Lot 135: Dunbar Dyson Beck 1902-1986 , The Big Fight oil on canvas

signed DUNBAR BECK , l.r. oil on canvas

measurements 30 by 40 in. alternate measurements 76.2 by 101.6 cm.

Private Collection, California, since circa 1980

A multi-talented artist, Beck was a muralist, teacher, interior designer, as well as a painter. Born in Ohio, he received his BFA from Yale University in 1926 and was invited to teach there during the following academic year. In 1927, he won the prestigious Prix de Rome for his painting, "Adoration" and spent the following three years studying at the American Academy in Rome and traveling extensively in Europe and Africa. On his return to New York in 1930, he accepted teaching positions, first at Columbia and then at Cooper Union. He also began receiving several important commissions for murals, altar paintings and portraits. Among them were a mural for the lobby of Radio City Music Hall in 1934 and a frieze for the case of a grand piano from C.F. Theodore Steinway. Not just any piano, this one was meant as a gift from Steinway & Sons to President Franklin Roosevelt for the White House and it was decorated in gold leaf, its subject, five forms of music indigenous to America. It is still in the White House. In the late 1930s, Eleanor McClatchy, his patron in Sacramento, persuaded Beck to live and work permanently in California and from then on, he spent most of his time on the west coast. The present two paintings (lots 135 and 137) are part of an impressive series Beck created in the late 1930s or early 1940s around the theme of a prize-fight. They are believed to have been inspired by an unpublished play entitled "The National Ring". This is Beck at his best. In each work, the dramatic placement of the composition and theatrical lighting effects emphasize the high-octane energy of the action taking place. Details are minimized to emphasize emotional intensity and anticipation. Reminiscent of the fight scenes of George Bellows, in the "Big Fight" one can almost feel the strength emanating from the graceful, dynamic bodies of the young boxers as they are locked in perfectly rhymed movement. In "The Night of the Big Fight", the drama is concentrated on an empty, lit stage with the two pugilists, highlighted in red, waiting at right and left for the match to begin. The crowded arena, the many bright lights hanging from the ceiling and the empty expanse of stage, highlight the sense of expectancy and excitement. The painted-in margins along the edges of both works with a sports commentator in "The Big Fight" at lower left and the additional audience in the foreground in "The Night of the Big Fight", along with the starry night sky above add a strange, surrealist sensibility.