Items Similar to Ron Gorchov Mid Century Modern Self Portrait Signed painting abstract figuration
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 12
Ron GorchovRon Gorchov Mid Century Modern Self Portrait Signed painting abstract figuration1959
1959
$18,200
$28,00035% Off
£13,916.04
£21,409.2935% Off
€15,940.93
€24,524.5035% Off
CA$25,669.37
CA$39,491.3435% Off
A$27,938.11
A$42,981.7135% Off
CHF 14,929.13
CHF 22,967.8935% Off
MX$337,385.85
MX$519,055.1535% Off
NOK 187,622.64
NOK 288,650.2135% Off
SEK 174,510.88
SEK 268,478.2835% Off
DKK 119,086.20
DKK 183,209.5435% Off
About the Item
Ron Gorchov
Historic Self Portrait, 1955-1959
Oil painting on board
Hand signed in paint on the upper recto and dated 1955-9
Frame included: held in original vintage artist's frame
This work was exhibited at the Sager Reeves Gallery in Columbia, Missouri in their Masters Exhibit in December, 2022, and is reproduced as a full page in their exhibition catalogue. A copy of this catalogue accompanies the artwork.
In 2019, the year before Ron Gorchov passed away, Stephen Truax, director of Cheim
Read, his then gallery, passed along details of this extraordinary painting to Gorchov's studio to be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonne. When shown the work, Gorchov remembered it well, but was amazed that the painting was still in existence after so many years. This historic early self-portrait, done over a period of four years, from 1955-1959, starting when he was only 25 years old reveals Gorchov's distinctive and sophisticated sense of color and form. This is one of the artist's earliest works, and very few works by Gorchov from this era ever appear on the market or are known to remain in existence. It should be in any museum or career retrospective. This work was gifted by the artist to Elthea Rembrandt Peale Florman in NYC in 1959 - the year Gorchov won a prestigious Ingram Merrill Foundation award. Elthea was also an artist, and came from a long line of American artists. She was immersed in the art scene in NYC until she went to art school in Tennessee. The painting was given to her by Ron Gorchov and remained in Ms. Florman's collection until her passing, whereupon it was bequeathed to her descendants.
Measurements:
Framed 31 inches by 25 inches
Board 30 by 20 inches
Provenance:
Elthea Rembrandt Peale Florman
By descent to the present owner
More about Ron Gorchov
“My paintings are mostly made from reverie, and luck.”
— Ron Gorchov from interview with Robert Storr and Phong Bui, September 2006
Born in Chicago in 1930, Ron Gorchov was an American artist known for his curved surface artworks. The artist helped spearhead the shaped canvas movement. With his bowed wooden frames stretched with linen or canvas, he uniquely bridged sculpture and abstract painting.
Gorchov’s oil-on-linen paintings pair one or two biomorphic colored shapes with differently colored backgrounds. The patterns of these paintings resemble living organisms, telling the story of the beginning of a certain formative state. These questions of form and existence materialize through the use of bold brushstrokes, providing chromatic contrasts.
The artist hung the work on a shaped canvas stretcher that is at once concave and convex, similar to shields or saddles. Gorchov utilized the curved shape’s ability to catch the viewers’ immediate attention faster than the traditional rectangle. While the paintings themselves play with symmetry and asymmetry, the warped edges of Gorchov’s canvases create new dimensions and depth, disorienting the perception of the audience.
Gorchov’s distinctive and assertive saddle-like stretchers were created in the late 1960s as an alternative to the pervasive Greenbergian formalism of the time, evidenced in the dominance of minimalist sculpture. He created his first shaped canvas work in Mark Rothko’s studio. He belongs to a generation of artists in New York in the 1960s and 70s that includes Frank Stella, Richard Tuttle, Blinky Palermo, and Ellsworth Kelly, who pushed painting to its extreme. Gorchov was unique in his ability to unite form and content while preserving their tensions.
