Feb 16, 2012 - Sale 2268

Sale 2268 - Lot 139

Price Realized: $ 7,800
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 5,000 - $ 7,000
ALVIN D. LOVING, JR. (1935 - 2005)
L-A-4.

Acrylic on shaped canvas, circa 1968-70. 480mm; 19-inches diameter (hexagonal). Signed and titled in pencil, verso.

Provenance: private New York collection.

This painting is a fine early example of Loving's painting from the late 1960s and early 1970s--shaped canvases with hard-edge, geometric shapes. Inspired by Hans Hofmann and Josef Albers, Detroit-born Loving earned an M.F.A. from the University of Michigan in 1965. Four years later, Loving enjoyed extraordinary success--a critically acclaimed, solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Loving was the first of a group of African-American artists whose work was shown at the Whitney during the 1970s, including Frank Bowling, Frederick Eversley, Melvin Edwards and Alma Thomas. All except Edwards were abstract painters.