Harold Frank (American born in England, 1921-1995). "Head on Green Background" painting/mixed media on board, n.d. Signed at lower right. A beautiful painting by Harold Frank depicting an Abstract-Expressionist rendering of a female before an emerald background (as noted in the title "Head on Green Background") using Frank's signature loose, rapid brushstrokes, lyrical contouring lines, and brilliant color palette. The ovoid visage displays distorted versions of idealized features: almond-shaped eyes blurred by bright smears of paint, gracefully arched brows that dramatically descend to an almost perfectly straight nose, and bowed lips with smudged corners. Frank has also interestingly included a wooden frame with red paint over a metallic silver hue as part of the piece. According to scholar Sandie Stern, "Like his idol de Kooning, Frank chose the human figure, as his principal subject. Variations on women became a lifelong, consistent, ubiquitous theme." (Stern, "H. Frank", p. 16) Size: 10.75" W x 17.25" H (27.3 cm x 43.8 cm)

Harold Frank immigrated with his family to the US through Ellis Island. Growing up in the tenements of the Lower East Side in New York City during the era of the Great Depression and World War II, Frank found Abstract Expressionism to be the ideal means to explore the angst of his world. He once stated, "I can live with the abstract. Life is a mystery."

Frank studied at the Art Students League in New York, the National Academy of Design, the Pratt Institute, the Chouinard Art Institute, and UCLA where he was a colleague of Richard Diebenkorn (American, 1922-1993), an artist who is oftentimes associated with Abstract Expressionism as well as a pioneer of the Bay Area Figurative Movement. In addition to Diebenkorn, Frank's influences include DeKooning, Picasso, Matisse, and Rouault. While he also created landscapes, non-objective abstract compositions, and still-life paintings, figures and head studies were the predominant theme of his oeuvre.

For more about Harold Frank, see Sandie Stern's monograph "Harold Frank Abstract Expressionist 1921-1995" (2001).

Provenance: private Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA collection, acquired via descent, purchased June 25, 1973

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#174794

Signed at lower right. Possible chipping to paint on lower periphery. Three labels with title on verso. Otherwise, painting is in excellent overall condition.