Oil on canvas, 1934. 1025x756 mm; 40 3/8x29 3/4 inches.
Provenance; Meredith Long & Company, Houston, with the label verso; Spanierman Modern, New York, with the label verso; private collection, New Jersey.
Diller (1906-1965) is known as one of the first American artists to embrace Neoplasticism. Born in the Bronx, he spent his early years in Buffalo, New York and Michigan, before moving back to New York City in 1928. He studied at the Arts Students League, where he began his exploration in color and form, drawing inspiration from Constructivism and the De Stijl artists. While still a student, he had a solo exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Museum in New York and Hans Hofmann (1880-1966) wrote the introduction to the catalogue. In the 1930s, Diller worked for the Public Works of Art Project, acting as the director of the mural division until the onset of World War II when he joined the navy. He was a founding member of the American Abstract Artists group and participated in their inaugural exhibition at the Squibb Gallery in 1937. Abstraction was the central tenet of his artistic approach throughout his career, particularly embracing the bold colors and geometric visual vocabulary of neoplasticism, and differentiated himself from his Dutch counterparts by creating his own themes around which he explored the picture plane.
