Very fine oil on board "Flowers in a Vase" painting attributed to well listed American artist Albert York ( 1926-2009).Albert Edward York (1926 - 2009) was active/lived in New York, Michigan. Albert York is known for Small-scale landscape and floral still life painting. He painted only about 200 to 250 works in his lifetime. Most are in private collections and museums. A rare auction of his work took place after the death of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who owned six of his paintings.Size: 21 3/4" x 17" Framed; 18" x 13 3/8" Unframed. Detailed condition reports are not included in this catalog. For additional information, including condition reports, please contact us at info@sofedesignauctions.com. ***All lots are sold as-is and where is. No statement regarding age, condition, kind, value, or quality of a lot, whether made orally at the auction or at any other time, or in writing in this catalog or elsewhere, shall be construed to be an express or implied warranty, representation, or assumption of liability. All sales are final, and SOFE AUCTIONS does not give refunds. SOFE AUCTIONS ARE PLEASED TO OFFER IN-HOUSE PACKAGING AND SHIPPING SERVICES. PACKAGING SERVICE ONLY: start at $25 and up depending on item/s. Available IN-HOUSE shipping is within the USA of small, medium, semi-large, NON-FRAGILE items. SOFE WON'T ship items in glass frames. After paying for your item/s please call us at 469-268-1177, or email us at info@sofedesignauctions.com to request a quote. All item/s will be shipped via UPS or FedEx, FULLY insured, unless insurance declined in writing by the buyer. SOFE AUCTIONS does not use USPS. We do have a list of suggested third-party shippers. Please visit our webpage for a list of recommended shippers.
Very fine oil on board "Flowers in a Vase" painting attributed to listed American artist Albert York ( 1926-2009). Private collection, Denver, Colorado. Albert Edward York was born in Detroit in 1926. His parents were not married, and he was raised by his father but lived mostly in boarding schools and foster homes while his father worked as an electroplater in the automobile industry. In his teens he lived with an aunt and uncle in Belleville, Ontario. He studied at the Ontario College of Art and then at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Detroit; after serving in the Army during the Korean War, he moved to New York in 1952.He studied briefly with Raphael Soyer until Mr. York's life was taken over by odd jobs and he stopped painting altogether. Things eased in 1957, when he found a steady job as a gilder with Robert Kulicke, the innovative frame maker who died in 2007 and was also a still life painter.Mr. York returned to painting in earnest in 1960, after four months spent in France with Virginia Mann Caldwell, whom he had met at a loft party in 1959, and her two children. They married later that year. He is survived by his wife; two stepchildren, Jonathan Caldwell of Santa Fe, N.M., and Kristin Caldwell of Carlisle, Pa.; and four step-grandchildren.In 1962 he reluctantly showed his paintings to Mr. Kulicke, who enthusiastically recommended them to Roy Davis, Mr. Kulicke's art school friend and business partner, whose small gallery began as a showroom for Kulicke Frames. Mr. York had his first exhibition at the Davis Galleries in 1963 and his last (at Davis & Langdale) in 2007, for a total of 16 exhibitions there. Because Mr. York worked so slowly, some paintings were exhibited repeatedly, but that seemed to fit Mr. York's sense of time.He painted only about 200 to 250 works in his lifetime. Most are in private collections and museums. A rare auction of his work took place after the death of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who owned six of his paintings.Detailed condition reports are not included in this catalog. For Size: 21 7/8" x 17" framed, 17 3/4" x 13 1/4" unframed. ~~. For additional information, including condition reports, please contact us at info@sofedesignauctions.com. ***All lots are sold as-is and where is. No statement regarding age, condition, kind, value, or quality of a lot, whether made orally at the auction or at any other time, or in writing in this catalog or elsewhere, shall be construed to be an express or implied warranty, representation, or assumption of liability. All sales are final, and SOFE DESIGN AUCTIONS does not give refunds based on condition. SOFE DESIGN AUCTIONS ARE PLEASED TO OFFER IN-HOUSE PACKAGING AND SHIPPING SERVICES. PACKAGING SERVICE ONLY: $25 and up depending on items. IN-HOUSE Available shipping is within the US and Canada for small, medium, semi-large, NON-FRAGILE items. SOFE WON'T ship items in glass frames. After paying for your invoice please call us at 469-268-1177 or email us at info@sofedesignauctions.com to request a shipping quote. SOFE will ship items FULLY insured using THE UPS services, unless the buyer declines insurance in writing. SOFE won't ship via USPS as we find their services slow and unreliable. We do have a list of suggested third-party shippers. Please visit our webpage for a list of recommended shippers.
Flowers In a Vase, oil on canvas board, 12 x 16 in (30.5 x 40.6 cm), frame, 18 x 22 in (45.7 x 55.9 cm), . signed and dated verso, PROVENANCE: Private collection Long Island
Albert York (American, 1928-2009) Landscape with Three Trees and Pond, June 1984 oil on panel 13 1/4 x 12 inches. The Collection of Philip and Judith Sieg, Bellefonte, Pennsylvania The present lot will be included in the forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné of the artist's work being compiled by Cecily Langdale, of Davis & Langdale Company, Inc., New York. We wish to thank Cecily Langdale for her kind assistance in cataloguing this work. Provenance: Davis & Langdale, New York Acquired from the above by the present owners, 1984 Lot note: In his 1995 New Yorker magazine profile, art critic Calvin Tomkins said Albert York was perhaps "the most highly admired unknown artist in America." The artist was described as a shy man who shunned the art world, who worked painstakingly slowly, and who was perpetually unhappy with his work, often scraping down his wood panels and starting over. At rarely more than 12 inches on a side, his paintings evoke a contained world in which time and art seem to stand still or even move backward through history. They purposefully seek to reject interpretations of narrative and ignore the more widespread trend towards abstraction popular throughout the 20th century. Born in Detroit in 1928, York was raised by his father but lived mostly in boarding schools and foster homes while his father worked in the automobile industry. In his teens he lived with an aunt and uncle in Belleville, Ontario and he studied at the Ontario College of Art, and then at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Detroit. He saw active duty in the Army during the Korean War, and once discharged, moved to New York in 1952. York briefly enrolled at the Art Students’ League, but he could not afford the fees, and instead enrolled in Raphael Soyer’s evening classes on West 56th Street. Soyer’s admiration for Degas and the French School was to later influence York in style and subject matter. For a time, York stopped painting so he could instead support himself with odd jobs. In 1957, he found full time work as a gilder with the frame maker Robert Kulicke. He began to paint again in earnest in 1960, after taking a four-month trip to France with Virginia Mann Caldwell, his future wife, and her two children. Inspired by the French countryside, York took elements of the landscape and rearranged them as he worked, creating small, concentrated pictures in halftones of green and blue. In 1962, he reluctantly showed his paintings to Kulicke, who enthusiastically recommended them to Roy Davis, an art school friend and business partner. Davis proved incredibly important to York and the advancement of his standing within the New York art scene, with his first exhibition at the Davis Galleries in 1963 and his last (at Davis & Langdale) in 2007, for a total of 16 exhibitions there. That same year, York and his family moved to Long Island, where the artist was to live and work for his remaining life. After the move, he would send new paintings to Davis Galleries in brown parcels via regular post, promising that next time he would “do better,” revealing his brutal artistic standards. York’s oil paintings are simple and compelling, reflecting an introspective awareness of art history while also projecting a sense of modern unease. His carefully balanced landscapes, such as Landscape with Three Trees and Pond, June 1984 (Lot 68), are in the pastoral tradition established in the 17th century by Claude Lorrain. Porch Bench with Seated Figure (Lot 38) and Figures in a Field (Lot 39) evoke the leisurely idylls of Impressionists such as Claude Monet and Edgar Degas, while at the same time channeling the profound solitariness of an Edward Hopper painting. The various still lifes of