Charles Seliger

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Charles Seliger
1926-2009
Untitled
1955
Watercolor and pencil on paper.
5 3/4 x 4 inches (14.6 x 10.2 cm)
Gift of the Elaine Graham Weitzen Foundation for Fine Arts
2018.85
Notes: 

Charles Seliger has been associated with the abstract expressionist movement since the mid-1940s when his works were exhibited at Peggy Guggenheim's Gallery in New York. Throughout his career, his art relied heavily on chance --the automatism of the Surrealists--as a point of departure. He would then develop meticulous and intricate compositions influenced by his interest in natural sciences. The group of fourteen works on paper (2018.81 -- 2018.94) bequeathed to the Morgan by Elaine G. Weitzen, includes such imagery inspired by microscopic organic forms and environmental landscapes. The group also includes two portrait sketches of artists, one of Mark Tobey (2018.92), a close friend of Seliger's, the other of Henri Matisse (2018.81).

Inscription: 

Signed and dated "Seliger 6/17/55" (upper left).

Provenance: 
Elaine Graham Weitzen; Willard Gallery, New York City
Artist page: 
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