Featured Stories

Robert Kelly’s work begins with paper. In his studio, carefully organized stacks hold letters, ledgers, posters, maps, and magazine pages—anything carrying handwriting, typography, or graphic design.

Often, Kelly is drawn not to the front of a sheet, but to its reverse: the side where ink has seeped through and the original meaning has been transformed.

These papers become the foundation of his paintings. Collaged onto panel or canvas, each piece is placed with remarkable deliberation.

Kelly has been compared to a stonemason, and the analogy is fitting: rather than simply adding one element to another, he considers how each layer will meet and interact with the next. He builds and refines these surfaces until the paper takes on a luminous patina, more reminiscent of polished ivory than of its original material, before sweeping pigment across the surface.

The result is a true palimpsest—a surface built over time, where traces of what came before remain visible beneath the new. Like our recently acquired Tantra XXV, Kelly’s works reward close looking, revealing fragments of text, texture, and history beneath their seemingly ordered surfaces.

His practice is rooted in a rich lineage of modernist abstraction, drawing from Malevich and Mondrian, the Bauhaus and De Stijl, Schwitters and Torres-García, as well as the Brazilian Neo-Concrete artists Lygia Clark and Hélio Oiticica, who pushed geometric abstraction beyond the purely visual and toward something more tactile, intuitive, and embodied.

What happens when fragments become something entirely new? Collage has long offered artists a way to rethink the everyday; transforming scraps of paper, printed imagery, text, and found materials into works that are layered, unexpected, and wholly original.

In our latest video, we take a closer look at the enduring possibilities of collage, from its early relationship to Cubism and Dada to its continued role in contemporary abstraction.

Artists have used collage to challenge the boundaries between image and object, chance and intention, recognizable forms and pure abstraction.

For collectors, part of collage’s appeal lies in its intimacy. A torn edge, a fragment of typography, or a piece of printed ephemera can retain traces of another time while becoming part of an entirely new visual language.

The result is often immediate and tactile: works that reward close looking and reveal more with every layer.

Explore the history, experimentation, and creative energy behind collage—and discover how artists continue to make the familiar feel new.

 

In the 1990s, Harlem was a vibrant center for dance experimentation, where street styles and formal performance traditions converged to create new forms of expression. The neighborhood's energy, rhythm, and spirit of innovation inspired artists across disciplines.

American sculptor Robert Cook shared a similar fascination with movement throughout his career. Renowned for his dynamic bronze figures, Cook captured the grace, balance, and spontaneity of dancers, athletes, and performers with remarkable sensitivity.

His connection to rhythm extended beyond sculpture—his son went on to become a jazz musician, continuing a family legacy rooted in movement, improvisation, and artistic expression.

Whether depicting dancers, athletes, or the fleeting movement of water, Cook's sculptures balance realism with a remarkable sense of vitality. For example, Giro d'Italia celebrates the speed and determination of competitive cycling.

Works such as Splash and Wind Gates reveal Cook's ability to find poetry in both natural forces and human experience, translating movement into dynamic bronze forms that feel alive from every angle.

Together, these sculptures showcase an artist deeply attuned to the beauty of motion and the stories it can tell. View these works and more here.

For more than five decades, Don Totten has created vibrant abstract works inspired by the light, landscape, and atmosphere of California.

Emerging alongside the California Abstract movement, his paintings reflect a thoughtful dialogue with the pioneering work of artists like Clyfford Still and Mark Rothko, while maintaining a distinctly personal approach to color, form, and space.

From the bold geometric compositions of Abstraction to the layered, architectural compositions of Construction, Totten builds paintings that are both carefully ordered and full of energy.

Viewed together, these series illuminate the continuity of Totten's practice: each body of work informing the next while opening new possibilities for abstraction.

Whether you're discovering Don Totten's work for the first time or returning to a longtime favorite, this collection offers a glimpse into the career of an artist whose work remains as fresh, thoughtful, and engaging today as ever.

We invite you to explore the collection here and contact us for additional information or to arrange a private viewing. We look forward to helping you discover the work of Don Totten.

Discover a selection of works by a European master of abstract sculpture, Antoine Poncet. He worked alongside his mentor and colleague Jean Arp, and whether it was bronze or marble, he set a high watermark standard.

A Swiss sculptor, his work was widely collected and exhibited across Europe, the United States and internationally in major museums, public spaces and private collections.

Interesting note: Poncet was Ossip Zadkine’s pupil before becoming Jean Arp’s assistant from 1953 to 1955.

For more than half a century, Antoine Poncet devoted his practice to refining sculpture into its purest expression—creating elegant forms that evoke movement, nature, and the human spirit.

These works offer a glimpse into his enduring exploration of balance, rhythm, and organic abstraction.

Whether experienced in an intimate interior or a monumental outdoor setting, his works invite contemplation through their refined elegance and enduring sense of movement.

For more than four decades, Zinsser has refined a distinctive approach to abstraction, creating paintings that are at once bold, meditative, and deeply material.

Built through countless layers of paint, each canvas possesses an extraordinary physical presence—surfaces that shift with changing light and reward repeated viewing.

Drawing inspiration from the textures and colors of New York's urban landscape, Zinsser transforms the familiar into something unexpectedly luminous.

His paintings strike a rare balance between spontaneity and control, making them equally compelling from across the room and up close.

Collectors have long recognized the enduring appeal of Zinsser's work.

His paintings are held in major museum collections, including Yale University's Richard Brown Baker Collection, the Sammlung Goetz in Munich, the Mint Museum, and the Wadsworth Atheneum.

His work has also been exhibited extensively throughout the United States and Europe, earning a reputation for its consistency, sophistication, and lasting relevance.

Mimi Herbert (b. 1936) is an acclaimed American painter and sculptor whose career spans more than five decades. Associated with the Washington Color School, she first gained recognition for her bold explorations of color, form, and shaped acrylic.

For over 50 years, Herbert has explored the powerful emblem of the flag. Her formed flags reinterpret this patriotic symbol to transcend its traditional meaning — challenging viewers to explore the flag’s role as a visual symbol.

Over time, Herbert has continued to innovate, creating luminous resin works and powerful reinterpretations of iconic imagery, including the American flag. Her work is held in major museum collections, reflecting a lifelong commitment to experimentation and artistic evolution. At 90, she is still actively forming in her Virginia studio.

Today, Herbert’s practice remains vibrant and fearless — a testament to an artist continually refining her voice and vision.

COLLECTIONS:

- National Gallery of Art, East Building, Washington, DC
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
- Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
- Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT
- The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
- The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
- Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, TN
- JPMorgan Chase Art Collection
- Public and private national and international collections

Caio Fonseca's paintings occupy a space between music and abstraction. Built from confident lines, layered color, and carefully balanced compositions, his works evoke rhythm and movement while leaving room for personal interpretation.

Rather than depicting the world around us, Fonseca creates visual experiences that unfold gradually, rewarding closer attention with every viewing.

Pietrasanta C03.17 represents a particularly significant work within Caio Fonseca’s celebrated body of abstraction.

Selected for INVENTIONS: Recent Paintings by Caio Fonseca, the artist’s 2004–2005 retrospective at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the painting reflects the distinctive visual language that has established Fonseca as a leading figure in contemporary abstraction—making it an especially compelling work for collectors.

Whether viewed individually or together, these works reveal Fonseca's enduring exploration of harmony, balance, and the expressive potential of abstraction.

Their layered surfaces and rhythmic structures invite repeated viewing, offering something new with each encounter.