flowers and plants in tin cans, glass vases, and terracotta pots (Lots 1-3), always seeming to be in danger of sliding off the table surfaces on which they precariously sit, bring to mind the tumbling apples of Paul Cézanne. Seascape with Sailboat (Lot 67) is rendered with the impressionistic strokes of Eugène Boudin, though stripped of his fashionable, promenading figures. Despite the numerous art historical references, York’s paintings exude a quiet modernity, with their geometric simplicity, flatness of form, and economical brushwork. Likewise, his palette of greens and blues tinged with gray creates a sense of muted stillness and isolation in his work. Although his subject matter is realistic and inspired by his rural Long Island surroundings, there is a tension between what is real and what is imaginary. The art critic Bill Berkson poetically described this seemingly painted agitation: There’s something inclement beneath all that idyllic sunlight, a bruxism out of key with the blithely tumbled midday glow, and an elegiac mood that turns the convex pressure of accumulated dabs and dry swishes of paint teetering reflectively back on itself. The light could falter, the whole scene evanesce or fall apart as you look on. (“The Idylls of Albert York, Art in America, September 1988, p. 174) An exacting perfectionist, the artist is said to have only created 200 to 250 paintings during his lifetime, partly due to his slow rate of production, and that he stopped sending works to his gallery in 1992. This may have been a result of his reaction to a three-person exhibition, Painting Horizons: Jane Freilicher, Albert York, April Gornik, at the Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York, in 1989. In a rare interview, the artist told Calvin Tomkins that after seeing his artwork at the Parrish, he was "pretty upset about what I'd been doing for these last years."(“Artist Unknown,” The New Yorker, June 19, 1995, p. 81) As a result, the present nine artworks by the artist are an unprecedented group; never before have this many examples been offered at auction at one time. The seven oils here, as well as the two works on paper (Lots 10, 66), were acquired from York’s lifetime dealers, Roy Davis and Cecily Langdale, and they show the appreciation of a collector who delighted in the artist’s depictions of simple, familiar subjects that also speak of intense psychological mysteries. His spare, efficient brushstrokes reveal a unique willingness to look deeply and profoundly, and to set aside conventional notions of how objects are supposed to exist in the world.
Albert York (American, 1928-2009) Seascape with Sailboat, c. 1970 oil on board 7 x 10 1/4 inches. The Collection of Philip and Judith Sieg, Bellefonte, Pennsylvania The present lot will be included in the forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné of the artist's work being compiled by Cecily Langdale, of Davis & Langdale Company, Inc., New York. We wish to thank Cecily Langdale for her kind assistance in cataloguing this work. Provenance: Davis Galleries, New York Davis & Long, New York Acquired from the above by the present owners, 1980 Exhibited: Davis & Long, New York, Albert York, October 12 - November 5, 1977 (as lent by Antonia Keiser) Lot note: In his 1995 New Yorker magazine profile, art critic Calvin Tomkins said Albert York was perhaps "the most highly admired unknown artist in America." The artist was described as a shy man who shunned the art world, who worked painstakingly slowly, and who was perpetually unhappy with his work, often scraping down his wood panels and starting over. At rarely more than 12 inches on a side, his paintings evoke a contained world in which time and art seem to stand still or even move backward through history. They purposefully seek to reject interpretations of narrative and ignore the more widespread trend towards abstraction popular throughout the 20th century. Born in Detroit in 1928, York was raised by his father but lived mostly in boarding schools and foster homes while his father worked in the automobile industry. In his teens he lived with an aunt and uncle in Belleville, Ontario and he studied at the Ontario College of Art, and then at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Detroit. He saw active duty in the Army during the Korean War, and once discharged, moved to New York in 1952. York briefly enrolled at the Art Students’ League, but he could not afford the fees, and instead enrolled in Raphael Soyer’s evening classes on West 56th Street. Soyer’s admiration for Degas and the French School was to later influence York in style and subject matter. For a time, York stopped painting so he could instead support himself with odd jobs. In 1957, he found full time work as a gilder with the frame maker Robert Kulicke. He began to paint again in earnest in 1960, after taking a four-month trip to France with Virginia Mann Caldwell, his future wife, and her two children. Inspired by the French countryside, York took elements of the landscape and rearranged them as he worked, creating small, concentrated pictures in halftones of green and blue. In 1962, he reluctantly showed his paintings to Kulicke, who enthusiastically recommended them to Roy Davis, an art school friend and business partner. Davis proved incredibly important to York and the advancement of his standing within the New York art scene, with his first exhibition at the Davis Galleries in 1963 and his last (at Davis & Langdale) in 2007, for a total of 16 exhibitions there. That same year, York and his family moved to Long Island, where the artist was to live and work for his remaining life. After the move, he would send new paintings to Davis Galleries in brown parcels via regular post, promising that next time he would “do better,” revealing his brutal artistic standards. York’s oil paintings are simple and compelling, reflecting an introspective awareness of art history while also projecting a sense of modern unease. His carefully balanced landscapes, such as Landscape with Three Trees and Pond, June 1984 (Lot 68), are in the pastoral tradition established in the 17th century by Claude Lorrain. Porch Bench with Seated Figure (Lot 38) and Figures in a Field (Lot 39) evoke the leisurely idylls of Impressionists such as Claude Monet and Edgar Degas, while at the same time channeling the profound solitariness of an Edward Hopper painting. The various still lifes of flowers and plants in tin cans, glass vases, and terracotta pots (Lots 1-3), always seeming to be in danger of sliding off the table surfaces on which they precariously sit, bring to mind the tumbling apples of Paul Cézanne. Seascape with Sailboat (Lot 67) is rendered with the impressionistic strokes of Eugène Boudin, though stripped of his fashionable, promenading figures. Despite the numerous art historical references, York’s paintings exude a quiet modernity, with their geometric simplicity, flatness of form, and economical brushwork. Likewise, his palette of greens and blues tinged with gray creates a sense of muted stillness and isolation in his work. Although his subject matter is realistic and inspired by his rural Long Island surroundings, there is a tension between what is real and what is imaginary. The art critic Bill Berkson poetically described this seemingly painted agitation: There’s something inclement beneath all that idyllic sunlight, a bruxism out of key with the blithely tumbled midday glow, and an elegiac mood that turns the convex pressure of accumulated dabs and dry swishes of paint teetering reflectively back on itself. The light could falter, the whole scene evanesce or fall apart as you look on. (“The Idylls of Albert York, Art in America, September 1988, p. 174) An exacting perfectionist, the artist is said to have only created 200 to 250 paintings during his lifetime, partly due to his slow rate of production, and that he stopped sending works to his gallery in 1992. This may have been a result of his reaction to a three-person exhibition, Painting Horizons: Jane Freilicher, Albert York, April Gornik, at the Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York, in 1989. In a rare interview, the artist told Calvin Tomkins that after seeing his artwork at the Parrish, he was "pretty upset about what I'd been doing for these last years."(“Artist Unknown,” The New Yorker, June 19, 1995, p. 81) As a result, the present nine artworks by the artist are an unprecedented group; never before have this many examples been offered at auction at one time. The seven oils here, as well as the two works on paper (Lots 10, 66), were acquired from York’s lifetime dealers, Roy Davis and Cecily Langdale, and they show the appreciation of a collector who delighted in the artist’s depictions of simple, familiar subjects that also speak of intense psychological mysteries. His spare, efficient brushstrokes reveal a unique willingness to look deeply and profoundly, and to set aside conventional notions of how objects are supposed to exist in the world.
