Portrait of a Woman in a Black Dress
20th Century Oil
#C6452
$4,500
Hubert Crehan
This mid to late 20th century oil on canvas is by Bay Area Abex/Figurative painter and critic Hubert Vincent Crehan (1917-1984). This particular piece clearly shows the influence of the artist's friend and mentor, Alice Neel, on his style during these mid 1960s years. Crehan studied under Clyfford Still and Mark Rothko in San Francisco at the California School of Fine Arts (also known as SFAI) in the late 1940s. He was closely mentored by Still during those two years. Soon after graduating, he moved to New York and exhibited alongside Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Robert Motherwell at the now legendary 1954 Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture at the Stable Gallery. In the 1960s, his second career as an art critic reached its zenith as he interviewed and reviewed shows for Marcel Duchamp, Robert Rauschenberg, and Willem de Kooning, among many others. His friendship with Alice Neel resulted in a portrait she painted of him in 1961. Yet, in spite of all this, Hubert Crehan’s work has gone largely unseen for the past sixty years. At some point in the 1960s, his focus shifted to a more reliable career for a family man—reviewing art for the leading magazines of the day—and his canvases were rolled up and shipped back to family in California, not to be seen again until now.
Mid-Late 20th Century
Oil on Canvas
38"x48" framed
Estate stamped on back. Framed in the restored original artist-built lath wood frame. Good vintage condition.
