Oil on canvas mounted on linen board. Signed bottom center. 4 x 5 1/2"; 8 1/2 x 10 1/4" (framed).

Josep Bartoli, after escaping a French internment camp during the Spanish Revolution, fled to Mexico, where he met and became romantically involved with Frida Kahlo. Bartoli then moved to New York City and joined a group of abstract expressionists that included Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, and Willem De Kooning. Bartoli continued his love affair with Frida Kahlo, which at the time was kept secret from her husband Diego Rivera but recently has been well documented in the film about Bartoli titled "JOSEP," which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2020.

This painting is an exceptionally rare example of Bartoli's abstract expressionist work. It was acquired in New York by Irene Urdang de Tour. Urdang de Tour became associated with Bartoli when he worked with Rothko, Pollack, and De Kooning and remained in a relationship with Frida Kahlo while she was in New York recovering from spinal surgery in 1946. Provenance: Estate of Irena Urdang de Tours (art dealer and Holocaust survivor).

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