Phillip Callahan Ink and Watercolor on Paper of Abstract Figural Portrait

Item Details

An ink and watercolor illustration on paper by listed American artist Phillip Callahan (1918–1991). The piece depicts an abstract sketch of a female figure in black lines and pale orange hues against an off-white ground, embellished with swirling purple lines and accents throughout. This work is posthumously stamped with the artist’s signature to the lower right. It is matted in black and presented unframed.

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 U.S. 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 tend toward abstraction. By the 1950s and 1960s his work became completely non-objective.

Condition

- slight toning to paper and matting; minor edge wear and scuffing to matting; unframed.

Dimensions

- measures matting; visible image measures 8.0″ × 10.5″ H.

Item #

18IND013-040