Friedel Dzubas (German/American, 1915-1994)

Untitled, No. 1
Unsigned, dated to 1978 in the Syracuse exhibition catalogue (see below).
Mixed media including fired clay, height 21 in. (53.4 cm), presented on a painted wood pedestal.
Condition: Small break to corner of one element.

Provenance: Thomas Segal Gallery to the current private collection, 1979.

Exhibitions: New Works in Clay II, Joe and Emily Lowe Art Gallery, Syracuse University, New York, December 10, 1978-January 17, 1979.

Literature: New Works in Clay II, exhibition catalogue (Syracuse, New York: Joe and Emily Lowe Art Gallery), p. 15, illus.

N.B. Most known for his colorful abstract paintings, Friedel Dzubas first experimented with sculpture when he and a few other artists were invited to Syracuse University during the fall of 1975 for a brief residency to create works in clay. The project was organized by ceramicist Marjorie Hughto, and the resulting works were shown in an exhibition on campus the following year. Dzubas would go on to show his clay works at Tibor de Nagy in New York during the fall of 1976, and in the group exhibitions Selections in Paper, Clay and Tapestry: Explorations in New Media at Thomas Segal Gallery in Boston in the spring of 1979 and Directions in Contemporary American Ceramics at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 1984. Dzubas translated the bold, painterly strokes of his canvases into the streaks of pigment that enliven this sculpture.

We would like to thank the Friedel Dzubas Estate Archives for their kind assistance with cataloguing this lot.

Condition: There are small brown spots of what seem to be accretion scattered across the surface of the two smallest panels, as well as the rounded piece. There is dust and dirt to the interstices. The scattered cracks and divets to the clay seem to be inherent the the artist's process.

Pedestal dimensions: 23 3/4 x 40 x 29 in.

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