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Lot Essay
Along with his friend Kenneth Noland, Morris Louis is the leading artist of what has become known as the Washington "school" of Color Field painting. After decades of dedicated but derivative painting, he found his own creative voice after an encounter in 1953 with the work of Jackson Pollock and Helen Frankenthaler. He was influenced by the large scale and emotional responses to color of Abstract Expressionism and was particularly impressed with the possibilities inherent in Frankenthaler's staining techniques. Within months, Louis developed his breakthrough style which would consume him for the last nine years of his life.
Louis worked in series, creating a cohesive body of mature work that can be broken down into a few main themes--Veils, Florals, Columns and Unfurleds. Untitled is one of the few works that harmoniously combines two of his major themes, consisting of overlapping Veil and Floral images. The painting is a tour-de-force of the artist's staining technique in which he delicately balances the riotous color and intricate overlapping pattern to create a harmonious overall composition. The forms explode out from the center of the canvas and appear to extend beyond, an affect heightened by the curvilinear "petals" which appear to reach for the edges. "The Florals are among the most successful of Louis's 1959-60 Themes and Variations" (D. Upright, Morris Louis: The Complete Paintings, A Catalogue Raisonné, New York, 1985, p. 20).
Louis's innovative and expressive use of pure color and refinement of his predecessor's staining techniques earned him the praise of MoMA curator William Rubin and critic Clement Greenberg who felt his accomplishments were on the same par as the first generation Abstract Expressionists. Although his supporters lauded Louis' formal rigor and abstract vocabulary, his oeuvre is unabashedly concerned with visual pleasure. "(The paintings) are hedonistic in spirit, decorously cultivating the delectability of color. They did insinuate self, nature and other art in their choice of color but their essential content was immediate and open, buoyant color" (I. Sandler, op cit., p. 236).
Louis worked in series, creating a cohesive body of mature work that can be broken down into a few main themes--Veils, Florals, Columns and Unfurleds. Untitled is one of the few works that harmoniously combines two of his major themes, consisting of overlapping Veil and Floral images. The painting is a tour-de-force of the artist's staining technique in which he delicately balances the riotous color and intricate overlapping pattern to create a harmonious overall composition. The forms explode out from the center of the canvas and appear to extend beyond, an affect heightened by the curvilinear "petals" which appear to reach for the edges. "The Florals are among the most successful of Louis's 1959-60 Themes and Variations" (D. Upright, Morris Louis: The Complete Paintings, A Catalogue Raisonné, New York, 1985, p. 20).
Louis's innovative and expressive use of pure color and refinement of his predecessor's staining techniques earned him the praise of MoMA curator William Rubin and critic Clement Greenberg who felt his accomplishments were on the same par as the first generation Abstract Expressionists. Although his supporters lauded Louis' formal rigor and abstract vocabulary, his oeuvre is unabashedly concerned with visual pleasure. "(The paintings) are hedonistic in spirit, decorously cultivating the delectability of color. They did insinuate self, nature and other art in their choice of color but their essential content was immediate and open, buoyant color" (I. Sandler, op cit., p. 236).