style. Appearing bawdy and comical at first glance, Colescott's paintings are amassed with meaning that extends far beyond first impressions. Colescott activates his canvases with both cartoonish representations and erudite references to issues which loom large in society's consciousness, but whose reading is also dependent on the viewer and their lived experience. Tackling issues which have historically been some of the most challenging and persistent, Colescott deftly puts a spotlight on topics as subversive and universal as race, sex, gender, capitalism, and colonialism in paintings that are teeming with exuberant storytelling and sobering realities. Born in Oakland California in 1925, Robert Colescott's parents supported his artistic aspirations. His father was a waiter on the railroad and worked with preeminent sculptor Sargent Johnson, who became one of Colescott's first creative influences. After serving in World War II and earning his bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, Colescott moved to France to study on the GI bill. In Paris, Colescott attended the atelier of Modernist vanguard Fernand Léger who challenged abstraction in favor of a more accessible, yet equally avant-garde style, that eventually laid the groundwork for Pop Art. Colescott's classical fine art training cemented his fluency in Western Art Historical traditions which became a through-line of his practice. Like Titian and other Venetian Renaissance painters, Colescott prepared his canvases with a layer of red paint. This ground brought a luminous quality to the figures and composition known as the "Venetian Glow." For Colescott, painting the canvas red provided the foundation on which to bring forms to life. Elaborating on his process, Colescott noted that "Michelangelo said the figures were already in the stone you just had to bring them out and to some extent, I feel like there's a kind of organism to the red paint [...] that creates layers that help create form." (Robert Colescott One-Two-Punch, director: David Irving, 1992, 19:10) This is particularly evident in the direct reference to Picasso's masterpiece, the 1907 painting Demoiselles d'Avign