Clyfford STILL (1904-1980)
Except otherwise stated, all results below include the premium.
See also : Abstract art II
Chronology : 1940-1949 1946 1947 1948 1949
See also : Abstract art II
Chronology : 1940-1949 1946 1947 1948 1949
Intro
Born in North Dakota far away from the cities, Clyfford Still does not need anyone to develop a new art. Along with Matta he is one of the earliest abstract painters to remove any geometric language and all false references to figurative themes or hermetic signs.
In front of the canvas, Still expresses his inner world beyond the influence of time. His thick paint is thoroughly reworked like a sculpture including extra thickness and scars until the color balance and the texture match the feeling that the artist wishes to express.
Like Mondrian, Still refuses that the vision is limited by the frame : he will influence Pollock. Like no one before him in abstract art, Still removes the line to provide to the viewer an almost organic vision of the transitions between colors : Monet was on that trend at the end of his career, and Still will influence Rothko. Like Malevich, Still considers that the artwork must be self-sufficient.
Obsessed with the theme of the fight between life and death, Still had given up a morbid figuration. He works the blazing colors of hell in an impasto laid on the canvas with a knife. His abstract art is a burst that produces a psychedelic glow. He alternately defined it as an explosion or as an implosion.
The black of death and the red of vitality are juxtaposed with a great violence until they reach a balance that will ever remain precarious, like a sheared curtain. The other colors are subsidiaries to these two key elements. In a powerful tendency of exacerbating the vertical, these abstract scenes often in large size can be observed from bottom up like a mystical painting by El Greco.
This creator has provided to his fellows and his competitors the basics of abstract expressionism. He covers like Pollock the surfaces that he considered as unachieved. He gets in the boundaries between the colored blocks a shredding illusion that anticipates Rothko. The Homeric struggles for vital power between the dominant elements anticipate the creations of the world by Barnett Newman.
The PH is the reference of the photo in the catalogue maintained by the artist of his own work.
In front of the canvas, Still expresses his inner world beyond the influence of time. His thick paint is thoroughly reworked like a sculpture including extra thickness and scars until the color balance and the texture match the feeling that the artist wishes to express.
Like Mondrian, Still refuses that the vision is limited by the frame : he will influence Pollock. Like no one before him in abstract art, Still removes the line to provide to the viewer an almost organic vision of the transitions between colors : Monet was on that trend at the end of his career, and Still will influence Rothko. Like Malevich, Still considers that the artwork must be self-sufficient.
Obsessed with the theme of the fight between life and death, Still had given up a morbid figuration. He works the blazing colors of hell in an impasto laid on the canvas with a knife. His abstract art is a burst that produces a psychedelic glow. He alternately defined it as an explosion or as an implosion.
The black of death and the red of vitality are juxtaposed with a great violence until they reach a balance that will ever remain precarious, like a sheared curtain. The other colors are subsidiaries to these two key elements. In a powerful tendency of exacerbating the vertical, these abstract scenes often in large size can be observed from bottom up like a mystical painting by El Greco.
This creator has provided to his fellows and his competitors the basics of abstract expressionism. He covers like Pollock the surfaces that he considered as unachieved. He gets in the boundaries between the colored blocks a shredding illusion that anticipates Rothko. The Homeric struggles for vital power between the dominant elements anticipate the creations of the world by Barnett Newman.
The PH is the reference of the photo in the catalogue maintained by the artist of his own work.
1946 PH-399
2019 SOLD for $ 24.3M by Sotheby's
Clyfford Still perceives the world as a balance of forces. These notions are not independent : life is vertical, landscape and death are horizontal. He removes any geometric language and all false references to figurative themes or hermetic signs. He refuses that the vision is limited by the frame. He does not provide titles because he considers that the artwork must be self-sufficient. Still is the pioneer who will influence Pollock and the abstract expressionism.
He would like the viewers of his art to discover basic forces within themselves. Figurative art cannot indeed contribute to such an ambitious goal.
In 1944 he paints a red flash on a black field. This oil on canvas 268 x 235 cm is without antecedent in the history of art. Like a thunderbolt in a deep night, the scar occupies a limited surface and excludes the straight line. This storm is imaginary : the lightning is made up of bright color, put with a knife with variations in thickness which bring light effects. Yellow and red forms provide a counterweight to the black invasion. The zigzag lightning is his life force or life line, in his own wording.
