WILL BARNET
Study for "Homage to Léger with K. K. (Portrait of Katharine Kuh)."

Charcoal on vellum, 1982. 1015x969 mm; 40x38 1/8 inches. Signed and dated in charcoal, lower right recto.

Provenance: Babcock Galleries, New York, with the label; estate of the artist.

Exhibited: "Will Barnet: Drawings," Babcock Galleries, New York, February 20-April 27, 2007, number 12; "Will Barnet in Provincetown," Provincetown Art Association and Museum, August 19-October 23, 2011, with the label; "The Art of Will Barnet," Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Maine, June 21-August 12, 2012, with the label.

The current work on vellum is a study for the 1982 oil on canvas Homage to Léger with K. K., in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Kuh (1904-1994) was an art historian, gallerist, and curator. Kuh's eponymous gallery became the epicenter of avant-garde art in Chicago. She operated her gallery from 1935 to 1943, when she was hired as a curator at the Art Institute of Chicago. As curator, Kuh was responsible for several landmark exhibitions, including Mark Rothko's first showing at a museum and "American Artists Paint the City," organized for the 1956 Venice Biennale. After leaving her position at the Art Institute in 1959, she became an art critic and author.

 

Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 5,000