MARINE LIFE (NO. 891)

Relatively unknown as an artist during his lifetime, Eugene Von Bruenchenhein (1910-1983) created a prolific and diverse body of work over the course of almost 50 years. His paintings often depict abstract scenes evocative of nature or fictional settings. For his earliest paintings, he repurposed boxes from the bakery he worked for and used them as panels. He soon began purchasing art supplies from a local store, implementing a range of tools such as fingers, sticks, combs and chicken bones to apply and manipulate the pigments.

The present lot, executed in 1960, falls within Von Bruenchenhein’s most active and innovative period of painting. The work is abounding with energy. The contrasting colors and ranges in texture create an obscure yet dynamic scene of curious sea creatures and vegetation. While some of these life forms stretch their sharp, elongated parts across the composition, others exist as playful, floundering beings. The present work reflects Von Bruenchenhein’s fascination with depicting the mysterious and unknown.