JOACHIM PROBST
Two Motifs (from Campbell Series).
Two oil on canvases, 1971. Each 435x435 mm; 17x17 inches. Each signed, titled, dated and inscribed "84A" or "98A" in oil, verso.Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.Probst (1913-1980) was an East Village, New York mainstay during the ascent of Abstract Expressionism, a bohemian artist whose friends included Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline. Probst's work pursued two distinct paths, one was figurative expressionism in which he portrayed Biblical and spiritual themes, albeit not subject driven, the other was purely non-objective. The latter evidently had some influence on Kline, their relationship is repeatedly noted by Probst in his extensive private journal, discovered after his death, and evidenced by Kline's seminal Abstract Expressionist oil painting, Probst I, 1960, now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.