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MAVIS PUSEY (1928 - )
Recarte
.
Oil on canvas, circa 1968. 1626x1168 mm; 64x46 inches.Titled in paint on the verso.
Provenance: the artist; private collection.
Recarte
is an excellent example of the urban abstraction of an overlooked artist, and the first painting
of Mavis Pusey to come to auction. Born in Jamaica, Pusey immigrated to NewYork at the age of
18 to study at the Art Students League. Pusey also worked at Robert Blackburn’s Printmaking
Workshop and with the painterWill Barnet. She was the recipient of the prestigious Pollock-Krasner
Foundation award, with her application of
Recarte
and two other paintings, and aTiffany Foundation
grant. Pusey’s paintings reflect an abstract NewYork—“My work consists of geometrical forms in
a variety of geometrical configurations.These forms are based on buildings around the Manhattan
area. I am inspired by the energy and the beat of the construction and demolition of these
buildings—the tempo and movement mold into a synthesis and, for me, become another aesthetic
of abstraction.” Pusey’s paintings and prints were included in major exhibitions, including the 1966
UCLA Art Galleries
The Negro in American Art
and the 1971 Whitney Museum of American Art’s
Contemporary Black Artists in America
. Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art,
the Metropolitan Opera and the NewYork Public Library.
[6,000/9,000]