Clarence White, b. 1946, Natural Abstraction Series II, No. 50

Lot description

Clarence White b. 1946 Natural Abstraction Series II, No. 50 2021 acrylic and maple tree seed pods on canvas 24 x 12 x 2 inches signed, titled and dated verso Clarence White is an abstract and conceptual artist. His layered and textured paintings, begun in 2019, feature maple tree seed pods dispersed over the entire surface. The pods, aerodynamic and fish-like, swirl and float as random vectors in a dynamic and fluid painted space that shows the marks of gestural handiwork throughout. Mind and eye are absorbed as the vibrant fish-like vectors stimulate multiple paths of focus, and as many points in the painting compete for the observer’s attention. The artist’s earlier work, dating from 1998, features the spiral form—rarely seen in modern and contemporary art— of Chinese wisteria seed pods in sprawling as well as compact assemblages and in three-dimensional paintings. This earlier artwork embodies stillness and movement in paradoxical tension. Born in 1946 In Ellaville, Georgia USA, he has been consistently involved in the visual arts in Chicago and Atlanta since the early 1970s. His interest in art began in 1968 when as an exchange student in Paris he took a course in modern art history taught before the collection at the National Museum of Modern Art (now Centre Pompidou) by curator Michel Hoog. He had a career in banking in Chicago after completing a BA degree in economics and French at Morehouse College and an MBA degree at Northwestern University. A self-taught painter, he has been a gallery owner, contemporary art museum activist, collector, curator, and art critic. White is a devout outdoorsman and nature enthusiast. His ancestors were sawmillers and tree farmers, and he was reared on a farm that included tree farming and harvesting. The seeds in his paintings are gathered from the landscape of the 10-acre subdivision in Southwest Atlanta where he lives, much of which he planted over 35 years ago.