Open Space Densities 1950–1985 by Ibram Lassaw

&

Mid-Century Abstraction 1930 – 1980, Stuart Davis to Robert Motherwell


January 17 through February 23, 2024


Highlights from the paintings portion are a 1979 oil sketch Drunk With Turpentine, the final study for Motherwell’s finished painting White Sanctuary, 1981. Similarly included, amongst three Stuart Davis drawings is a sketch for his painting, Flags, 1931. The New York modernist Anna Walinska is represented by a powerful black and white oil painting, Tokyo Landscape, 1957, and a Shan paper collage Figures, 1961. Canadian Jean-Paul Riopelle’s colorful expressionist Landscape, circa 1958, is another feature.

The surreal, molten metal sculptures by Ibram Lassaw, spanning a period from 1950 through 1985, draw the viewer through and within. On the walls is a selection of modernist paintings, watercolors, collage, and drawings by mid-century artists including Robert Motherwell, Stuart Davis, Anna Walinska, Jean Paul Riopelle, Mercedes Matter, Michael West, Willem de Kooning, Perle Fine, Louise Nevelson, Jimmy Ernst, Mary Abbott. 

Ibram Lassaw is represented by seven unique sculptures. The artist was among the earliest American sculptors to work in abstraction, beginning in 1933. Lassaw was a charter member of the The Clay Club, 1934 (now the Sculpture Center) and American Abstract Artists, 1937, and exhibited at both annuals. Further exhibitions were held at the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1951, Kootz Gallery, New York, 1952-1958. The Museum of Modern Art included Lassaw in several exhibitions, including the influential Twelve Americans, 1956. Other institutions that have featured Ibram Lassaw include The Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, New York, 1973, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York, 1988, and Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa, 2023. 


GRAHAM SHAY 1857

17 E. 67th Street, No. 1A

New York, NY 10065

212.535.5767

 

Exhibition Hours

Monday through Saturday, 11am to 6pm