Description: Abstract photograph

Media: Black and white photograph laid on paper.

Title: 'Paper Portrait'

Date: 1940s

Measurements: 9.5" x 7.5" sight size, and 14.25" x 12.25" x 1" overall including framing.

Condition: Good condition.

Notes: Signed verso.

Provenance: From a California collection.

About the artist: Harry Bowden (California/New York 1907-1965) was an American modernist painter, printmake and photographer. A native of California, Harry Bowden began his art studies at the Los Angeles Art Institute. Bowden later studied at the National Academy of Design, the Art Students League in New York, the Chouinard School of Art in Los Angeles, and the University of California, Berkeley. He soon became dissatisfied with academic training. In 1934 Bowden Studied with Hans Hofmann. The following year he became one of HofmannÂ’s assistants and was friends with New York artists George McNeil, Wilfrid Zogbaum, Ad Reinhardt, and Willem de Kooning. In New York, Bowden received recognition for his work exhibiting at the Artists Gallery, the Egan Gallery, the Reinhardt Gallery, and the New School for Social Research, and also helped found the American Abstract Artists group. At this time Bowden was also working as a commercial photographer with some success. In 1942, as the United States entered WWII, Bowden returned to California to work in the shipyards in San Francisco. After WWII Bowden continued to work as an artist focusing on both painting and photography. Bowden continued to show his work in New York, and periodically visited there, but called the Bay Area his home. Bowden remained in California and continued to work, create and show his works until his death in 1965.