His images may seem spontaneous, but they actually results from painstaking compositions. The seminal 1944 picture was preceded by an oil study on paper and followed by another almost identical oil on canvas, 264 x 220 cm.
In front of the canvas, Still expresses his inner world beyond the influence of time, until the color balance and the texture match the feeling that he wishes to express. He considers his art as a whole and will manage throughout his career to keep in his own view all its elements.
PH-399, oil on canvas 136 x 114 cm painted in 1946, gathers on a creamy background the basic elements of the force : heavy dark jagged masses and their pseudo shadows, floating elements in bright colors, and the dark yellow zigzag. It has been sold for $ 24.3M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2019 from a lower estimate of $ 12M, lot 11.
An oil on canvas dated 1946-1947 is typical of Still's abstract exploration of the world. The format is vertical, 136 x 71 cm. The lightning is visible, which is already rarely the case at that time. It crosses a black mass to fertilize a sort of ground at the bottom of the image.
Still has rarely expressed his conception of creation so completely. He kept this piece for a long time before presenting it to his daughter Sandra in 1976, four years before his death. This painting, numbered PH-306 in the nomenclature of his works, was sold for HK $ 64M by Sotheby's on July 9, 2020, lot 1122.
Conceived in 1946, PH-306 prefigures Pollock's unlimited surfaces, the fringes around Rothko's blocks, the zip of Newman and the floating colors of de Kooning.
He would like the viewers of his art to discover basic forces within themselves. Figurative art cannot indeed contribute to such an ambitious goal.
In 1944 he paints a red flash on a black field. This oil on canvas 268 x 235 cm is without antecedent in the history of art. Like a thunderbolt in a deep night, the scar occupies a limited surface and excludes the straight line. This storm is imaginary : the lightning is made up of bright color, put with a knife with variations in thickness which bring light effects. Yellow and red forms provide a counterweight to the black invasion. The zigzag lightning is his life force or life line, in his own wording.
His images may seem spontaneous, but they actually results from painstaking compositions. The seminal 1944 picture was preceded by an oil study on paper and followed by another almost identical oil on canvas, 264 x 220 cm.
In front of the canvas, Still expresses his inner world beyond the influence of time, until the color balance and the texture match the feeling that he wishes to express. He considers his art as a whole and will manage throughout his career to keep in his own view all its elements.
PH-399, oil on canvas 136 x 114 cm painted in 1946, gathers on a creamy background the basic elements of the force : heavy dark jagged masses and their pseudo shadows, floating elements in bright colors, and the dark yellow zigzag. It has been sold for $ 24.3M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2019 from a lower estimate of $ 12M, lot 11.
An oil on canvas dated 1946-1947 is typical of Still's abstract exploration of the world. The format is vertical, 136 x 71 cm. The lightning is visible, which is already rarely the case at that time. It crosses a black mass to fertilize a sort of ground at the bottom of the image.
Still has rarely expressed his conception of creation so completely. He kept this piece for a long time before presenting it to his daughter Sandra in 1976, four years before his death. This painting, numbered PH-306 in the nomenclature of his works, was sold for HK $ 64M by Sotheby's on July 9, 2020, lot 1122.
Conceived in 1946, PH-306 prefigures Pollock's unlimited surfaces, the fringes around Rothko's blocks, the zip of Newman and the floating colors of de Kooning.
1947-Y
1
No.1
2020 SOLD for $ 29M by Sotheby's
In 1946 Still becomes a professor at the California School of Fine Arts. He sets an example by his pictorial representations of energy, which are fully non-figurative. The lightnings disappear, replaced by shapes with jagged edges, again created with a knife.
PH-182, oil on canvas 154 x 110 cm painted by Clyfford Still in San Francisco in the autumn of 1946, was sold for $ 14M by Christie's on May 13, 2008, lot 28. This opus is made of flame-like forms layered with the knife on an earthy colored background.
The oil on canvas 174 x 150 cm identified under the references PH-144 and 1947-Y-No.1 in the double nomenclature of the artist's works shows the invasion of a white area by black and crimson red two-tone figures. The artist prepared his own pigments, and the lighter part is made up of several shades of white balanced by a yellow splash.
Still renews here his feat of creating an almost identical work, despite the non-figurative complexity of the forms. It is referenced PH-584 and 1947-Y-No.2.
