Attributed to Vance Kirkland, it does not have a COA. Medium: oil acrylic canvas, 26 x 22 inches. Provenance: private owner.

Biography: Born in Convoy, Ohio, November 1904 and died in Denver, Colorado, May 1981, (age 76); Vance Hall Kirkland painted the last 52 years of his 54-year career in Denver. Museums and the press have variously referred to him as the "Father of Modern Colorado Painting", "Dean of Colorado Artists" and "Colorado's pre-eminent artist." He graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1928. He was the founding Director of the School of Art at the University of Denver (1929-32, 1946-69), and ran the Kirkland School of Art in Denver (1932-46). Because of his academic pursuits, he was able to paint exactly as he wanted, without financial pressure. This was particularly helpful when he discontinued his realist and surrealist watercolors halfway through his career, after major successes, and decided to change to oil abstraction in 1953.Kirkland exhibited extensively at Knoedler & Company, New York (1946-57), where he had three solo exhibitions, a co-show with Max Ernst and a co-show with Bernard Buffet. He also participated in 18 group shows at The Art Institute of Chicago (including the culminating exhibition of surrealism in 1947-48) and many others including the Museum of Modern Art - N.Y., Metropolitan Museum - N.Y., Kansas City Art Institute and Los Angeles County Museum.After he stopped doing watercolor, his new work was never again shown in these places during his lifetime. What the art world did not know (or care about) was that he had begun to mix oil and water together for a flamboyant period of Abstract Expressionism (1951-64), and then for his final period of vibrant dot paintings (1963-81). There is no Abstract Expressionist known to us, or to museum curators, who used oil and water mixtures as the basis of the technique and images.Kirkland's isolation in Denver kept his techniques from being discovered and no one, other than a master watercolorist, could have controlled the oil and water mixtures as he did.The television documentary, Vance Kirkland's Visual Language, was aired on over 100 PBS stations from 1994-6. Directed by international film director Emmerich Oross, the production features 7 curators and directors from 5 American museums analyzing Kirkland's works and life. Colorado Ballet performed a biographical ballet in 6 scenes about Vance Kirkland in 1999. The story portrayed the conflict artists have between their everyday life and their artistic life.Kirkland paintings were used as backdrops, choreography was done by Martin Fredmann with scenario by Hugh Grant, who also constructed the music from 6 composers Kirkland admired.Of his approximately 1,100 paintings, during a 54 year career (1927-81), about half are watercolors created in the first half of his career (1927-53; aquarelle, gouache, casein, egg tempera with a few oils as well). In the latter half of his career (1953-81) oil, and his oil & water mixtures are used. In spite of failing his 1st year watercolor (aquarelle) class in 1924 at the Cleveland Institute of Art, he became a master watercolor painter. His professor's criticism -- that his colors were fighting, and that he was putting colors in landscapes that were not there was prophetic because he eventually produced the illusion of colors that are not there in his later dot paintings. He built upon his virtuoso watercolor techniques when he first developed a resist technique by mixing watercolor and denatured alcohol together (1952-3), and then by mixing water and oil together. In 1963 he started adding dots of color on top of his previous layers. He also did about 500 drawings, 12 print editions, and some mural commissions.

All authorship of items in this catalog are described according to the following terms:

Signed [Artist Name] : In cases in which the signature is legible in the lot, this work is described as-is with no attributions given.

By [Artist Name] : The work is by the artist.

Attributed to [Artist Name] : The work may be ascribed to the artist on the basis of style, but there may be some question as to actual authorship.

In the manner of [Artist Name] : The work was executed by an unknown hand, but was designed deliberately to emulate the style of the artist.

After [Artist Name] : The work was executed by an unknown hand, but is a deliberate copy of a known work by the artist.

Circle of [Artist Name] : A work of the period of the artist showing his influence, closely associated with the artist but not necessarily his pupil.

Follower of [Artist Name]: A work by a pupil or a follower of the artist (not necessarily a pupil).

American, 19th century: This work was executed by an unknown hand, and can only be identified by origin (i.e., region, period).

Mint