May 12, 2022 - Sale 2604

Sale 2604 - Lot 41

Price Realized: $ 37,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 8,000 - $ 12,000
YVONNE THOMAS
Composition II.

Oil on canvas, 1957. 355x455 mm; 14x18 inches. Initialed in oil, lower right recto, and signed, titled and dated in pen and ink, verso.

Provenance: Private collection, Florida.

Thomas (1913-2009), born in France, emigrated to the United States in 1925. After working as a commerical artist, she decided to pursue painting full time. She studied at the Cooper-Union School of Art, the Art Students League, and at the short-lived Subjects of the Artists School, under Willem de Kooning, Hans Hofmann, Robert Motherwell and Mark Rothko. Thomas exhibited with the New York School at the legendary 1951 Ninth Street Show. In her gestural works, she conveyed her emotions, memories and natural spirit through the use of sweeping color and bold brushstrokes. Throughout her career, she experimented with many styles, from action painting to geometric, solid planes of color. Thomas is now widely recognized as being at the forefront of the Abstract Expressionism movement in New York.