Still, Rothko and Pollock tried with completely different techniques to express their inner implosion, which also explains their irascible temperaments. At that time their relationship was fair. During the summer of 1949 Mark Rothko came to teach alongside Still, who lent him 1947-Y-No.1 to decorate his home in San Francisco and then in New York.
1947-Y-No.1 was sold for $ 29M by Sotheby's on June 29, 2020, lot 109. Please watch the video prepared by the auction house.
PH-182, oil on canvas 154 x 110 cm painted by Clyfford Still in San Francisco in the autumn of 1946, was sold for $ 14M by Christie's on May 13, 2008, lot 28. This opus is made of flame-like forms layered with the knife on an earthy colored background.
The oil on canvas 174 x 150 cm identified under the references PH-144 and 1947-Y-No.1 in the double nomenclature of the artist's works shows the invasion of a white area by black and crimson red two-tone figures. The artist prepared his own pigments, and the lighter part is made up of several shades of white balanced by a yellow splash.
Still renews here his feat of creating an almost identical work, despite the non-figurative complexity of the forms. It is referenced PH-584 and 1947-Y-No.2.
Still, Rothko and Pollock tried with completely different techniques to express their inner implosion, which also explains their irascible temperaments. At that time their relationship was fair. During the summer of 1949 Mark Rothko came to teach alongside Still, who lent him 1947-Y-No.1 to decorate his home in San Francisco and then in New York.
1947-Y-No.1 was sold for $ 29M by Sotheby's on June 29, 2020, lot 109. Please watch the video prepared by the auction house.
2
No.2
2011 SOLD for $ 31.4M by Sotheby's
Clyfford Still, who was one of the main inventors of abstract expressionism, depicted forms with very jagged edges. His practice, however, excluded spontaneity. His purpose was to convey an idea on a single theme which was the transcendental energy.
Throughout his career, Still protected his work. Any sold painting was a miss in the recording of his own creativity. Twenty years before developing the abstract expressionism, he was already taking care of creating replicas. The artworks he kept for himself have been perfectly preserved.
He made no secret of this practice, but he did not disclose the technique he employed to obtain a perfect copy, without losing anything in the apparent violence of form or in the subtlety of colors.
To finance its creation, the Clyfford Still Museum took the clever initiative to auction off four paintings by the master, which were included in Sotheby's sale on November 9, 2011. The two top lots fetched respectively $ 62M for 1949-A-No.1 and $ 31.4M for 1947-Y-No.2, oil on canvas 177 x 150 cm, lot 12.
That reference 1947-Y-No.2 suggests that it is a replica. Indeed it is identical to 1947-Y-No.1, 174 x 150 cm, sold for $ 29M by Sotheby's on June 29, 2020, and to 1947-Y-No.3, 197 x 177 cm, preserved by the museum. The 2011 Sotheby's catalog included a 1951 photo featuring the artist in front of the number 2 of the 1949-A.
Throughout his career, Still protected his work. Any sold painting was a miss in the recording of his own creativity. Twenty years before developing the abstract expressionism, he was already taking care of creating replicas. The artworks he kept for himself have been perfectly preserved.
He made no secret of this practice, but he did not disclose the technique he employed to obtain a perfect copy, without losing anything in the apparent violence of form or in the subtlety of colors.
To finance its creation, the Clyfford Still Museum took the clever initiative to auction off four paintings by the master, which were included in Sotheby's sale on November 9, 2011. The two top lots fetched respectively $ 62M for 1949-A-No.1 and $ 31.4M for 1947-Y-No.2, oil on canvas 177 x 150 cm, lot 12.
That reference 1947-Y-No.2 suggests that it is a replica. Indeed it is identical to 1947-Y-No.1, 174 x 150 cm, sold for $ 29M by Sotheby's on June 29, 2020, and to 1947-Y-No.3, 197 x 177 cm, preserved by the museum. The 2011 Sotheby's catalog included a 1951 photo featuring the artist in front of the number 2 of the 1949-A.
1947-R-No.1
2006 SOLD for $ 21.3M by Christie's
New elements in the quest of the global features of the force were added by Clyfford Still in 1947, when he was a teacher in San Francisco.
1947-R-No.1, oil on canvas 175 x 165 cm, displays the floating elements and their shadows over a saturated background of red layers over brown. It was sold for $ 21.3M by Christie's on November 15, 2006, lot 44.
