Oil on canvas, framed. Featuring an abstract expressionist composition. Signed WOLS on the lower right corner. Attributed to Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze(1913-1951, German). 49 x 29 cm (19.25 x 11.25 inches). Framed size: 56 x 35.5 cm (22 x 14 inches). PROVENANCE: Southern Ontario estate

Wols (1913-1951) was a German artist best known for his involvement in the Tachisme movement of abstract painters in France. Wols’ paintings often featured drips and scratches in defiance of the aesthetics and artistic theory of his day, and his work is seen as a predecessor to the later Lyrical Abstraction movement. Born Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze on May 27, 1913 in Berlin, Germany, he grew up in a wealthy family who were patrons of the arts. He eventually settled in Paris after traveling abroad, studying photography and painting with various teachers. In Paris, he befriended Fernand Léger and Max Ernst, and began exhibiting his work for the first time. Though largely unrecognized during his lifetime, Wols’ work has found appreciation with contemporary audiences, and is today found in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Tate Gallery in London, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, among others. Wols died of complications from food poisoning on September 1, 1951 in Paris, France at the age of 38.

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