78
●
NORMAN LEWIS (1909 - 1979)
Promenade.
Oil on canvas, 1961. 1060x1632 mm; 41
3
/
4
x64
1
/
4
inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower left recto.
Titled on the stretcher bar verso.
Provenance: acquired directly from the artist, New York, 1961; Dr. Charles C. Holt, Austin, TX;
thence by descent to his estate.
Promenade
is the largest oil painting by Norman Lewis to come to auction since his untitled painting
sold at Swann Galleries to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston on October 7, 2008. This important
canvas has never been exhibited, as it was acquired shortly after being painted in 1961.
This painting was part of an experimental series of
Promenade
paintings in which the artist
experimented with the gradual abstraction of his calligraphic “ritual” figures, using the unpainted
color of the linen canvas as the ground. Lewis soon infused the figures and their space with brighter
colors in such compositions as
Bonfire
, 1962, in the collection of the Studio Museum in Harlem.
This work, however, differs from his starker, more political works from the early 1960s, such as
Redneck Rebirth
, 1961, and
Evening Rendezvous
, 1962.
[120,000/180,000]