1004Mark Tobey (American, 1890-1976). Self-Portrait - pastel on paper mounted on board, 1926. Signed and dated on lower right. A striking pastel self-portrait by American modernist Mark Tobey that dates to 1926 when the artist was 36 years old. Tobey created the portrait during a period that he called his Cornish School period, because Tobey taught at the Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle from 1922 to 1930. The composition presents Tobey in profile, half-length, and sitting with his elbows upon a desk or table that is furnished with books and two glass bottles. Tobey looks slightly downward with his hands raised before his visage. All is delineated in a colorful, perhaps Fauvist-influenced palette predominantly featuring shades of blue and green with salmon pink, lemon yellow, and white providing a glow in the background and also highlighting the pages of the books on the table. Size: 29.375" L x 23.125" W (74.6 cm x 58.7 cm) Size of frame: 35.625" L x 29.125" W (90.5 cm x 74 cm)

Mark Tobey made significant contributions to the development of abstraction in mid-century modernism. A recent exhibition entitled, "Mark Tobey: Threading Light" held at the Addison Gallery of American Art (November 4, 2017 - March 11, 2018) is giving the artist well-deserved kudos for his lyrical calligraphic renderings and a technique he called "white writing" demonstrated in the gouache and watercolor composition also featured in this auction. According to the Addison Gallery, "One of the foremost American artists to emerge from the 1940s, a decade that saw the rise of abstract expressionism, Mark Tobey (1890–1976) is recognized as a vanguard figure whose 'white-writing' anticipated the formal innovations of New York School artists such as Jackson Pollock. When Tobey first displayed his paintings composed of intricate, pale webs of delicate lines in New York in 1944, he generated much interest with his daring 'all-over' compositions that eliminated narrative and three-dimensional space but retained references to the human figure."

Indeed, while some have compared Tobey's compositions to the mature works of Jackson Pollock, since they present similar animated matrix-like patterns, it is true that Tobey's work actually predated Pollock's. According to the "Mark Tobey Advance of History" essay published on the Guggenheim Museum's website, "Although the development of allover compositions in abstract painting is often associated with Pollock, Tobey in fact exhibited works without compositional focus or orientation as early as 1944, two years before Pollock made his first allover painting."

Mark Tobey's work may be found in the permanent collections of major art museums throughout the world, and he has been the recipient of many important honors, including winning first prize for painting at the Venice Biennale in 1958. In addition, retrospectives of his work have been held at such esteemed institutions as the Seattle Art Museum (1959); Pasadena Art Museum (1960); Musee des Arts Decoratifs (Palais du Louvre) (1961); Art Institute Chicago (1963); Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (1968); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, Spain (1998); and Addison Gallery of American Art (2017-2018).

Provenance: private Los Angeles, California, USA collection

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#167822

The artwork has not been examined outside the frame but appears to be very good save some waviness that is difficult to discern through the glass. The piece is signed and dated at the lower right. The frame shows separation at the mitered corners with visible nails and expected surface wear commensurate with age.