Clyfford Still did not consider this opus as finished when he loaned it with six other works for the 1952 MoMA exhibition entitled 15 Americans. He made clear in the catalogue his reluctance to have his artworks commented by third parties. An artwork must speak on its own with no need to explain it.
Still completed 1947-R-No.1 soon afterward, with a terminus ante quem in 1957 when he broke with its owner, the artist Alfonso Ossorio.
PH-218, oil on canvas 160 x 102 cm also painted in 1947, displays a dark magma intimately mingled on its left side with a bright jagged element. It is one of the early works which were included in the 1969 selling exhibition at the Marlborough gallery in New York. Coming from the Taubman collection, it was sold by Sotheby's on November 4, 2015 for $ 14.8M from a lower estimate of $ 10M, lot 41.
1948-H features two tiny bright lightnings over a dark background in various rich tones. This oil on canvas 190 x 177 cm was sold by Sotheby's on November 13, 2012 for $ 9.9M, lot 14.
1947-R-No.1, oil on canvas 175 x 165 cm, displays the floating elements and their shadows over a saturated background of red layers over brown. It was sold for $ 21.3M by Christie's on November 15, 2006, lot 44.
Clyfford Still did not consider this opus as finished when he loaned it with six other works for the 1952 MoMA exhibition entitled 15 Americans. He made clear in the catalogue his reluctance to have his artworks commented by third parties. An artwork must speak on its own with no need to explain it.
Still completed 1947-R-No.1 soon afterward, with a terminus ante quem in 1957 when he broke with its owner, the artist Alfonso Ossorio.
PH-218, oil on canvas 160 x 102 cm also painted in 1947, displays a dark magma intimately mingled on its left side with a bright jagged element. It is one of the early works which were included in the 1969 selling exhibition at the Marlborough gallery in New York. Coming from the Taubman collection, it was sold by Sotheby's on November 4, 2015 for $ 14.8M from a lower estimate of $ 10M, lot 41.
1948-H features two tiny bright lightnings over a dark background in various rich tones. This oil on canvas 190 x 177 cm was sold by Sotheby's on November 13, 2012 for $ 9.9M, lot 14.
1948 PH-125
2021 SOLD for $ 31M by Sotheby's
PH-125, also titled 1948-No.1, oil on canvas 187 x 173 cm by Still, was sold for $ 31M by Sotheby's on May 12, 2021, lot 8. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Its unlimited massive form is made of a richly saturated texture in various deep hues from gold to amber with a yellow jagged interstice. In the opposite of many other works by Still, it looks static and swelling except for its overlap by a deep red form on its right side.
A color photo in the catalogue shows it on the wall of a 1990 exhibition beside the fully static and larger opus PH-91, 240 x 200 cm, painted in the same year with the same pigments. Both appear like a demonstration of the artist's capability to offer an unprecedented mingle of rare colors, anticipating and possibly inspiring Rothko's rectangular forms.
It is one of the early works which were included in the 1969 selling exhibition at the Marlborough gallery in New York.
Its unlimited massive form is made of a richly saturated texture in various deep hues from gold to amber with a yellow jagged interstice. In the opposite of many other works by Still, it looks static and swelling except for its overlap by a deep red form on its right side.
A color photo in the catalogue shows it on the wall of a 1990 exhibition beside the fully static and larger opus PH-91, 240 x 200 cm, painted in the same year with the same pigments. Both appear like a demonstration of the artist's capability to offer an unprecedented mingle of rare colors, anticipating and possibly inspiring Rothko's rectangular forms.
It is one of the early works which were included in the 1969 selling exhibition at the Marlborough gallery in New York.
1948 PH-234
2016 SOLD for $ 28M by Christie's
On May 10, 2016, Christie's sold for $ 28M PH-234, oil on canvas 175 x 151 cm painted in 1948, lot 28B.
1949-A-No.1
2011 SOLD for $ 62M by Sotheby's
With Clyfford Still, the American art changed forever. A pioneer of abstract expressionism, he taught from 1946 to 1950 at the California Institute of Fine Arts. His art made of thick material is an explosion of colors that may symbolize life. Like Rothko, he wants to offer a total art, a vision with no frame.
Yet Still's work is poorly documented. He was reluctant to sell his art and was angry with the artistic establishment. At his death 2400 works were bequeathed to his family with the formal instructions to only entrust them to a place that will accept to devote an exclusive museum to him. The widow was quite logically looking for a solution in the West. The city of Denver brilliantly accepted this challenge.
