Jun 04, 2020 - Sale 2535

Sale 2535 - Lot 54

Price Realized: $ 18,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 20,000 - $ 30,000
RICHARD MAYHEW (1924 - )
Serenade.

Oil on linen canvas, circa 1964-66. 1219x914 mm; 48x36 inches, Signed in oil, lower right recto. Titled on the printed label affixed to the back board, and inscribed ASL (Arts Student League) in chalk, verso.

Provenance: private collection, Massachusetts.

This beautiful and verdant canvas by Richard Mayhew is one of the earliest paintings by the artist we have handled. His atmospheric early to mid-1960s landscapes have a rich palette that is much earthier and darker than the high key colors found in his more contemporary paintings.

In 1964, in response to the Civil Rights struggle and the changing landscape of the art world, Mayhew had joined the artists collaborative group Spiral in New York, and exhibited in their inaugural exhibiton that summer. Other examples from this period are West, 1965 and Gorge, 1966, both in the collection of the Studio Museum in Harlem.