Albert York (American, 1928-2009) Landscape, late 1960s watercolor on paper laid to board signed Albert York (lower left) 9 x 12 inches. The Collection of Philip and Judith Sieg, Bellefonte, Pennsylvania The present lot will be included in the forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné of the artist's work being compiled by Cecily Langdale, of Davis & Langdale Company, Inc., New York. We wish to thank Cecily Langdale for her kind assistance in cataloguing this work. Provenance: The Artist Davis Galleries Davis & Langdale, New York Acquired from the above by the present owners, 1991 Lot note: In his 1995 New Yorker magazine profile, art critic Calvin Tomkins said Albert York was perhaps "the most highly admired unknown artist in America." The artist was described as a shy man who shunned the art world, who worked painstakingly slowly, and who was perpetually unhappy with his work, often scraping down his wood panels and starting over. At rarely more than 12 inches on a side, his paintings evoke a contained world in which time and art seem to stand still or even move backward through history. They purposefully seek to reject interpretations of narrative and ignore the more widespread trend towards abstraction popular throughout the 20th century. Born in Detroit in 1928, York was raised by his father but lived mostly in boarding schools and foster homes while his father worked in the automobile industry. In his teens he lived with an aunt and uncle in Belleville, Ontario and he studied at the Ontario College of Art, and then at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Detroit. He saw active duty in the Army during the Korean War, and once discharged, moved to New York in 1952. York briefly enrolled at the Art Students’ League, but he could not afford the fees, and instead enrolled in Raphael Soyer’s evening classes on West 56th Street. Soyer’s admiration for Degas and the French School was to later influence York in style and subject matter. For a time, York stopped painting so he could instead support himself with odd jobs. In 1957, he found full time work as a gilder with the frame maker Robert Kulicke. He began to paint again in earnest in 1960, after taking a four-month trip to France with Virginia Mann Caldwell, his future wife, and her two children. Inspired by the French countryside, York took elements of the landscape and rearranged them as he worked, creating small, concentrated pictures in halftones of green and blue. In 1962, he reluctantly showed his paintings to Kulicke, who enthusiastically recommended them to Roy Davis, an art school friend and business partner. Davis proved incredibly important to York and the advancement of his standing within the New York art scene, with his first exhibition at the Davis Galleries in 1963 and his last (at Davis & Langdale) in 2007, for a total of 16 exhibitions there. That same year, York and his family moved to Long Island, where the artist was to live and work for his remaining life. After the move, he would send new paintings to Davis Galleries in brown parcels via regular post, promising that next time he would “do better,” revealing his brutal artistic standards. York’s oil paintings are simple and compelling, reflecting an introspective awareness of art history while also projecting a sense of modern unease. His carefully balanced landscapes, such as Landscape with Three Trees and Pond, June 1984 (Lot 68), are in the pastoral tradition established in the 17th century by Claude Lorrain. Porch Bench with Seated Figure (Lot 38) and Figures in a Field (Lot 39) evoke the leisurely idylls of Impressionists such as Claude Monet and Edgar Degas, while at the same time channeling the profound solitariness of an Edward Hopper painting. The various still lifes of flowers and plants in tin cans, glass vases, and terracotta pots (Lots 1-3), always seeming to be in danger of sliding off the table surfaces on which they precariously sit, bring to mind the tumbling apples of Paul Cézanne. Seascape with Sailboat (Lot 67) is rendered with the impressionistic strokes of Eugène Boudin, though stripped of his fashionable, promenading figures. Despite the numerous art historical references, York’s paintings exude a quiet modernity, with their geometric simplicity, flatness of form, and economical brushwork. Likewise, his palette of greens and blues tinged with gray creates a sense of muted stillness and isolation in his work. Although his subject matter is realistic and inspired by his rural Long Island surroundings, there is a tension between what is real and what is imaginary. The art critic Bill Berkson poetically described this seemingly painted agitation: There’s something inclement beneath all that idyllic sunlight, a bruxism out of key with the blithely tumbled midday glow, and an elegiac mood that turns the convex pressure of accumulated dabs and dry swishes of paint teetering reflectively back on itself. The light could falter, the whole scene evanesce or fall apart as you look on. (“The Idylls of Albert York, Art in America, September 1988, p. 174) An exacting perfectionist, the artist is said to have only created 200 to 250 paintings during his lifetime, partly due to his slow rate of production, and that he stopped sending works to his gallery in 1992. This may have been a result of his reaction to a three-person exhibition, Painting Horizons: Jane Freilicher, Albert York, April Gornik, at the Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York, in 1989. In a rare interview, the artist told Calvin Tomkins that after seeing his artwork at the Parrish, he was "pretty upset about what I'd been doing for these last years."(“Artist Unknown,” The New Yorker, June 19, 1995, p. 81) As a result, the present nine artworks by the artist are an unprecedented group; never before have this many examples been offered at auction at one time. The seven oils here, as well as the two works on paper (Lots 10, 66), were acquired from York’s lifetime dealers, Roy Davis and Cecily Langdale, and they show the appreciation of a collector who delighted in the artist’s depictions of simple, familiar subjects that also speak of intense psychological mysteries. His spare, efficient brushstrokes reveal a unique willingness to look deeply and profoundly, and to set aside conventional notions of how objects are supposed to exist in the world.
