Artnet – Spotlight On Shara Hughes & Friedel Dzubas’ Landscapes
Spotlight on Gestural Landscapes
GEMS: Collecting Post-War Abstraction
Artnet’s GEMS: Collecting Post-War Abstraction, curated by Dakota Sica, is currently live until February 22. The sale features a range of artists synonymous with AbEx and Color Field painting, including historically-overlooked figures now gaining well-deserved recognition across institutions and in the marketplace.
Abstraction is a general term to classify an artwork which does not present an accurate depiction of reality, its practice is believed to have grown from Cubism. However, some abstract artworks are built from gestures inspired by a chosen subject in real life.
Two excellent examples of this are Shara Hughes’s Teal Walkway (2015) and Friedel Dzubas’s Past Summer (1982), which are both inspired by the landscape genre. Neither painting is influenced by the artist’s direct observations of their subject matter, but rather, the works are the result of a formalized process, unique to each artist. Read on to dive deeper into the works.
Shara Hughes, Teal Walkway, 2015
Est. $25,000—35,000
Shara Hughes‘s 2015 painting, Teal Walkway, is inspired by an imagined scene and exhibits a playful use of color. The short-brushed and scribbled bursts in the painting are gesturally abstracted, while leaving enough representational elements to allow access for the viewer.
Hughes doesn’t adhere to the plein-air painting tradition or focus on studying landscapes. Instead, she conjures the landscape only as a starting framework, which becomes the artist’s point of departure from tradition. Shara Hughes is among the most sought-after artists in the contemporary sector, generating nearly 200 Price Database searches each month.
Friedel Dzubas, Past Summer, 1982
Est. $100,000—150,000
Past Summer (1982) is a striking mid-sized work by Friedel Dzubas. Characterized by his distinct lozenge-shaped color swaths, Dzubas alludes to landscape and the natural phenomena of a the magnificent sky. Through a blend of brushing and scrubbing techniques on the acrylic surface, Dzubas creates colorscapes that contrast with the bold impasto colors.
Dzubas’s artistic process was to first work out his composition in smaller scale paintings, which he termed as “sketches”. The larger completed works would adhere entirely to these sketches yet still appear gestural and convey a sense of motion, often with the larger color passages gradually fading away.
It has been noted that Dzubas primed his canvases sparingly, as he was committed to applying his colored Magna paint with a clear purpose, knowing that once it was laid, there would be minimal opportunity for further manipulation. Dzubas is most renowned for his contributions to Post-Painterly Abstraction, a convergence of abstraction and Color Field painting. His work has been a cornerstone of past GEMS auctions.
Don’t miss your chance to acquire these stellar paintings in GEMS: Collecting Post-War Abstraction. Past Summer (1982) and Teal Walkway ( 2015) are both available for bidding, alongside many other coveted paintings, before the lots start to close at 12pm ET on February 22.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out directly to the head of this sale, Jason Rulnick, Senior International Specialist, Post-War & Contemporary Art, with any questions.
Other Works
Live for Bidding in GEMS: Collecting Post-War Abstraction
Georges Mathieu, L’amour acre, 1989
Est. $120,000–180,000
