Robert Natkin - BERN 110. Paint on canvas. Executed in 1983. 33" x 48". Signed lower center as well as artist stamp on the stretcher.High-res images available upon request.Provenance; Ivory/Kimpton Gallery SanFrancisco. During a trip to Bern, Switzerland, in 1977, Natkin visited the Paul Klee Foundation. Both a museum and research center, the foundation not only displays KleeÂ’s work, but also allows visitors access on demand to thousands of drawings and paintings. NatkinÂ’s Bern series grew out of this inspirational visit.Natkin considers Paul Klee his greatest inspiration and primary teacher. “KleeÂ’s vision”, asserts Natkin “has been that of a poet or a man of the theatre.” Natkin, like Klee, strives to create powerful yet intimate visual narratives that engage the viewer, drawing him inward, through the outer “crust” of the canvas and into the primal drama lurking beneath the canvasÂ’s surface.During his visit to the Klee Foundation, Natkin passed from painting to painting as his Swiss guide translated the titles of the various works, titles such as “Young Girl Gazing at Wounded Bird and Consuming Fire of Witches.” An increasingly irritable Natkin found that these highly descriptive titles distracted him from gazing at the works. Klee ’s paintings and drawings clearly contain shards of subject matter: fish, human figures, and letters. And yet, what has always drawn Natkin deeply to KleeÂ’s work is the artistÂ’s virtuosity with color, light, and surface, rather than the more traditional representational elements of his canvases. It is the emotional content of KleeÂ’s work–his depiction of “inner” rather than “outré” narrative–that Natkin finds empowering.Many of the same simple forms–ovals, infinity sign, crosshatches, and snakes–of NatkinÂ’s earlier Field Mouse paintings reappear in the Bern works. These motifs are reminiscent of both the American Indian and Persian decorative art traditions which Natkin has long admired. Forms are sparsely scattered and usually embedded beneath soft, modulated veils of light and texture, an effect Natkin achieved through his continued use of rags and sponges.- Leda Natkin Nelis

Fine estate condition. Inspected under UV light. No repairs or restoration noted. Condition reports are our opinion and are not a guarantee. We encourage in-person inspection. All items sold as-is.