Oil on masonite board, 1953. 914x610 mm; 36x24 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right recto. Signed, titled and dated in oil, lower right verso.
Provenance: private collection, Virginia.
This oil is a fine, early example of Abstract Expressionism when the artist was an emerging talent who exhibited with the New York School. From 1951-1954, Merton Simpson served in the U.S. Air Force and was stationed in Cheyenne, Wyoming. But Simpson was allowed to paint as an official duty while in the service, and he continued to advance his career in the New York gallery scene. In 1952, he was included in a juried exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, winning honorable mention for a watercolor. And in 1954, Simpson was included in a group exhibition at Bertha Schaefer Gallery and the exhibition Younger American Painters at the Guggenheim Museum.
