(Massachusetts/California, born 1948)
Charge, 1986, signed lower right "David Brega", oil on masonite, 25 x 15 in.; 19th century gilt wood frame, commissioned from Lowy, New York,. Notes: David Brega is recognized today as one of the country’s foremost contemporary painters of still life. Throughout his forty-year career, he has carved out a specialty in trompe l'oeil and is considered by many to be one of the best practitioners working in this genre today.
Brega studied at Paier College of Art in Hamden, Connecticut and both the San Francisco Art Institute and the Los Angeles Trade Technical College in California.
It was at Paier College of Art where David met the pivotal figure in his career, his teacher Ken Davies, the premier trompe l’oeil and still life painter of the twentieth century. In a 1986 interview with Anita Shreve for Connoisseur Magazine, Ken Davies named David Brega as his most successful student.
David’s first solo exhibition in NewYork, was held at the Alexander Gallery in 1986. This exhibition sold out within fifteen minutes of its opening, catapulting David into one of the largest collections of American art in the world, the Manoogian Collection. Brega's works from this collection were recently included in "The American Spirit: Selections from the Manoogian Collection" at the Vero Beach Museum of Art.
A second solo show followed in 1991 titled, “Please Do Not Touch.”
In 2000, the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts mounted a twenty-five year retrospective exhibition of David’s work, together with the watercolors of his brother, Douglas. The retrospective, titled “Oil and Water,” traveled to the Albrecht-Kemper Museum in St. Joseph, Missouri in 2001. In 2003 Vose Galleries of Boston hosted a solo show for David titled “Eyeful.”
David has since been represented in more than fifty group shows across the country and abroad. His work is in permanent collections at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri and the Abrecht-Kemper Museum in St. Joseph, Missouri as well as the Williamson Art Museum in Liverpool, England.
“Charge” was requested by David Brega for his retrospective exhibition [Coming Home] held at the North River Arts Society in November 2009. The lot is accompanied by loan documents for that exhibition.
Exhibited: [David Brega and Douglas Brega: Oil & Water], Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts, September 20-December 31, 2000 and the Albrecht-Kemper Museum, St. Joseph, Missouri, March 2-June 6, 2001; North River Arts Society, Marshfield Hills, Massachusetts, [Coming Home: A Retrospective], November 23, 2009-January 15, 2010. Provenance: Alexander Gallery, New York; West Foundation; Estate of Marjorie and Charles West

good condition; frame with wear as intended