Lot 272: ROBERT BRUCE TAGUE (AMERICAN 1912-1985),

ROBERT BRUCE TAGUE (AMERICAN 1912-1985), "Untitled," 1948, oil on canvas, 24 1/4 x 16 1/4 in. (61.6 x 41.3), signed and dated lower right. Robert Bruce Tague was a leading Modernist architect in America in the 1930s and 40s, and was the architect of the famous Frueh House at 145 Oak Knoll Terrace in Highland Park, Illinois. Tague was both a student and teacher at the New Bauhaus in Chicago, which opened after the Nazis closed the German Bauhaus in 1933. Later the New Bauhaus became known as the American School of Design and then as the Institute of Design which became part of the Illinois Institute of Technology. Tague himself was born in Chicago in 1912 and earned his undergraduate degree at Chicago's Armour Institute of Technology before he accepted a post-graduate scholarship with George Fred Keck who ran the offices of Keck + Keck. The Keck firm was designing in the International Style early on, and Tague continuted to work for Keck + Keck on and off for twenty years along with his artistic and teaching endeavors. Tague was also an associate of Crombie Taylor in restoring the landmark Auditorium Theatre in Chicago. This painting from 1948 is a powerful and sophisticated example of American modernism at its very best.