The Still museum thus owns about 96% of the artistic output of the master. In a highly effective approach, four works were put on the market to pay for the development of the museum. Sotheby's won the bargain by offering a guarantee of $ 25M. The sale was held in New York on November 9, 2011.
The two top lots belong to the most creative period: 1947-Y-No-2 was estimated $ 15M, and 1949-A-No.1 $ 25M. These prices were then consistent with those obtained in the extremely rare auctions of comparable works : 1947-R-No.1, 175 x 165 cm, sold for $ 21M by Christie's on November 15, 2006, and PH-182, 154 x 111 cm painted in 1946, sold for $ 14M by Christie's on May 13, 2008. The other two lots are represntative of the development phase and of the final phase.
The four paintings fetched altogether $ 114M, more than doubling the lower estimate. 1949-A-01, oil on canvas 236 x 200 cm, was the top lot at $ 62M, lot 11. Its major feature is to highlight the signature transcendental thunderbolt from which Still based his creative thinking since 1944.
The three other results were $ 31.5M for 1947-Y-No.2, 177 x 150 cm, $ 19.7M for the 1976 painting, 237 x 210 cm, and $ 1.25M for a 104 x 95 cm for the 1940 painting.
Yet Still's work is poorly documented. He was reluctant to sell his art and was angry with the artistic establishment. At his death 2400 works were bequeathed to his family with the formal instructions to only entrust them to a place that will accept to devote an exclusive museum to him. The widow was quite logically looking for a solution in the West. The city of Denver brilliantly accepted this challenge.
The Still museum thus owns about 96% of the artistic output of the master. In a highly effective approach, four works were put on the market to pay for the development of the museum. Sotheby's won the bargain by offering a guarantee of $ 25M. The sale was held in New York on November 9, 2011.
The two top lots belong to the most creative period: 1947-Y-No-2 was estimated $ 15M, and 1949-A-No.1 $ 25M. These prices were then consistent with those obtained in the extremely rare auctions of comparable works : 1947-R-No.1, 175 x 165 cm, sold for $ 21M by Christie's on November 15, 2006, and PH-182, 154 x 111 cm painted in 1946, sold for $ 14M by Christie's on May 13, 2008. The other two lots are represntative of the development phase and of the final phase.
The four paintings fetched altogether $ 114M, more than doubling the lower estimate. 1949-A-01, oil on canvas 236 x 200 cm, was the top lot at $ 62M, lot 11. Its major feature is to highlight the signature transcendental thunderbolt from which Still based his creative thinking since 1944.
The three other results were $ 31.5M for 1947-Y-No.2, 177 x 150 cm, $ 19.7M for the 1976 painting, 237 x 210 cm, and $ 1.25M for a 104 x 95 cm for the 1940 painting.
1962 PH-21
2013 SOLD for $ 21M by Sotheby's
Wanting to express the raw force, Clyfford Still invented the abstract expressionism in the 1940s. His priority was to build his corpus with consistency. He broke with the galleries in 1951. In the fierce isolation of his last thirty years he tirelessly continues painting to release his existential impulses.
Clyfford Still is decidedly a man of the West. In his period of greatest creativity, from 1946 to 1950, he taught art in San Francisco. His return to New York will cause lasting quarrels with the art market and with the other artists. The bustle of the big city hampered his creativity.This pioneer who had everything to become the top abstract artist of his time isolated himself and refused the exhibitions.
In 1961 he moves with his wife to a farm in Maryland. Facing nature in his barn-workshop like Pollock in Long Island, he can finally create an emptiness around him to regenerate his inspiration. Until his death in 1980, he paints a lot, for his own use.
PH-21, painted in 1962, was a transition picture in brilliant colors accompanied by the threatening ghost shadows. It was sold for $ 21M by Sotheby's on May 13, 2013, lot 25.
He was reluctant to sell his art. At his death 2,400 works were bequeathed to his family with the formal instructions to only entrust them to a place that will accept to devote an exclusive museum to him. The widow is quite logically looking for a solution in the West. Denver brilliantly accepts this challenge.
Before the opening of the Clyfford Still Museum, four paintings are released to the art market, creating an intense interest due to the extreme rarity of the masterpieces of this artist at auction. Sotheby's sells them on November 9, 2011. 1947-Y-No.2, 177 x 150 cm, fetches $ 31,5M and 1949-A-No.1, 236 x 200 cm, $ 62M.
