Description
Dynamic abstract oil on board painting executed in 1959 in the spirit of the New York School, presenting a powerful horizontal composition dominated by saturated cobalt and ultramarine blues with passages of turquoise, charcoal, ivory, and flashes of yellow and red. Broad, gestural brushstrokes and assertive linear elements animate the surface, while scraped passages of pigment and layered paint create a tactile, improvisational quality characteristic of late-1950s Abstract Expressionism. The central form suggests a reclining blue bull, an evocative motif that invites symbolic interpretation—particularly compelling when viewed through the lens of postwar American optimism and the mythology of the rising market economy. For collectors with ties to finance or the New York Stock Exchange, the image’s latent bullish energy offers a poetic nod to prosperity and momentum, filtered through the expressive language of modernist abstraction. Balanced between figuration and pure gesture, the painting reflects a moment when artists working in and around New York were pushing abstraction toward more structural and iconic forms while retaining emotional immediacy. Signed and dated “J. St. ’59” in the lower left, the work reads as a confident studio piece from the height of the postwar avant-garde. A strong and atmospheric example of mid-century American abstraction—ideal for collectors of New York School–influenced painting, postwar modernism, and expressive works that bridge symbolic imagery with gestural form. Custom framed with a linen matte board and archival glass. Acquired from the estate of an art collector in the Bloom Field Hills / Cranbrook area of Michigan.
