Untitled, Surreal landscape with door and two owls in a tree, oil on thin board, signed lower left and dated '69. Provenance: This small painting was gifted to the consigner by a descendent of a prominent Mexican family who owned and operated a resort outside of Mexico City, where many artists of renown vacationed in the 50s and 60s.
Overall size: 8 x 10 in.
Sight size: 4 1/4 x 6 1/4 in.
Painting size: 5 x 7 in.
Gertrude Abercrombie was an American painter known for her modestly scaled Surrealist works. Born in Austin, Texas, her parents worked for an opera company that traveled around America and Europe. The family eventually settled in Chicago, where Abercrombie went on to study languages at the University of Illinois and attended classes at the School of the Art Institute Chicago.
She painted many variations through the years of her favored subjects: sparsely furnished interiors, barren landscapes, and self-portraits. Abercrombie argued that technique was not as important as ideas and developed a style emulating Naive artists. She took little interest in other artists' work, although she admired Rene Magritte. Largely self-taught, Abercrombie did not regard her lack of extensive formal training as a hindrance. She said of her work, "I am not interested in complicated things nor in the commonplace. My work comes directly from my inner consciousness and it must come easily. It is a process of selection and reduction."
During the 1930s, Abercrombie became friends with several jazz musicians including Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, and often hosted music sessions and parties in her home. By the late 1950s her health declined due to financial trouble, alcoholism, and arthritis, and she became reclusive. After 1959 her paintings diminished in number as well as scale. In the final year of her life, a major retrospective of her work was held at the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago.