Jack Kerouac's Personally Owned Painting by Friend & Artist Stanley Twardowicz, Impeccable Provenance

Jack Kerouac was gifted this superb original oil by his friend and artist, Stanley Twardowicz. Titled  "Night Wash", and an alternate title of "Memere's Wash", the size of the art is 24" x 36" (by sight), and with the frame  25" x 37". Signed lower right by Stanley Twardowicz as "Stanley-45". Kerouac's social milieu included more than the literary circles, and he would hang out at the Artist's Club,  the Cedar Bar, the San Remo Café, favorite hangouts of the New York School Painters of the 1940s and 1950s. Jack had friends among the Abstract Expressionist painters and spent time in the studios of Frans Kline, Willem De Kooning, Stanley Twardowicz and (of course) Dodie Mueller. The piece will be accompanied by a Photocopy of a letter Kerouac wrote to Stanley about this painting (transcribed in part below and dated October 5, 1964), in addition to a photograph of the painting as hung in the Kerouac house. He writes in part "Your painting, 'Night Wash,' otherwise known as 'Memere's Wash', is a big hit down here. Everyone that (who?) comes in the house comments on it. 'Everyone who'-- The tints of dark brown, pale green, strange pastel blue mingle perfect with the 'sea sand' paint on the livingroom walls. Over the piano. A marvelous combination of colors and pastels that I hope you will see when and if you ever get down here … " 

Provenance: This piece will be accompanied by our Certificate of Authentication as well as an estate certification signed by John Shen-Sampas, executer of the Kerouac Estate. John Shen-Sampas is the son of John Sampas, friend and brother-in-law of Jack Kerouac, and the brother of Stella Kerouac, Jack’s wife.

Kerouac writes an incredible, long and revealing letter to Stanley about both the painting, but also his everyday life in 1964 of booze, womanizing, pool games and brawls, the photocopy of the letter is shown only in part below:

"… I've regained my stick down here. I mean my cue stick. I've played pool at regulation size table in about 30 different joints and nobody can beat me … I have a blonde lined up, but she had 3 kids, no husband anymore, divorce… Tell Shotwell I've drunk 16 other quarts of Johnnie Walker since he kindly gifted me with a going away bottle. That I'm laying off Scotch now,  because makes my heart flutter, and I have switched to Courvoisier brandy (cognac) (of France) … altho I still johnnyswiggle with beer, boilermakers … Going Friday night to the fraternity, will be drunk long before game time. Will bring flasks to the game … "

About the Artist:

Stanley Twardowicz (1917–2008), a one-time orphan, Golden Gloves boxer, professional baseball player and auto worker, emerged from a hardscrabble upbringing in Detroit to become a popular and improbable denizen of New York’s Cedar Tavern, the flash pan of Abstract Expressionism in the 1950s. He landed on the cover of Art in America’s “New Talent Annual, 1958.” It was one highlight of an impressive run that included a 1956 Guggenheim Fellowship, group shows at the Whitney and Guggenheim museums, The Art Institute of Chicago, Carnegie Institute, and The Museum of Modern Art. The latter trumpeted its acquisition of a Twardowicz canvas in 1956 and later bought six of his photographs. His works are in the collection of numerous American institutions including, The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH; Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME; Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA; Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Milwaukee Art Museum, WI; Museum of Modern Art, NY; Newark Museum, NJ; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., and others. Twardowicz was the subject of a monographic exhibition at Hirschl & Adler Modern in 2012 entitled Stanley Twardowicz in the 1950s and 1960s, and an Art Kabinett at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2015.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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