Attributed to Alfonso A Ossorio, it does not have a COA. Medium: oil canvas, 33 x 27 inches. Provenance: private owner.
Biography: 1916 - 1990. Alfonso Ossorio in his painting showed his predilection for the art brut ("raw art") of the insane, criminals and children espoused by Jean Dubuffet who was a major influence on Ossorio from the age of thirty-three. For him, like many of his contemporaries, rational society, traditional art and existence failed to have meaning, which he sought in the darker avenues of the human spirit and the spontaneous, unpremeditated creations of innocence. Ossorio was also influenced by his friend Jackson Pollock, as well as Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso.Ossorio, the son of a wealthy sugar planter, was born in Manila, on the island of Luzon in the Philippines in 1916, becoming an American citizen in 1939. Educated in England and the United States, he studied at Harvard and the Rhode Island School of Design.Ossorio eventually moved from painting to sculptural assemblage or junk art, utilizing a wide variety of objects including toys, broken glass, skeletons and glass eyes. He called this gathering of objects "congregations."After the Second World War and his experiences in the medical corps, understandably resulting in morbid imagery, he began a study of religious iconography, which figured, in 1950, in a mural for the Church of St. Joseph in the Philippines.In 1951, he purchased an estate on Long Island where he redirected much of his artistic energy to the creation of a sculpture and botanical garden.Alfonso Ossorio died in 1990.His work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, New York University and Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Rose Art Museum, Waltham, Massachusetts; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford Connecticut; and Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.

All authorship of items in this catalog are described according to the following terms:

Signed [Artist Name] : In cases in which the signature is legible in the lot, this work is described as-is with no attributions given.

By [Artist Name] : The work is by the artist.

Attributed to [Artist Name] : The work may be ascribed to the artist on the basis of style, but there may be some question as to actual authorship.

In the manner of [Artist Name] : The work was executed by an unknown hand, but was designed deliberately to emulate the style of the artist.

After [Artist Name] : The work was executed by an unknown hand, but is a deliberate copy of a known work by the artist.

Circle of [Artist Name] : A work of the period of the artist showing his influence, closely associated with the artist but not necessarily his pupil.

Follower of [Artist Name]: A work by a pupil or a follower of the artist (not necessarily a pupil).

American, 19th century: This work was executed by an unknown hand, and can only be identified by origin (i.e., region, period).

Mint