Lot description
Untitled signed and dated 'Nov 52 Ossorio' (verso) ink, watercolor and wax on paper 25 3/4" x 39 5⁄8" (64 cm x 100 cm) PROVENANCE The artist Galerie Beyeler, Basel, 1959 Cordier & Ekstrom Gallery, New York, 1969 Private collection, California Vanderwoude Tananbaum Gallery, New York Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1989 Alfonso Ossorio, one of the members of the cuttingedge Abstract Expressionists of the New York School, would actually draw heavily from Jean Dubuffet in producing this series of works. Liliane “Tats” Rejante Manahan would note in her essay, “Waxing Fantasies” in the catalogue of the landmark show “Afflictions of Glory” to mark Ossorio’s centennial, the importance of these rare pieces. "It was in Victorias (where he worked on the masterpiece “The Angry Christ”) where Ossorio’s experimentations with the wax-resist method developed to its full maturity, producing many drawings in wax, ink, watercolor, gouache and crayons on paper. Working in the evenings after painting the mural by day, Ossorio methodically layered hot wax on the drawing surface, or drew with a sharpened candle, then brushing a layer of water-based paint over it. The method relied on the incompatible properties of wax and water, making the paint disperse over the wax, creating spontaneous shapes and fractals … until it reached his artistic satisfaction. The wax-resist method became the signature technique of the Victorias drawings; and the themes of most of the drawings were largely fed by Ossorio’s tangled emotions.” This melange of experimental media would be celebrated by Dubuffet who produced an entire book on a selection of them. This powerful work of discordant colors and shapes still endures.