Following his first solo exhibition at New York’s Tibor de Nagy Gallery in 1960, Gorchov’s artworks have since been exhibited at prominent museums and galleries around the world. His works have been shown in New York at The Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, MoMA PS1, Queens Museum of Art, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art. He has also been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis (‘14) and at the Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (‘11). Recent solo exhibitions include Cheim
Read, New York (’22, ’21, ’19, ‘17, ‘12); Maruani Mercier, Brussels (’19, ’18, ’17); Modern Art, London (’19); Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin (’18); Thomas Brambilla, Bergamo (’18, ‘15); and Vito Schnabel Gallery, New York (‘21, ’16, ’13, ’08, ‘05).
"Ron Gorchov’s paintings are among the most fully and graciously embodied being made today. They engage our whole bodies from our first encounter with them and sustain this engagement over time. You have to move to see them, and when you move, they come alive. With one’s whole body involved, the mind is also free to move, and does.”
—David Levi Strauss
“In Ron Gorchov’s paintings we find the argument that he created for himself is his poetic flight, and within the argument of lightness (his imagery) and weightiness (his structure) there arises his fine balance that truly obscures the differences between form and content. He is painting-in-between.”
—Phong Bui
- Creator:Ron Gorchov (1930 - 2020, American)
- Creation Year:1959
- Dimensions:Height: 31 in (78.74 cm)Width: 25 in (63.5 cm)Depth: 1 in (2.54 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement Style:
- Period:
- Condition:Good vintage condition; the painting is loose in the original board and there s some loss all around the edges (see photos) otherwise good stable condition. This is an absolutely unique and historic piece. It should be in any museum retrospective.
- Gallery Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU1745215018732
Ron Gorchov
Born in Chicago in 1930, Ron Gorchov has lived and worked in New York City since the early 1950s. Following a first solo show at New York’s Tibor de Nagy Gallery in 1960, Gorchov has since exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, P.S.1., Queens Museum of Art, New Museum of Contemporary Art, and Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno among other institutions. Gorchov was part of a group of artists working in Manhattan in the 1960s and 70s that was responding to the concept of “Action Painting” as defined by Harold Rosenberg, a concept that purported to demolish pictorial conventions and held as suspect the notions of facility and harmonious composition. His work shows an affinity with that of Arshile Gorky (Gorchov was at one point affiliated with Gorky’s mentor John D. Graham), Joel Shapiro and Richard Tuttle. He was a mentor to Willem de Kooning and friendly with Mark Rothko.
About the Seller
5.0
Gold Seller
Premium sellers maintaining a 4.3+ rating and 24-hour response times
Established in 2007
1stDibs seller since 2022
468 sales on 1stDibs
Typical response time: 1 hour
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Shipping from: New York, NY
- Return Policy
More From This Seller
View AllRon Gorchov Mid Century Modern Abstract Expressionist painting on paper Signed
By Ron Gorchov
Located in New York, NY
Ron Gorchov
Untitled early 1960s Abstract Expressionist work, 1962
Ink and watercolor painting on paper
Signed and dated in black ink lower left recto
Frame included:
elegantly floa...
Category
1960s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink, Watercolor
Untitled Figure signed numbered mixed media print from scarce European portfolio
By George McNeil
Located in New York, NY
George McNeil
Untitled Figure, 1986
Lithograph on paper. Publisher's and Printer's Blind
Stamps
Hand-signed, numbered 78/84 and dated by the artist on the front with publisher's and...
Category
1980s Abstract Expressionist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph, Screen, Pencil
Spirit, unique abstract painting by daughter of MOMA founder, Fischbach Gallery
Located in New York, NY
Victoria Barr
Spirit, 1974
Crayon on Paper
Signed and dated lower right front
Frame included
Provenance: Fischbach Gallery, New York, NY
This bright, abstract 1970s artwork was created by Victoria Barr, daughter of the legendary developer of the Museum of Modern Art, Alfred H. Barr. There is a Fischbach Gallery label on the back of the frame. The Fischbach Gallery was, for many years, the gallery of record for the American artist Alex Katz. It is not easy finding Barr's work on the market at this time.