Albert York (American, 1928-2009) Figures in a Field, c. 1963 oil on canvasboard signed A. York (on the reverse) 8 x 10 inches. The Collection of Philip and Judith Sieg, Bellefonte, Pennsylvania The present lot will be included in the forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné of the artist's work being compiled by Cecily Langdale, of Davis & Langdale Company, Inc., New York. We wish to thank Cecily Langdale for her kind assistance in cataloguing this work. According to the Artist (conversation of October 26, 1977), this picture was painted at Sheepshead Bay. It was obviously painted outside as there is sand mixed into the paint. The two children are presumably the artist's stepson and stepdaughter. Provenance: The Artist Davis Galleries, New York, c. 1963 Private Collection, c. 1963-1977 Thence by descent, until 1998 Davis & Langdale, New York Acquired from the above by the present owners, 1998 Exhibited: New York: Davis Galleries, Paintings by Albert York, March 25 - April 13, 1963, no. 5 New York, Davis & Long, Albert York, October 12 - November 5, 1977, no. 2 New York, Davis & Langdale, Albert York: A Loan Exhibition, May 3 - June 9, 1995, no. 3 Lot note: In his 1995 New Yorker magazine profile, art critic Calvin Tomkins said Albert York was perhaps "the most highly admired unknown artist in America." The artist was described as a shy man who shunned the art world, who worked painstakingly slowly, and who was perpetually unhappy with his work, often scraping down his wood panels and starting over. At rarely more than 12 inches on a side, his paintings evoke a contained world in which time and art seem to stand still or even move backward through history. They purposefully seek to reject interpretations of narrative and ignore the more widespread trend towards abstraction popular throughout the 20th century. Born in Detroit in 1928, York was raised by his father but lived mostly in boarding schools and foster homes while his father worked in the automobile industry. In his teens he lived with an aunt and uncle in Belleville, Ontario and he studied at the Ontario College of Art, and then at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Detroit. He saw active duty in the Army during the Korean War, and once discharged, moved to New York in 1952. York briefly enrolled at the Art Students’ League, but he could not afford the fees, and instead enrolled in Raphael Soyer’s evening classes on West 56th Street. Soyer’s admiration for Degas and the French School was to later influence York in style and subject matter. For a time, York stopped painting so he could instead support himself with odd jobs. In 1957, he found full time work as a gilder with the frame maker Robert Kulicke. He began to paint again in earnest in 1960, after taking a four-month trip to France with Virginia Mann Caldwell, his future wife, and her two children. Inspired by the French countryside, York took elements of the landscape and rearranged them as he worked, creating small, concentrated pictures in halftones of green and blue. In 1962, he reluctantly showed his paintings to Kulicke, who enthusiastically recommended them to Roy Davis, an art school friend and business partner. Davis proved incredibly important to York and the advancement of his standing within the New York art scene, with his first exhibition at the Davis Galleries in 1963 and his last (at Davis & Langdale) in 2007, for a total of 16 exhibitions there. That same year, York and his family moved to Long Island, where the artist was to live and work for his remaining life. After the move, he would send new paintings to Davis Galleries in brown parcels via regular post, promising that next time he would “do better,” revealing his brutal artistic standards. York’s oil paintings are simple and compelling, reflecting an introspective awareness of art history while also projecting a sense of modern unease. His carefully balanced landscapes, such as Landscape with Three Trees and Pond, June 1984 (Lot 68), are in the pastoral tradition established in the 17th century by Claude Lorrain. Porch Bench with Seated Figure (Lot 38) and Figures in a Field (Lot 39) evoke the leisurely idylls of Impressionists such as Claude Monet and Edgar Degas, while at the same time channeling the profound solitariness of an Edward Hopper painting. The various still lifes of flowers and plants in tin cans, glass vases, and terracotta pots (Lots 1-3), always seeming to be in danger of sliding off the table surfaces on which they precariously sit, bring to mind the tumbling apples of Paul Cézanne. Seascape with Sailboat (Lot 67) is rendered with the impressionistic strokes of Eugène Boudin, though stripped of his fashionable, promenading figures. Despite the numerous art historical references, York’s paintings exude a quiet modernity, with their geometric simplicity, flatness of form, and economical brushwork. Likewise, his palette of greens and blues tinged with gray creates a sense of muted stillness and isolation in his work. Although his subject matter is realistic and inspired by his rural Long Island surroundings, there is a tension between what is real and what is imaginary. The art critic Bill Berkson poetically described this seemingly painted agitation: There’s something inclement beneath all that idyllic sunlight, a bruxism out of key with the blithely tumbled midday glow, and an elegiac mood that turns the convex pressure of accumulated dabs and dry swishes of paint teetering reflectively back on itself. The light could falter, the whole scene evanesce or fall apart as you look on. (“The Idylls of Albert York, Art in America, September 1988, p. 174) An exacting perfectionist, the artist is said to have only created 200 to 250 paintings during his lifetime, partly due to his slow rate of production, and that he stopped sending works to his gallery in 1992. This may have been a result of his reaction to a three-person exhibition, Painting Horizons: Jane Freilicher, Albert York, April Gornik, at the Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York, in 1989. In a rare interview, the artist told Calvin Tomkins that after seeing his artwork at the Parrish, he was "pretty upset about what I'd been doing for these last years."(“Artist Unknown,” The New Yorker, June 19, 1995, p. 81) As a result, the present nine artworks by the artist are an unprecedented group; never before have this many examples been offered at auction at one time. The seven oils here, as well as the two works on paper (Lots 10, 66), were acquired from York’s lifetime dealers, Roy Davis and Cecily Langdale, and they show the appreciation of a collector who delighted in the artist’s depictions of simple, familiar subjects that also speak of intense psychological mysteries. His spare, efficient brushstrokes reveal a unique willingness to look deeply and profoundly, and to set aside conventional notions of how objects are supposed to exist in the world.
Albert York (American, 1928-2009) Porch Bench with Seated Figure, c. 1967 oil on panel 9 3/8 x 10 inches. The Collection of Philip and Judith Sieg, Bellefonte, Pennsylvania The present lot will be included in the forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné of the artist's work being compiled by Cecily Langdale, of Davis & Langdale Company, Inc., New York. We wish to thank Cecily Langdale for her kind assistance in cataloguing this work. Provenance: Mrs. Joyce Hemion Davis & Langdale, New York Acquired from the above by the present owners, 1982 Exhibited: Davis Galleries, New York, Albert York: A Selection of Oils, 1968 New York, Davis & Long, Albert York, February 22 - March 26, 1975, no. 27 (also exhibited October 12 - November 5, 1977) New York, Davis & Langdale, Albert York Paintings, October 12 - November 6, 1982, no. 34, illus. New York, Davis & Langdale, Albert York Paintings: 1963-1991, March 24 - April, 25, 1992 Oakland, California, Mills College Art Gallery, The Paintings of Albert York, February 4 - March 14, 1993 Literature: New York Times, Sunday "The Guide" for October 24, 1982, illus. Lot note: In his 1995 New Yorker magazine profile, art critic Calvin Tomkins said Albert York was perhaps "the most highly admired unknown artist in America." The artist was described as a shy man who shunned the art world, who worked painstakingly slowly, and who was perpetually unhappy with his work, often scraping down his wood panels and starting over. At rarely more than 12 inches on a side, his paintings evoke a contained world in which time and art seem to stand still or even move backward through history. They purposefully seek to reject interpretations of narrative and ignore the more widespread trend towards abstraction popular throughout the 20th century. Born in Detroit in 1928, York was raised by his father but lived mostly in boarding schools and foster homes while his father worked in the automobile industry. In his teens he lived with an aunt and uncle in Belleville, Ontario and he studied at the Ontario College of Art, and then at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Detroit. He saw active duty in the Army during the Korean War, and once discharged, moved to New York in 1952. York briefly enrolled at the Art Students’ League, but he could not afford the fees, and instead enrolled in Raphael Soyer’s evening classes on West 56th Street. Soyer’s admiration for Degas and the French School was to later influence York in style and subject matter. For a time, York stopped painting so he could instead support himself with odd jobs. In 1957, he found full time work as a gilder with the frame maker Robert Kulicke. He began to paint again in earnest in 1960, after taking a four-month trip to France with Virginia Mann Caldwell, his future wife, and her two children. Inspired by the French countryside, York took elements of the landscape and rearranged them as he worked, creating small, concentrated pictures in halftones of green and blue. In 1962, he reluctantly showed his paintings to Kulicke, who enthusiastically recommended them to Roy Davis, an art school friend