?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 7,000 - $ 10,000
JOHN GRILLO Untitled.
Oil on canvas, 1951. 430x585 mm; 17x23 inches. Signed and dated in oil, verso.
Ex-collection the artist (1917-2014); donated by the artist to benefit the Anthology Film Archives, New York; sold to benefit the acquisitions fund.
Grillo (1917-2014) was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts and moved with his family to Hartford where he entered at the Hartford School of Fine Arts in 1935. In the early part of his career, he was drawn to Social Realism and Regionalist movements. He turned towards abstraction after World War II (he served in the Navy) and lived in San Francisco for two years, enrolling in the San Francisco School of Fine Arts in 1946. Subsequently, he moved to the East Coast to study with Hans Hofmann (1880-1966), and befriended many artists of the New York Abstract Expressionist movement, including Willem de Kooning (1904-1997, see lots 5-10), Franz Kline (1910-1962) and Mark Rothko (1903-1970). His signature grid-like paintings, like the current work, were developed during this period when he was experimenting with symbolism and action painting. His work evolved over the years to become more figural and he taught later at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst for over 25 years.