Measurements:
Framed:
23 inches x 29.5 inches x .5 inches
Artwork:
23 inches x 29 inches
Victoria Barr was born in New York, NY, in 1937 to the legendary MOMA curator and art historian Alfred H. Barr, Jr. and art historian Margaret Scolari Barr. Barr often traveled to Europe with her parents from the age of 14 onwards, meeting influential artists like Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Marc Chagall and collectors like Peggy Guggenheim. For high school, she went to Milton Academy...
Category
1970s Abstract Abstract Paintings
Materials
Oil Crayon, Graphite
Early Signed, two sided figurative painting with portraits by renowned painter
By Alfred Jensen
Located in New York, NY
Alfred Jensen
Untitled two sided painting, 1947
2-sided gouache painting on board (one portrait is vertical; the other horizontal)
29 × 23 7/20 inches
Signed and dated in paint on th...
Category
Mid-20th Century Modern Portrait Paintings
Materials
Oil, Gouache
Portico, painting on masonite, Signed, Estate of gallerist Andre Zarre, Framed
By Sonia Gechtoff
Located in New York, NY
Sonia Gechtoff
Untitled portico, from the estate of gallerist Andre Zarre, 1977
Acrylic and graphite on masonite
Signed and dated '77 in graphite on the front
Unique
Provenance: Acqu...
Category
1970s Abstract Abstract Paintings
Materials
Masonite, Acrylic, Graphite
Untitled
71 Abstract Expressionist drawing. Signed by renowned sculptor, Framed
Located in New York, NY
Anthony Padovano
Untitled Abstract Expressionist drawing, 1971
Ink wash on paper drawing
Signed and dated in ink wash
Unique
Original (unique) signed Abstract Expressionist ink wash ...
Category
1970s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink
You May Also Like
Stunning 1960
s Abstract Portrait of Young Man - Signed Oil
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Superb 1960's original oil painting depicting this head portrait of an abstract man. Unique image with dramatic and vivid brushwork.
The painting is signed by the 20th century Brit...
Category
Mid-20th Century Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings
Materials
Oil
$1,428 Sale Price
30% Off
Vintage Warren Fischer Figurative Abstract Painting on Canvas
By Warren Fischer
Located in Miami, FL
Vintage Warren Fischer figurative abstract painting on canvas
Offered for sale is a figurative abstract painting on canvas by the American artist Warren Fischer (1943-2001). The p...
Category
Late 20th Century American Modern Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Wood
$2,800 Sale Price
20% Off
Vintage Mid-Century Abstract Expressionist Portrait Painting on Canvas
Located in Seattle, WA
Vintage abstract expressionist portrait on canvas, featuring a stylized human face emerging from layers of intense red, orange, black, and yellow tones. The surface is heavily textur...
Category
Vintage 1970s Expressionist Paintings
Materials
Canvas
Gunnar Greiber, painting oil on canvas signed
Located in Paris, FR
Gunnar Greiber, painting oil on canvas signed
dimension 65X 81 cm with frame 80X96 cm
Good condition
Gunnar Fredrik Greiber, born 1919 in Stockholm, died 2011 in Stockholm, was a Sw...
Category
20th Century Swedish Contemporary Art
Materials
Paint
Original Contemporary Oil Portrait of Face by Larry Graeber
Located in West Palm Beach, FL
Original contemporary oil painting of Man's face by Larry Graeber.
Category
20th Century American Contemporary Art
Materials
Canvas, Paint
Pensive With Nosegay Mid Century Modern Oil Painting
Located in Lake Worth Beach, FL
Pensive with nosegay -
Painted in Berkeley CA. painting size 10x8 with frame 16x14x1
Jon (Corka) Cornin 1905-1992
Born in New York City on March 24, 1905, Jon Cornin studied in Ne...
Category
1950s American Modern Figurative Paintings
Materials
Masonite, Oil
More Ways To Browse
Signed Midcentury Painting
Bridge Sculpture
Levi Strauss
Blinky Palermo
Franco Zeffirelli
Franz Xaver Winterhalter
Indian Portrait Oil Painting
Oil Portrait General
Oil Portrait Irish
Portrait Of Woman 1970s
Portrait Xviii
Relax Sign
Titan Fine Art
Vincent Desiderio
50s British Art
Baron Oil Painting
Cadre Dore
Civil War Portrait