and business partner. Davis proved incredibly important to York and the advancement of his standing within the New York art scene, with his first exhibition at the Davis Galleries in 1963 and his last (at Davis & Langdale) in 2007, for a total of 16 exhibitions there. That same year, York and his family moved to Long Island, where the artist was to live and work for his remaining life. After the move, he would send new paintings to Davis Galleries in brown parcels via regular post, promising that next time he would “do better,” revealing his brutal artistic standards. York’s oil paintings are simple and compelling, reflecting an introspective awareness of art history while also projecting a sense of modern unease. His carefully balanced landscapes, such as Landscape with Three Trees and Pond, June 1984 (Lot 68), are in the pastoral tradition established in the 17th century by Claude Lorrain. Porch Bench with Seated Figure (Lot 38) and Figures in a Field (Lot 39) evoke the leisurely idylls of Impressionists such as Claude Monet and Edgar Degas, while at the same time channeling the profound solitariness of an Edward Hopper painting. The various still lifes of flowers and plants in tin cans, glass vases, and terracotta pots (Lots 1-3), always seeming to be in danger of sliding off the table surfaces on which they precariously sit, bring to mind the tumbling apples of Paul Cézanne. Seascape with Sailboat (Lot 67) is rendered with the impressionistic strokes of Eugène Boudin, though stripped of his fashionable, promenading figures. Despite the numerous art historical references, York’s paintings exude a quiet modernity, with their geometric simplicity, flatness of form, and economical brushwork. Likewise, his palette of greens and blues tinged with gray creates a sense of muted stillness and isolation in his work. Although his subject matter is realistic and inspired by his rural Long Island surroundings, there is a tension between what is real and what is imaginary. The art critic Bill Berkson poetically described this seemingly painted agitation: There’s something inclement beneath all that idyllic sunlight, a bruxism out of key with the blithely tumbled midday glow, and an elegiac mood that turns the convex pressure of accumulated dabs and dry swishes of paint teetering reflectively back on itself. The light could falter, the whole scene evanesce or fall apart as you look on. (“The Idylls of Albert York, Art in America, September 1988, p. 174) An exacting perfectionist, the artist is said to have only created 200 to 250 paintings during his lifetime, partly due to his slow rate of production, and that he stopped sending works to his gallery in 1992. This may have been a result of his reaction to a three-person exhibition, Painting Horizons: Jane Freilicher, Albert York, April Gornik, at the Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York, in 1989. In a rare interview, the artist told Calvin Tomkins that after seeing his artwork at the Parrish, he was "pretty upset about what I'd been doing for these last years."(“Artist Unknown,” The New Yorker, June 19, 1995, p. 81) As a result, the present nine artworks by the artist are an unprecedented group; never before have this many examples been offered at auction at one time. The seven oils here, as well as the two works on paper (Lots 10, 66), were acquired from York’s lifetime dealers, Roy Davis and Cecily Langdale, and they show the appreciation of a collector who delighted in the artist’s depictions of simple, familiar subjects that also speak of intense psychological mysteries. His spare, efficient brushstrokes reveal a unique willingness to look deeply and profoundly, and to set aside conventional notions of how objects are supposed to exist in the world.
Albert York (American, 1928-2009) Pink Rose on Grey Ground watercolor and graphite on paper 11 3/4 x 11 1/2 inches. The Collection of Philip and Judith Sieg, Bellefonte, Pennsylvania The present lot will be included in the forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné of the artist's work being compiled by Cecily Langdale, of Davis & Langdale Company, Inc., New York. We wish to thank Cecily Langdale for her kind assistance in cataloguing this work. Provenance: Davis & Long, New York Acquired from the above by the present owners, by 1980 Lot note: In his 1995 New Yorker magazine profile, art critic Calvin Tomkins said Albert York was perhaps "the most highly admired unknown artist in America." The artist was described as a shy man who shunned the art world, who worked painstakingly slowly, and who was perpetually unhappy with his work, often scraping down his wood panels and starting over. At rarely more than 12 inches on a side, his paintings evoke a contained world in which time and art seem to stand still or even move backward through history. They purposefully seek to reject interpretations of narrative and ignore the more widespread trend towards abstraction popular throughout the 20th century. Born in Detroit in 1928, York was raised by his father but lived mostly in boarding schools and foster homes while his father worked in the automobile industry. In his teens he lived with an aunt and uncle in Belleville, Ontario and he studied at the Ontario College of Art, and then at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Detroit. He saw active duty in the Army during the Korean War, and once discharged, moved to New York in 1952. York briefly enrolled at the Art Students’ League, but he could not afford the fees, and instead enrolled in Raphael Soyer’s evening classes on West 56th Street. Soyer’s admiration for Degas and the French School was to later influence York in style and subject matter. For a time, York stopped painting so he could instead support himself with odd jobs. In 1957, he found full time work as a gilder with the frame maker Robert Kulicke. He began to paint again in earnest in 1960, after taking a four-month trip to France with Virginia Mann Caldwell, his future wife, and her two children. Inspired by the French countryside, York took elements of the landscape and rearranged them as he worked, creating small, concentrated pictures in halftones of green and blue. In 1962, he reluctantly showed his paintings to Kulicke, who enthusiastically recommended them to Roy Davis, an art school friend and business partner. Davis proved incredibly important to York and the advancement of his standing within the New York art scene, with his first exhibition at the Davis Galleries in 1963 and his last (at Davis & Langdale) in 2007, for a total of 16 exhibitions there. That same year, York and his family moved to Long Island, where the artist was to live and work for his remaining life. After the move, he would send new paintings to Davis Galleries in brown parcels via regular post, promising that next time he would “do better,” revealing his brutal artistic standards. York’s oil paintings are simple and compelling, reflecting an introspective awareness of art history while also projecting a sense of modern unease. His carefully balanced landscapes, such as Landscape with Three Trees and Pond, June 1984 (Lot 68), are in the pastoral tradition established in the 17th century by Claude Lorrain. Porch Bench with Seated Figure (Lot 38) and Figures in a Field (Lot 39) evoke the leisurely idylls of Impressionists such as Claude Monet and Edgar Degas, while at the same time channeling the profound solitariness of an Edward Hopper painting. The various still lifes of flowers and plants in tin cans, glass vases, and terracotta pots (Lots 1-3), always seeming to be in danger of sliding off the table surfaces on which they precariously sit, bring to mind the tumbling apples of Paul Cézanne. Seascape with Sailboat (Lot 67) is rendered with the impressionistic strokes of Eugène Boudin, though stripped of his fashionable, promenading figures. Despite the numerous art historical references, York’s paintings exude a quiet modernity, with their geometric simplicity, flatness of form, and economical brushwork. Likewise, his palette of greens and blues tinged with gray creates a sense of muted stillness and isolation in his work. Although his subject matter is realistic and inspired by his rural Long Island surroundings, there is a tension between what is real and what is imaginary. The art critic Bill Berkson poetically described this seemingly painted agitation: There’s something inclement beneath all that idyllic sunlight, a bruxism out of key with the blithely tumbled midday glow, and an elegiac mood that turns the convex pressure of accumulated dabs and dry swishes of paint teetering reflectively back on itself. The light could falter, the whole scene evanesce or fall apart as you look on. (“The Idylls of Albert York, Art in America, September 1988, p. 174) An exacting perfectionist, the artist is said to have only created 200 to 250 paintings during his lifetime, partly due to his slow rate of production, and that he stopped sending works to his gallery in 1992. This may have been a result of his reaction to a three-person exhibition, Painting Horizons: Jane Freilicher, Albert York, April Gornik, at the Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York, in 1989. In a rare interview, the artist told Calvin Tomkins that after seeing his artwork at the Parrish, he was "pretty upset about what I'd been doing for these last years."(“Artist Unknown,” The New Yorker, June 19, 1995, p. 81) As a result, the present nine artworks by the artist are an unprecedented group; never before have this many examples been offered at auction at one time. The seven oils here, as well as the two works on paper (Lots 10, 66), were acquired from York’s lifetime dealers, Roy Davis and Cecily Langdale, and they show the appreciation of a collector who delighted in the artist’s depictions of simple, familiar subjects that also speak of intense psychological mysteries. His spare, efficient brushstrokes reveal a unique willingness to look deeply and profoundly, and to set aside conventional notions of how objects are supposed to exist in the world.
