Oct 09, 2014 - Sale 2359

Sale 2359 - Lot 81

Unsold
Estimate: $ 20,000 - $ 30,000
CHARLES ALSTON (1907 - 1977)
The Bridge.

Oil on linen canvas, circa 1950-53. 508x1270 mm; 20x50 inches. Signed in oil, upper left recto. Signed and titled in oil, verso.

Provenance: private New York collection.

Exhibited: John Heller Gallery, New York; Jerald Melburg Gallery, Charlotte, with the labels on the frame back.

The Bridge is a scarce example of Charles Alston's early modernist painting and his transition toward abstraction. In 1950, Alston had become the first African-American instructor at the Art Students League, and was included in the group exhibition American Painting Today at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. John Heller Gallery first represented Charles Alston in New York, and presented his first one-man exhibition in the spring of 1953.