- Carl HoltyStudies en Grisaille #999, 5 parts, NDGouache on artist board15 x 3 inches,
Framed: 20 3/4 x 8 3/4 (each)Marked: Estate of Carl Holty (Estate stamp rear of frame, each) - Carl HoltyMonument, early 1960’sOil on canvas60 x 46 inches,
Framed: 62 x 48 1/2 inchesSigned: Holty lower right - Carl HoltyPink Sand, early 1960’sOil on canvas48 X 36 inches,
Framed 49 1/2 x 37 3/4 inchesSigned: Holty (l.r.) - Carl HoltyLight Gray, Yellow, c. 1971Oil on canvas66 x 55 inches
Framed: 68 1/4 x 57 inchesSigned: Holty lower right - Carl HoltyUntitled #161, c. 1963Oil on canvas48 x 35 inches Framed: 49 1/4 x 37 1/4 inchesSigned: Holty (on stretcher, verso)
- Carl HoltyUntitled (#1600), c. 1959Oil on canvas42 x 68 inches,
Framed: 44 1/2 x 70 inches
Overview
The German-born American Abstractionist Carl Robert Holty became known for his biomorphic abstract forms as well as his geometric abstractions that he painted with a vibrant color palette. Indelibly linked to both the Abstract Expressionist and Geometric Abstractionist art movements, Holty was a major proponent of Modernism in the United States and was a contributory influence to the world of American painting. By the 1960's Holty was creating paintings that were dominated by large color fields rendered with thinly washed fluid areas within subtly toned spaces that revealed the influences of such Abstract Expressionist artists as Morris Louis and Helen Frankenthaler. A student of Hans Hofmann and his color theories of expanding dimensions and exuberant colors in abstractions, Holty created large, soft-edged color forms that were either mixed or floated on chromatic stains, experimenting with the relationship of space and form within a two-dimensional plane. In his own words Holty explained:
"No one had ever talked to me about conceptual drawing, about knowing what I'm looking at from the point of view of my tactile knowledge as well as my visual knowledge. Hofmann did. And the world opened up just like that."
Holty experimented with the relationship of space and form within a two-dimensional plane. His works in many ways can be viewed as a celebration of color. There are no obvious images, only large forms that create a rhythmic movement of subtle, toned-down colors and shapes with differing densities. Such works challenged the American art world to look at art in a bold and new fashion. This advocacy for new and cutting edge kinds of works helped to establish Holty as a leading American abstract painter. Along with his friends Stuart Davis and Vaclav Vytlacil Holty established the ground-breaking group that came to be known as the American Abstract Artists. Throughout his life as an artist, Holty was constantly developing his vision of abstraction. An icon in the annals of American contemporary art, Holty is best remembered for his use of color, shape and form.
Museums and Public Collections
Amon Carter Museum
Archer M Huntington Art Gallery, University of Texas, Austin
Brooklyn Museum, New York
Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio
Carnegie Institute Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Krannert Art Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Milwaukee Art Institute
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Exhibitions
Milwaukee Art Institute, 1933, 1935, 1980
Carnegie Institute, 1946
Whitney Museum of American Art, 1944, 1945
Kootz Gallery, 1945, 1948
New Art Circle, 1944
Nierendorf Gallery, 1938
Audubon Association, 1945
Art Institute of Chicago, 1936, 1939
World's Fair, New York, 1939