Richard Pousette-Dart’s ‘Suspended Light’ sold for €256,901 at the contemporary art auction at Dorotheum Vienna on 1st June, 2016.
Richard Pousette-Dart co-founded Abstract Expressionism in New York in the 1940s and continued to define the movement, which ended the dominance of European painting, in the decades after. “Suspended Light”, on offer at Dorotheum, attests to the artist‘s lifelong quest for transcendence.
Pointillistic application of paint, multiple thick layers … these factors all create vibrant, complex surfaces and – particularly in black and white – the impression of sources of light. These hallmarks of the American artist Richard Pousette-Dart’s paintings imbue them with a kind of musicality. The large-scale work “Suspended light”, which will be auctioned off at Dorotheum in June, is no exception.
The spiritual approach of the Minnesota-born Pousette-Dart, who was a co-founder of the American Abstract Expressionism movement, is apparent not the least in his love of geometric shapes. For him, circles and squares were universal symbols of cosmic forces. Pousette-Dart, like Mark Rothko, Ad Reinhard, and Clifford Still, believed that abstract painting has an innate power to elicit transcendence.
His far-reaching creative output from 1930–1990, the earliest influences of which include Cubism, Pointillism, Surrealism, aboriginal art and art of other ancient cultures, also contains sculpture and graphic art. He exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1948 as well as in 1982. Pousette-Dart also participated in the documenta II in 1959.
The convoluted, surreal shapes of his earlier years give way to seemingly shimmering, luminous paintings from the 1960s onward in a kind of transcendental Op Art. These paintings have such titles as “Stellar Light”, “Space Continuum”, and “Radiance”. Also, the texture of the 1978/80 painting “Suspended Light” gives it a lifelike quality. The central figure, a glowing sphere reminiscent of the sun, has remarkable visual magnetism.
(myART MAGAZINE No. 07/2016)
Auction Contemporary Art Part I
Wednesday, June 1, 6pm
Palais Dorotheum Vienna
Auction Contemporary Art Part II
Thursday, June 2, 5pm
Palais Dorotheum Vienna
Our Client Advisory Service is glad to assist you!
Tel. +43-1-515 60-570, Fax -489
client.services@dorotheum.at
