?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 7,000 - $ 10,000
MICHAEL LOEW Abstract Still Life.
Oil on canvas, circa 1950. 510x610 mm; 20 1/8x24 1/8 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto, and signed with the artist's address in oil, verso.
Ex-collection Albert Argentieri, New Jersey; thence by descent, private collection, New Jersey.
Loew (1907-1985) was a member of the New York School of Abstract Expressionist painters and was influenced by the Neo-Plasticism principles of Piet Mondrian (1872-1944). He became close friends with Willem de Kooning (see lots 5-10); the two completed a mural project for the 1939 New York World's Fair. During this time Loew also began to experiment with abstract elements, influenced by Arshile Gorky (1904-1948) and Fernand Léger (1881-1955).
Loew also worked as a stained glass apprentice while attending night classes at the Art Students League in New York following his graduation from high school. Among his Art Students League colleagues were David Smith and Jackson Pollock (see lot 1). He studied for several years in Paris and returned to New York at the height of the Great Depression, where he became roommates with Lee Krasner (seelots 58-59) in the East Village. He worked as a restorer and redecorator of churches before his employment by the Treasury Department and later, the Works Progress Association (W.P.A.). After enlisting in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Loew studied with Hans Hofmann (1880-1966) and became interested in Cubism and Neo-Plasticism. His first solo exhibition was with the Artists Gallery in New York in 1949. He continued to travel, teach and exhibit in the United States and Paris through the 1980s.