Clyfford Still is decidedly a man of the West. In his period of greatest creativity, from 1946 to 1950, he taught art in San Francisco. His return to New York will cause lasting quarrels with the art market and with the other artists. The bustle of the big city hampered his creativity.This pioneer who had everything to become the top abstract artist of his time isolated himself and refused the exhibitions.
In 1961 he moves with his wife to a farm in Maryland. Facing nature in his barn-workshop like Pollock in Long Island, he can finally create an emptiness around him to regenerate his inspiration. Until his death in 1980, he paints a lot, for his own use.
PH-21, painted in 1962, was a transition picture in brilliant colors accompanied by the threatening ghost shadows. It was sold for $ 21M by Sotheby's on May 13, 2013, lot 25.
He was reluctant to sell his art. At his death 2,400 works were bequeathed to his family with the formal instructions to only entrust them to a place that will accept to devote an exclusive museum to him. The widow is quite logically looking for a solution in the West. Denver brilliantly accepts this challenge.
Before the opening of the Clyfford Still Museum, four paintings are released to the art market, creating an intense interest due to the extreme rarity of the masterpieces of this artist at auction. Sotheby's sells them on November 9, 2011. 1947-Y-No.2, 177 x 150 cm, fetches $ 31,5M and 1949-A-No.1, 236 x 200 cm, $ 62M.
1964 PH-407
2020 SOLD for $ 18.4M by Phillips
Wanting to express the force, Clyfford Still invented the abstract expressionism in the 1940s. He moved to New York in 1950 but the bustle of the big city hampered his creativity. His priority was to build his work with consistency. He broke with the galleries and his exhibitions went to be very rare.
In 1961 he moves with his wife to a farm in Maryland. Facing nature in his barn-workshop like Pollock in Long Island, he can finally create an emptiness around him to regenerate his inspiration. Until his death in 1980, he paints a lot, for his own use. When a need for money obliges him to sell paintings, he chooses in priority the earlier works, of which he had cautiously made duplicates to preserve his global vision.
PH-407, oil on canvas 290 x 190 cm painted in 1964, is one of the painting that were made available through the selling exhibition in 1969 at the Marlborough Gallery in New York where Still mostly exhibited early works and remakes.
The conception of PH-407 dates back to the earlier periods. The dark red background is illuminated by a lighter fire red that descends in flames from the top edge. In the lower half, a rising force brings a vibration through its symmetry in a sharp black and white contrast. A small blue spot circled in white can be imagined as being in front or behind the canvas, canceling any attempt at three-dimensional interpretation.
This painting was sold for $ 18.4M by Phillips on December 7, 2020, lot 14. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
In 1961 he moves with his wife to a farm in Maryland. Facing nature in his barn-workshop like Pollock in Long Island, he can finally create an emptiness around him to regenerate his inspiration. Until his death in 1980, he paints a lot, for his own use. When a need for money obliges him to sell paintings, he chooses in priority the earlier works, of which he had cautiously made duplicates to preserve his global vision.
PH-407, oil on canvas 290 x 190 cm painted in 1964, is one of the painting that were made available through the selling exhibition in 1969 at the Marlborough Gallery in New York where Still mostly exhibited early works and remakes.
The conception of PH-407 dates back to the earlier periods. The dark red background is illuminated by a lighter fire red that descends in flames from the top edge. In the lower half, a rising force brings a vibration through its symmetry in a sharp black and white contrast. A small blue spot circled in white can be imagined as being in front or behind the canvas, canceling any attempt at three-dimensional interpretation.
This painting was sold for $ 18.4M by Phillips on December 7, 2020, lot 14. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1976 PH-1044
2011 SOLD for $ 19.7M by Sotheby's
PH-1044, oil on canvas 237 x 210 cm painted in 1976, represented the final years of Clyfford Still among the four lots consigned to Sotheby's on November 9, 2011 for financing the development of the Denver museum. It was sold for $ 19.7M, lot 13. The availability on the market of a Still painting from his most secret period is extremely rare.
It was later sold by Christie's for $ 17.5M, on May 13, 2014, lot 35.
This opus contributes to the ultimate quest by Still to thr sublime, viewed as a whole new world for which there are no words.
It was later sold by Christie's for $ 17.5M, on May 13, 2014, lot 35.
This opus contributes to the ultimate quest by Still to thr sublime, viewed as a whole new world for which there are no words.
