Oswaldo Vigas - Latin America New York Tuesday, November 21, 2017 | Phillips
  • Provenance

    Private Collection, Caracas (acquired from the artist)
    Acquired from the above by the present owner circa 1987



    We are grateful to the Vigas Foundation for their kind assistance in cataloguing this work.

  • Catalogue Essay

    One of the most prominent Latin American modernist painters and a seminal figure in the cultural formation of Venezuela’s visual arts, the self-taught Oswaldo Vigas saw himself as a medium: “Our continent is full of dark signs and warnings. Telluric signs, magic, or exorcisms are deep components of our condition… The intention of my painting is to reach them, interpret them, and translate them into new warnings.” Vigas is known for exploring and synthesizing various modernist styles in his pursuit of giving his intangible and mystical subject matter corporal form. He divined new approaches from his travels between Europe and the American continent. Upon encountering the raw power in Jackson Pollack’s atmospheric paintings, Vigas introduced sweeping and dripping black gestural marks into his own work. This 1963 work is particularly emblematic of this period in his artistic production where he combined American informalism with the European expressionism and cubism he had practiced alongside his mentor and friend Picasso as an active member of the Parisian avant-garde scene.

26

Untitled

signed and dated "Vigas 63" lower right
oil on canvas
19 5/8 x 39 1/4 in. (49.8 x 99.7 cm)
Painted in 1963.

Estimate
$60,000 - 80,000 

Contact Specialist
Kaeli Deane
Head of Department, Americas
New York
+1 212 940 1352

Latin America

New York Auction 21 November 2017