Albert York (American, 1928-2009) Pink Roses in a Glass Vase, 1980 oil on canvasboard 12 x 10 inches. The Collection of Philip and Judith Sieg, Bellefonte, Pennsylvania The present lot will be included in the forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné of the artist's work being compiled by Cecily Langdale, of Davis & Langdale Company, Inc., New York. We wish to thank Cecily Langdale for her kind assistance in cataloguing this work. Provenance: Davis & Long, New York Acquired from the above by the present owners, 1980 Exhibited: New York, Davis & Langdale, Albert York, October 12 - November 6, 1982, no. 6 Lot note: In his 1995 New Yorker magazine profile, art critic Calvin Tomkins said Albert York was perhaps "the most highly admired unknown artist in America." The artist was described as a shy man who shunned the art world, who worked painstakingly slowly, and who was perpetually unhappy with his work, often scraping down his wood panels and starting over. At rarely more than 12 inches on a side, his paintings evoke a contained world in which time and art seem to stand still or even move backward through history. They purposefully seek to reject interpretations of narrative and ignore the more widespread trend towards abstraction popular throughout the 20th century. Born in Detroit in 1928, York was raised by his father but lived mostly in boarding schools and foster homes while his father worked in the automobile industry. In his teens he lived with an aunt and uncle in Belleville, Ontario and he studied at the Ontario College of Art, and then at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Detroit. He saw active duty in the Army during the Korean War, and once discharged, moved to New York in 1952. York briefly enrolled at the Art Students’ League, but he could not afford the fees, and instead enrolled in Raphael Soyer’s evening classes on West 56th Street. Soyer’s admiration for Degas and the French School was to later influence York in style and subject matter. For a time, York stopped painting so he could instead support himself with odd jobs. In 1957, he found full time work as a gilder with the frame maker Robert Kulicke. He began to paint again in earnest in 1960, after taking a four-month trip to France with Virginia Mann Caldwell, his future wife, and her two children. Inspired by the French countryside, York took elements of the landscape and rearranged them as he worked, creating small, concentrated pictures in halftones of green and blue. In 1962, he reluctantly showed his paintings to Kulicke, who enthusiastically recommended them to Roy Davis, an art school friend and business partner. Davis proved incredibly important to York and the advancement of his standing within the New York art scene, with his first exhibition at the Davis Galleries in 1963 and his last (at Davis & Langdale) in 2007, for a total of 16 exhibitions there. That same year, York and his family moved to Long Island, where the artist was to live and work for his remaining life. After the move, he would send new paintings to Davis Galleries in brown parcels via regular post, promising that next time he would “do better,” revealing his brutal artistic standards. York’s oil paintings are simple and compelling, reflecting an introspective awareness of art history while also projecting a sense of modern unease. His carefully balanced landscapes, such as Landscape with Three Trees and Pond, June 1984 (Lot 68), are in the pastoral tradition established in the 17th century by Claude Lorrain. Porch Bench with Seated Figure (Lot 38) and Figures in a Field (Lot 39) evoke the leisurely idylls of Impressionists such as Claude Monet and Edgar Degas, while at the same time channeling the profound solitariness of an Edward Hopper painting. The various still lifes of flowers and plants in tin cans, glass vases, and terracotta pots (Lots 1-3), always seeming to be in danger of sliding off the table surfaces on which they precariously sit, bring to mind the tumbling apples of Paul Cézanne. Seascape with Sailboat (Lot 67) is rendered with the impressionistic strokes of Eugène Boudin, though stripped of his fashionable, promenading figures. Despite the numerous art historical references, York’s paintings exude a quiet modernity, with their geometric simplicity, flatness of form, and economical brushwork. Likewise, his palette of greens and blues tinged with gray creates a sense of muted stillness and isolation in his work. Although his subject matter is realistic and inspired by his rural Long Island surroundings, there is a tension between what is real and what is imaginary. The art critic Bill Berkson poetically described this seemingly painted agitation: There’s something inclement beneath all that idyllic sunlight, a bruxism out of key with the blithely tumbled midday glow, and an elegiac mood that turns the convex pressure of accumulated dabs and dry swishes of paint teetering reflectively back on itself. The light could falter, the whole scene evanesce or fall apart as you look on. (“The Idylls of Albert York, Art in America, September 1988, p. 174) An exacting perfectionist, the artist is said to have only created 200 to 250 paintings during his lifetime, partly due to his slow rate of production, and that he stopped sending works to his gallery in 1992. This may have been a result of his reaction to a three-person exhibition, Painting Horizons: Jane Freilicher, Albert York, April Gornik, at the Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York, in 1989. In a rare interview, the artist told Calvin Tomkins that after seeing his artwork at the Parrish, he was "pretty upset about what I'd been doing for these last years."(“Artist Unknown,” The New Yorker, June 19, 1995, p. 81) As a result, the present nine artworks by the artist are an unprecedented group; never before have this many examples been offered at auction at one time. The seven oils here, as well as the two works on paper (Lots 10, 66), were acquired from York’s lifetime dealers, Roy Davis and Cecily Langdale, and they show the appreciation of a collector who delighted in the artist’s depictions of simple, familiar subjects that also speak of intense psychological mysteries. His spare, efficient brushstrokes reveal a unique willingness to look deeply and profoundly, and to set aside conventional notions of how objects are supposed to exist in the world.
