With Abstract Expressionist painting, one could argue, the earlier the work was created,
the more historically important. This stunning non-objective action
painting is characterized by vast swaths of pure color applied quickly
and dynamically. One might think it was a Franz Kline in color. However,
it was done by trailblazer Emerson Woelffer and was painted in 1951.
The date says it all.
Signed and dated lower right. unframed
provenance: The Artists' Gallery, New York Estate of the artist

Emerson Seville Woelffer (July 27, 1914 – February 2, 2003), was an
American artist and arts educator. He was known as a prominent abstract
expressionist artist and painter and taught art at some of the most
prestigious colleges and universities. Woelffer was one of the important
people in bringing modernism to Los Angeles, when he taught at
Chouinard Art Institute.
Woelffer was born July 27, 1914, in Chicago,
Illinois.[2][3] He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago between 1935
and 1937, with László Moholy-Nagy.[2]

In 1938 he joined the WPA Arts Program.[2] After serving in the US
Air Force, from 1942 until 1949, he taught at Art Institute of
Chicago.[1] At the request of Buckminster Fuller, in 1949 he taught at
Black Mountain College.[1] In 1954 he taught at the Colorado Springs
Fine Arts Center.

In 1959 he and his wife Dina moved to Los Angeles, California, where
they settled down in the Mount Washington neighborhood.[1] From 1959 to
1973 he taught at the Chouinard Art Institute (now known as California
Institute of the Arts) in Valencia, California.[1]

From 1974 and 1992 he taught at The Otis Art Institute (now called
Otis College of Art and Design) in Los Angeles, serving as Chair of the
Painting Department from 1974 to 1978. In 1991 he received an Honorary
Doctorate Degree from Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. He
felt such a strong attachment to Otis that he left his estate to the
college in the form of an endowment, to set up a scholarship fund to
benefit future artists.[1][4]

Woelffer is best known for his boldly colored abstract paintings and
collages with jagged forms. He also created sculpture and lithographs.
Late in his career―suffering from macular degeneration―he began working
in white crayon on black paper.