From 1945 to 1961, Clyfford Still was a major member of the first-generation Abstract Expressionist painters in New York, though he created early abstractions such as 1943-A while still living in San Francisco and Richmond, Virginia. By eliminating all representational imagery and any sense of illusionistic space, he conveyed spiritual and metaphysical content—what he called "a living spirit"—in the jagged patterns of paint applied with a palette knife on solid color fields.
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Inscription: Signed and dated (lower left): Clyfford '43; signed, dated, and inscribed (verso, center left): Clyfford 43; (verso, lower right): 35 1/2 x 30 / 1943 / Clyfford / 1943
the artist, New Windsor, Md. (1943–d. 1980); his widow, Mrs. Clyfford Still, New Windsor, Md. (1980–86; her gift to MMA)
Coral Gables. Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami. "Abstract Expressionism: Other Dimensions," October 26–December 3, 1989.
Chicago. Terra Museum of American Art. "Abstract Expressionism: Other Dimensions," January 6–March 5, 1990.
New Brunswick, N.J. Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University. "Abstract Expressionism: Other Dimensions," March 25–June 13, 1990.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Exhibition of Clyfford Still," July 3–December 31, 1991, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades of Acquisitions," October 24, 2008–February 1, 2009, online catalogue.
Denver. Clyfford Still Museum. "Repeat/Recreate: Clyfford Still's 'Replicas'," September 18, 2015–January 10, 2016, no. 12 (as "PH-282").
Thomas Albright. Art in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945–1980: An Illustrated History. Berkeley, 1985, pp. 22, 24.
Lisa M. Messinger in "Twentieth Century Art." Recent Acquisitions: A Selection, 1986–1987. New York, 1987, p. 72.
Stephen Polcari. Abstract Expressionism and the Modern Experience. Cambridge, 1991, p. 109, fig. 49, calls it "Untitled (PH–282)".
Michael Brenson. "Two American Moderns in Shows at the Met." New York Times (July 5, 1991), p. C5.
David Anfam inRepeat/Recreate: Clyfford Still's "Replicas". Exh. cat., Clyfford Still Museum. Denver, 2015, p. 39, colorpl. 12.
Clyfford Still (American, Grandin, North Dakota 1904–1980 Baltimore, Maryland)
1946–47
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