Albert York (American, 1928-2009) Three Roses in a Can, 1980 oil on canvasboard 11 15/16 x 9 15/16 inches. The Collection of Philip and Judith Sieg, Bellefonte, Pennsylvania The present lot will be included in the forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné of the artist's work being compiled by Cecily Langdale, of Davis & Langdale Company, Inc., New York. We wish to thank Cecily Langdale for her kind assistance in cataloguing this work. Provenance: The Artist Davis & Long, New York, 1980 Private Collection, acquired from the above, 1980-1996 Davis & Langdale, New York Acquired from the above by the present owners, 1996 Lot note: In his 1995 New Yorker magazine profile, art critic Calvin Tomkins said Albert York was perhaps "the most highly admired unknown artist in America." The artist was described as a shy man who shunned the art world, who worked painstakingly slowly, and who was perpetually unhappy with his work, often scraping down his wood panels and starting over. At rarely more than 12 inches on a side, his paintings evoke a contained world in which time and art seem to stand still or even move backward through history. They purposefully seek to reject interpretations of narrative and ignore the more widespread trend towards abstraction popular throughout the 20th century. Born in Detroit in 1928, York was raised by his father but lived mostly in boarding schools and foster homes while his father worked in the automobile industry. In his teens he lived with an aunt and uncle in Belleville, Ontario and he studied at the Ontario College of Art, and then at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Detroit. He saw active duty in the Army during the Korean War, and once discharged, moved to New York in 1952. York briefly enrolled at the Art Students’ League, but he could not afford the fees, and instead enrolled in Raphael Soyer’s evening classes on West 56th Street. Soyer’s admiration for Degas and the French School was to later influence York in style and subject matter. For a time, York stopped painting so he could instead support himself with odd jobs. In 1957, he found full time work as a gilder with the frame maker Robert Kulicke. He began to paint again in earnest in 1960, after taking a four-month trip to France with Virginia Mann Caldwell, his future wife, and her two children. Inspired by the French countryside, York took elements of the landscape and rearranged them as he worked, creating small, concentrated pictures in halftones of green and blue. In 1962, he reluctantly showed his paintings to Kulicke, who enthusiastically recommended them to Roy Davis, an art school friend and business partner. Davis proved incredibly important to York and the advancement of his standing within the New York art scene, with his first exhibition at the Davis Galleries in 1963 and his last (at Davis & Langdale) in 2007, for a total of 16 exhibitions there. That same year, York and his family moved to Long Island, where the artist was to live and work for his remaining life. After the move, he would send new paintings to Davis Galleries in brown parcels via regular post, promising that next time he would “do better,” revealing his brutal artistic standards. York’s oil paintings are simple and compelling, reflecting an introspective awareness of art history while also projecting a sense of modern unease. His carefully balanced landscapes, such as Landscape with Three Trees and Pond, June 1984 (Lot 68), are in the pastoral tradition established in the 17th century by Claude Lorrain. Porch Bench with Seated Figure (Lot 38) and Figures in a Field (Lot 39) evoke the leisurely idylls of Impressionists such as Claude Monet and Edgar Degas, while at the same time channeling the profound solitariness of an Edward Hopper painting. The various still lifes of flowers and plants in tin cans, glass vases, and terracotta pots (Lots 1-3), always seeming to be in danger of sliding off the table surfaces on which they precariously sit, bring to mind the tumbling apples of Paul Cézanne. Seascape with Sailboat (Lot 67) is rendered with the impressionistic strokes of Eugène Boudin, though stripped of his fashionable, promenading figures. Despite the numerous art historical references, York’s paintings exude a quiet modernity, with their geometric simplicity, flatness of form, and economical brushwork. Likewise, his palette of greens and blues tinged with gray creates a sense of muted stillness and isolation in his work. Although his subject matter is realistic and inspired by his rural Long Island surroundings, there is a tension between what is real and what is imaginary. The art critic Bill Berkson poetically described this seemingly painted agitation: There’s something inclement beneath all that idyllic sunlight, a bruxism out of key with the blithely tumbled midday glow, and an elegiac mood that turns the convex pressure of accumulated dabs and dry swishes of paint teetering reflectively back on itself. The light could falter, the whole scene evanesce or fall apart as you look on. (“The Idylls of Albert York, Art in America, September 1988, p. 174) An exacting perfectionist, the artist is said to have only created 200 to 250 paintings during his lifetime, partly due to his slow rate of production, and that he stopped sending works to his gallery in 1992. This may have been a result of his reaction to a three-person exhibition, Painting Horizons: Jane Freilicher, Albert York, April Gornik, at the Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York, in 1989. In a rare interview, the artist told Calvin Tomkins that after seeing his artwork at the Parrish, he was "pretty upset about what I'd been doing for these last years."(“Artist Unknown,” The New Yorker, June 19, 1995, p. 81) As a result, the present nine artworks by the artist are an unprecedented group; never before have this many examples been offered at auction at one time. The seven oils here, as well as the two works on paper (Lots 10, 66), were acquired from York’s lifetime dealers, Roy Davis and Cecily Langdale, and they show the appreciation of a collector who delighted in the artist’s depictions of simple, familiar subjects that also speak of intense psychological mysteries. His spare, efficient brushstrokes reveal a unique willingness to look deeply and profoundly, and to set aside conventional notions of how objects are supposed to exist in the world.
Albert York (American, 1928-2009) Zinnias in a Glass Vase, 1981 oil on board 15 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches. The Collection of Philip and Judith Sieg, Bellefonte, Pennsylvania The present lot will be included in the forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné of the artist's work being compiled by Cecily Langdale, of Davis & Langdale Company, Inc., New York. We wish to thank Cecily Langdale for her kind assistance in cataloguing this work. Provenance: Davis & Langdale, New York Acquired from the above by the present owners, 1981 Exhibited: New York, Davis & Langdale, Albert York Paintings, October 12 - November 6, 1982, no. 12 Lot note: In his 1995 New Yorker magazine profile, art critic Calvin Tomkins said Albert York was perhaps "the most highly admired unknown artist in America." The artist was described as a shy man who shunned the art world, who worked painstakingly slowly, and who was perpetually unhappy with his work, often scraping down his wood panels and starting over. At rarely more than 12 inches on a side, his paintings evoke a contained world in which time and art seem to stand still or even move backward through history. They purposefully seek to reject interpretations of narrative and ignore the more widespread trend towards abstraction popular throughout the 20th century. Born in Detroit in 1928, York was raised by his father but lived mostly in boarding schools and foster homes while his father worked in the automobile industry. In his teens he lived with an aunt and uncle in Belleville, Ontario and he studied at the Ontario College of Art, and then at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Detroit. He saw active duty in the Army during the Korean War, and once discharged, moved to New York in 1952. York briefly enrolled at the Art Students’ League, but he could not afford the fees, and instead enrolled in Raphael Soyer’s evening classes on West 56th Street. Soyer’s admiration for Degas and the French School was to later influence York in style and subject matter. For a time, York stopped painting so he could instead support himself with odd jobs. In 1957, he found full time work as a gilder with the frame maker Robert Kulicke. He began to paint again in earnest in 1960, after taking a four-month trip to France with Virginia Mann Caldwell, his future wife, and her two children. Inspired by the French countryside, York took elements of the landscape and rearranged them as he worked, creating small, concentrated pictures in halftones of green and blue. In 1962, he reluctantly showed his paintings to Kulicke, who enthusiastically recommended them to Roy Davis, an art school friend and business partner. Davis proved incredibly important to York and the advancement of his standing within the New York art scene, with his first exhibition at the Davis Galleries in 1963 and his last (at Davis & Langdale) in 2007, for a total of 16 exhibitions there. That same year, York and his family moved to Long Island, where the artist was to live and work for his remaining life. After the move, he would send new paintings to Davis Galleries in brown parcels via regular post, promising that next time he would “do better,” revealing his brutal artistic standards. York’s oil paintings are simple and compelling, reflecting an introspective awareness of art history while also projecting a sense of modern unease. His carefully balanced landscapes, such as Landscape with Three Trees and Pond, June 1984 (Lot 68), are in the pastoral tradition established in the 17th century by Claude Lorrain. Porch Bench with Seated Figure (Lot 38) and Figures in a Field (Lot 39) evoke the leisurely idylls of Impressionists such as Claude Monet and Edgar Degas, while at the same time channeling the profound solitariness of an Edward Hopper painting. The various still lifes of flowers and plants in tin cans, glass vases, and terracotta pots (Lots 1-3), always seeming to be in danger of sliding off the table surfaces on which they precariously sit, bring to mind the tumbling apples of Paul Cézanne. Seascape with Sailboat (Lot 67) is rendered with the impressionistic strokes of Eugène Boudin, though stripped of his fashionable, promenading figures. Despite the numerous art historical references, York’s paintings exude a quiet modernity, with their geometric simplicity, flatness of form, and economical brushwork. Likewise, his palette of greens and blues tinged with gray creates a sense of muted stillness and isolation in his work. Although his subject matter is realistic and inspired by his rural Long Island surroundings, there is a tension between what is real and what is imaginary. The art critic Bill Berkson poetically described this seemingly painted agitation: There’s something inclement beneath all that idyllic sunlight, a bruxism out of key with the blithely tumbled midday glow, and an elegiac mood that turns the convex pressure of accumulated dabs and dry swishes of paint teetering reflectively back on itself. The light could falter, the whole scene evanesce or fall apart as you look on. (“The Idylls of Albert York, Art in America, September 1988, p. 174) An exacting perfectionist, the artist is said to have only created 200 to 250 paintings during his lifetime, partly due to his slow rate of production, and that he stopped sending works to his gallery in 1992. This may have been a result of his reaction to a three-person exhibition, Painting Horizons: Jane Freilicher, Albert York, April Gornik, at the Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York, in 1989. In a rare interview, the artist told Calvin Tomkins that after seeing his artwork at the Parrish, he was "pretty upset about what I'd been doing for these last years."(“Artist Unknown,” The New Yorker, June 19, 1995, p. 81) As a result, the present nine artworks by the artist are an unprecedented group; never before have this many examples been offered at auction at one time. The seven oils here, as well as the two works on paper (Lots 10, 66), were acquired from York’s lifetime dealers, Roy Davis and Cecily Langdale, and they show the appreciation of a collector who delighted in the artist’s depictions of simple, familiar subjects that also speak of intense psychological mysteries. His spare, efficient brushstrokes reveal a unique willingness to look deeply and profoundly, and to set aside conventional notions of how objects are supposed to exist in the world.
