Oil on canvas, 1971. 430x440 mm; 17x17 1/4 inches. Signed, titled, dated and inscribed "65A" in oil, verso.
Ex-collection private collection, New Jersey.
Probst (1913-1980) was an East Village, New York mainstay during the ascent of Abstract Expressionism, a bohemian artist whose friends included Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline. Probst's work pursued two distinct paths, one was figurative expressionism in which he portrayed Biblical and spiritual themes, albeit not subject driven, the other was purely non-objective. The latter evidently had some influence on Kline, their relationship is repeatedly noted by Probst in his extensive private journal, discovered after his death, and evidenced by Kline's seminal Abstract Expressionist oil painting, Probst I, 1960, now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
