Robert Richenburg
The Fearful Area, 1957
Oil on canvas
40 × 50 in / 101.6 × 127 cm
$ 80,000.00
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This work is a wonderful example of early abstract expressionist/action painting.
It's a very experimental and creative. In the upper right quadrant, the artist is squeezing paint from the tube...
This work is a wonderful example of early abstract expressionist/action
painting. It's a very experimental and creative. In the upper right
quadrant, the artist is squeezing paint from the tube directly on the
canvas in a Pollockesque swirls and then manipulating and scraping it
off with a palette knife. There are splatters, drips and it looks as if
he is throwing the paint on the canvas as well. Craquelure throughout
and a layer of dirt and grit cover the surface. The original frame is
bowing and is not aligned perfectly with the stretchers.
The “The
Fearful Area" inscribed in pencil on the top stretcher. I believe to
Richenburg, the "The Fearful Area" was the canvas itself. The artist is
telling us that painting is hard work and it’s an exploration that
involves courage, trial and error.
I was fortunate enough to have Mr.
Richenburg as my art teacher at Ithaca college from 1970 and 1971. He
was a great and inspiring man.
Condition report:
Work is in medium
to fair condition with craquelure throughout. Heavy layers of dirt and
grime lye on the surface. The paint is stable and the pigments seem to
be fairly solid. There may be some scattered paint losses that are a
result of natural aging.
However, most of the apparent paint loss is
from the artist's own hand. There are areas throughout that appear to
have paint loss, leaving only the ground visible. Most of these apparent
losses are from the artist, who has wiped and scraped the canvas
surface as an act of experimentation. The artist was wiping and
scrapping one paint application away and in some cases overpainted with
additional pigments. It looks like there is a lot of paint loss but in
fact, that is the intention of the artist. Paper fibers still exist on
the canvas. They are embedded into the paint. See my notes on the
close-up images. The canvas is unlined. The wood stretcher bars are
slightly bowed. The original simple wood frame is bowed as well. The
painting is loose within the frame. Under UV light, there is no previous
restoration. Overall, the painting reads very well and presents a
strong and powerful abstract expressionist image. A cleaning will bring
the work back.
Robert Richenburg was an abstract expressionist artist
based in New York City, whose paintings were widely acclaimed in the
1950s and 1960s. While a student of Hans Hofmann, Richenburg exhibited
at the Museum of Non-Objective Painting (later the Guggenheim) in 1950.
The following year, he participated in the historic Ninth Street Art
Exhibition, and subsequently taught at Pratt Institute along with Franz
Kline, Adolph Gottlieb, Jack Tworkov, Philip Guston, Milton Resnick and
Tony Smith. By 1961, critic Irving Sandler declared that "Richenburg
emerges as one of the most forceful painters on the New York Art
Scene."[1] The Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art and the
Philadelphia Museum of Art, among others, purchased his work.
painting. It's a very experimental and creative. In the upper right
quadrant, the artist is squeezing paint from the tube directly on the
canvas in a Pollockesque swirls and then manipulating and scraping it
off with a palette knife. There are splatters, drips and it looks as if
he is throwing the paint on the canvas as well. Craquelure throughout
and a layer of dirt and grit cover the surface. The original frame is
bowing and is not aligned perfectly with the stretchers.
The “The
Fearful Area" inscribed in pencil on the top stretcher. I believe to
Richenburg, the "The Fearful Area" was the canvas itself. The artist is
telling us that painting is hard work and it’s an exploration that
involves courage, trial and error.
I was fortunate enough to have Mr.
Richenburg as my art teacher at Ithaca college from 1970 and 1971. He
was a great and inspiring man.
Condition report:
Work is in medium
to fair condition with craquelure throughout. Heavy layers of dirt and
grime lye on the surface. The paint is stable and the pigments seem to
be fairly solid. There may be some scattered paint losses that are a
result of natural aging.
However, most of the apparent paint loss is
from the artist's own hand. There are areas throughout that appear to
have paint loss, leaving only the ground visible. Most of these apparent
losses are from the artist, who has wiped and scraped the canvas
surface as an act of experimentation. The artist was wiping and
scrapping one paint application away and in some cases overpainted with
additional pigments. It looks like there is a lot of paint loss but in
fact, that is the intention of the artist. Paper fibers still exist on
the canvas. They are embedded into the paint. See my notes on the
close-up images. The canvas is unlined. The wood stretcher bars are
slightly bowed. The original simple wood frame is bowed as well. The
painting is loose within the frame. Under UV light, there is no previous
restoration. Overall, the painting reads very well and presents a
strong and powerful abstract expressionist image. A cleaning will bring
the work back.
Robert Richenburg was an abstract expressionist artist
based in New York City, whose paintings were widely acclaimed in the
1950s and 1960s. While a student of Hans Hofmann, Richenburg exhibited
at the Museum of Non-Objective Painting (later the Guggenheim) in 1950.
The following year, he participated in the historic Ninth Street Art
Exhibition, and subsequently taught at Pratt Institute along with Franz
Kline, Adolph Gottlieb, Jack Tworkov, Philip Guston, Milton Resnick and
Tony Smith. By 1961, critic Irving Sandler declared that "Richenburg
emerges as one of the most forceful painters on the New York Art
Scene."[1] The Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art and the
Philadelphia Museum of Art, among others, purchased his work.