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Lot Essay
Painted when the artist was just 23 years old, this early canvas is an accomplished example of the abstract language that Brice Marden would investigate throughout his career. Muscular passages of dark paint sit alongside more calligraphic elements as the artist investigates the reverberation of light and dark forms and gestures. By placing planes of black paint upon white, and white brushstrokes over black, Marden challenged the traditional figure-ground relationship. The result is an arrangement of forms that radiate out from the center of the canvas, building up layer by layer before coming together in one complete whole. This composition also gives the work its title as quaquaversal is defined as ‘dipping from a center toward all points of the compass.’ Even at a young age, Marden had come to admire the architectural brushwork of Franz Kline and Willem de Kooning, yet he was determined to forge his own path, refusing to submit to their dominant ideology, and instead forging his own progressive artistic language. “I thought that’s really what it it’s about,” Marden said of his youth, “you’ve got to learn to paint like yourself” (B. Marden, quoted by G. Garrels, “Beholding Light and Experience: The Art of Brice Marden, in G. Garrels, Plane Image: A Brice Marden Retrospective, exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2006, p. 14).
One of his earliest abstract paintings, Quaquaversals was painted in 1961, the year the artist began his MFA degree at Yale University. Here, alongside fellow students Robert Mangold, Richard Serra and Vija Celmins, his professors included Jack Tworkov and Estaban Vincente. Before starting at Yale, he spent much of the summer at the university’s Summer School of Music and Art in Norfolk, Connecticut “That was a fantastic summer,” he recalled, “…extending my painting vocabulary: I painted whatever I wanted and felt no restrictions” (B. Marden, quoted by F. Pietropaolo, “Chronology,” ibid., p. 289). Inscribed ‘Yale Norfolk’ on the reverse, this work was probably painted during this memorable summer, when Marden began to free himself of the vestiges of his earlier figurative paintings and embark on his journey into abstraction.
Quaquaversals was gifted by the artist to Fred Sergenian, in whose family it has remained ever since. Growing up, Sergenian was Marden’s neighbor and the father of his best friend. An artist himself, the older painter was a mentor to Marden and helped to nurture his artistic ambitions "When I was a senior in high school and decided somewhat abruptly that I wanted to be a painter," says Marden, "he [Sergenian] kept my parents relatively calm" (B. Marden, quoted by B. Isenberg, “For Marden, Seeing is Creating," Los Angeles Times, October 15, 2006, via www.articles.latimes.com [accessed 1/24/2018]). Marden recalled, “[Sergenian] was a big influence…. He still painted… He was like head of the art department at Young and Rubicam for a long time. And he would tell stories about when he was a student and studying with the Ashcan School people…. He was always very encouraging, especially when I was at art school” (B. Marden, quoted by F. Pietropaolo, op. cit., p. 288). Indeed, Marden recalls how Sergenian encouraged his interest in abstract expressionism by giving him a subscription to the magazine Art News when he went to college. He was soon hooked: "I think I always wanted to be an abstract artist. Art News was the abstract expressionist trade rag, and I was primed" (B. Marden, quoted by B. Isenberg, op. cit.).
One of his earliest abstract paintings, Quaquaversals was painted in 1961, the year the artist began his MFA degree at Yale University. Here, alongside fellow students Robert Mangold, Richard Serra and Vija Celmins, his professors included Jack Tworkov and Estaban Vincente. Before starting at Yale, he spent much of the summer at the university’s Summer School of Music and Art in Norfolk, Connecticut “That was a fantastic summer,” he recalled, “…extending my painting vocabulary: I painted whatever I wanted and felt no restrictions” (B. Marden, quoted by F. Pietropaolo, “Chronology,” ibid., p. 289). Inscribed ‘Yale Norfolk’ on the reverse, this work was probably painted during this memorable summer, when Marden began to free himself of the vestiges of his earlier figurative paintings and embark on his journey into abstraction.
Quaquaversals was gifted by the artist to Fred Sergenian, in whose family it has remained ever since. Growing up, Sergenian was Marden’s neighbor and the father of his best friend. An artist himself, the older painter was a mentor to Marden and helped to nurture his artistic ambitions "When I was a senior in high school and decided somewhat abruptly that I wanted to be a painter," says Marden, "he [Sergenian] kept my parents relatively calm" (B. Marden, quoted by B. Isenberg, “For Marden, Seeing is Creating," Los Angeles Times, October 15, 2006, via www.articles.latimes.com [accessed 1/24/2018]). Marden recalled, “[Sergenian] was a big influence…. He still painted… He was like head of the art department at Young and Rubicam for a long time. And he would tell stories about when he was a student and studying with the Ashcan School people…. He was always very encouraging, especially when I was at art school” (B. Marden, quoted by F. Pietropaolo, op. cit., p. 288). Indeed, Marden recalls how Sergenian encouraged his interest in abstract expressionism by giving him a subscription to the magazine Art News when he went to college. He was soon hooked: "I think I always wanted to be an abstract artist. Art News was the abstract expressionist trade rag, and I was primed" (B. Marden, quoted by B. Isenberg, op. cit.).