Titled 'Imaginary Playground' (Trees and Fence), oil on plywood, exhibition labels on reverse. Albert Edward York was born in Detroit, MI, and lived with his aunt & uncle in Ontario, Canada, where he studied at the Ontario College of Art. After serving in the Army during the Korean War, he moved to New York and briefly studied with Raphael Soyer. Albert York was a painter of small and mysterious landscapes who shunned the art world yet had a fervent following within it. His paintings' geometric simplicity, flatness of form and workmanlike brushwork exuded a quiet modernity, as did their wholeness of composition and feeling. York painted only about 200 to 250 works in his lifetime. Most are in private collections and museums. A rare auction of his work took place after the death of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who owned six of his paintings. Overall Size: 12 1/4 x 14 1/4 in Size Size: 8 x 10 in
[Picasso, P.]. Picasso. Fifteen drawings. New York, Pantheon Books/ Albert Carmen, 1946, textbooklet (4)p., 15 pochoir col. plates by P. PICASSO, loose as issued in orig. cl. portfolio, folio. - One fold. flap loose. Spine dam. = 1. Family at supper; 2. Mother and Child; 3. Harlequin and boy (glue stains in upper left blank corner) 4. Head of a woman; 5. Saltimbanque; 6. Study for Demoiselles d'Avignon; 7. Bathers; 8. Two Nudes; 9. The Basket; 10. Portrait of a Lady; 11.Table before window; 12. Four Ballet Dancers; 13. Minotaure; 14. Weeping Woman; 15. Man with Pipe. Rare. SEE ILLUSTRATION PLATE VII.
Bubb > Kuyper: Auctioneers of Books, Fine Arts & Manuscripts
ALBERT YORK (AMERICAN, 1928-2009) PINK ROSES Oil on panel: 10 1/2 x 10 in. Framed; verso labels: Davis Galleries; Davis Galleries Exhibition label; Note: Calvin Tompkins, The New Yorker, June 19, 1995, p.76 "He may be the most highly admired unknown artist in America. " According to The New York Times, published October 31, 2009, p. 34 "He (York) painted only about 200 to 250 works in his lifetime. Most are in private collections and museums. A rare auction of his work took place after the death of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who owned six of his paintings." Provenance: Mr. and Mrs. Leroy Davis; Davis Galleries, New York, #Y 52; From The Collection of Terry Davis, Director of James Graham Gallery, N.Y.. artist and dealer Exhibitions: Davis Galleries, 231 East 60th Street, New York City, "Albert York Oils", May 17 - June 10, 1966.
Albert Edward York (1926-2009) Landscape with Clouds and Bushes signed 'A York' (on the reverse)watercolor on paper8 x 9 1/2inExecuted circa 1969. Provenance: The artist.Davis Galleries, New York.Private collection.Sale, Weschler's Auctioneers & Appraisers, Rockville, Maryland, January 29, 2013, lot 513.Acquired by the present owner from the above.This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work being compiled by Cecily Langdale, of Davis & Langdale Company, Inc., New York. We wish to thank her for her assistance cataloguing this lot. According to Cecily Langdale, the present work was executed circa 1969 and likely depicts the landscape around Water Mill, New York, where the artist lived.
ALBERT EDWARD YORK (1926-2009) Begonia Plant in Flower Pot signed ‘A. York’ (on the reverse) oil on canvas laid down on panel 12 1/2 x 12in Painted in 1968.
WILDER, THORNTON The Cabala. New York: Albert & Charles Boni, 1926. First edition, inscribed (see below), first issue with "conversation" on p. 196, line 13 (this corrected in ink), and "explaininn" on p. 202, line 12. Publisher's cloth backed boards, in original dust jacket. 7 7/8 x 5 inches (20.5 x 13.5 cm); 230 pp. A good copy of a notoriously fragile dust jacket which is faded along the spine and with a few chips and small losses primarily to spine tips, the inscribed endpaper a bit browned, otherwise a clean copy. Wilder's first published book, inscribed in May of 1926 to Princeton friend Juan Lopez with a quotation from the book. C Estate of William W. Appleton
WILDER, THORNTON The Bridge of San Luis Rey. New York: Albert & Charles Boni, 1927. First edition, inscribed to William Appleton by Wilder on the half-title and signed by illustrator Amy Dreveenstedt. Publisher's cloth, in original dust jacket. 8 x 5 inches (21 x 13 cm); 235 pp. The jacket with wear along extremities affecting lettering, the spine darkened and split at folds, signature rubbed out of front free endpaper. C Estate of William W. Appleton
WILDER, THORNTON The Cabala. New York: Albert & Charles Boni, 1926. First edition, inscribed (see below), first issue with with "conversation" on p. 196, line 13 (this corrected in ink), and "explaininn" on p. 202, line 12. Publisher's cloth backed boards, in original dust jacket. 7 7/8 x 5 inches (20.5 x 13.5 cm); 230 pp. A good copy of a notoriously fragile dust jacket which is faded along the spine and with a few chips and small losses primarily to spine tips, the inscribed endpaper a bit browned, otherwise a clean copy. Wilder's first published book, inscribed in May of 1926 to Princeton friend Juan Lopez with a quotation from the book. C Estate of William W. Appleton
3 vols. Sonn, Albert H. Early American Wrought Iron. New York: Scribner's, 1928. Sm folio, orig green cloth; minor wear, d/j (some chipping & paper loss to spine panels), orig slipcases worn at joints. With 320 plates. Presentation set, inscr to J.B. Carrington, dated "Nov 19, [19]28" & signed on front free endpaper recto of vol 1. J.B. Carrington is the first name given in the author's printed acknowledgements on pp vii, vol 1.
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