Phillip Callahan Pastel Drawing on Paper of Abstract Figure

Item Details

Pastel on paper

A pastel drawing on paper of an abstract figure by listed artist Phillip Callahan (1918-1991). This drawing depicts an expressive rendering of a woman in a flowing dress posed looking off-center with closed eyes. The form is rendered with smeared pastel and gestural marks that swirl together. This work is posthumously stamped with the artist signature to the lower left. The drawing is presented beneath layered matting.

Phillip Callahan was born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1918. By the age of eighteen his work had been exhibited in several galleries throughout New York. Callahan received his formal artistic training at the Worcester Institute of Fine Art in 1937 as well as the Advanced School of the Boston Museum of Fine Art. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris before World War II broke out. Callahan enlisted in the United States Army in February of 1941. After the war he returned to the United States and began studying at the Art Students League of New York. It was during this time that Callahan studied under Czech-American modernist painter, Vaclav Vytlacil (1892 – 1984). Callahan’s earlier works, remained ultimately realistic with slight abstraction. However, after studying in New York and Europe his work started to become abstraction. By the 1950s and 1960s his work became completely non-objective.

Condition

- minor scratches along the framework.

Dimensions

- measures frame; visible image measures: 6.25" W x 9.25" H.

Item #

18IND013-021