This ethereal and beautifully colored Mid-Century Modernist Watercolor & Gouache Painting by Robert Natkin originates from the United States, C.1963. A significant figure in abstract painting throughout his career during the 20th Century, Robert Natkin was deeply inspired by the works of Paul Klee at the age of 17 when he peered into a book of reproductions, imagining the works to be gigantic and all enveloping. When he viewed the work of Klee in person, he was shocked to discover the painting occupied less than a square foot, and realized he needed to metaphorically "shrink down like Alice in Wonderland" in order for the beauty and details of the painting to emerge and grow. Carrying forward these ideas and a sensitive approach to abstraction, Natkin achieves remarkably varied textures and surfaces while maintaining a unified canvas and a wide array of emotional and visual effects, in small paintings all the way up to mural sized works.

This striking Watercolor and Gouache painting is a relatively early work of Natkin, created in 1963 and featuring loosely rendered vertical bands of color and texture, with visible brush strokes and rhythmic application of dotted, dashed, and stippled detailing throughout. The watercolor and gouache interact beautifully, contrasting the transparency and surface quality of each to create a varied and dynamic painting as one shifts between bands of blues, each leaning towards green or violet and expressing its own quality while melding into a single pictorial experience. In a custom antiqued white gold leaf gallery frame, this painting will draw the eye of knowing collectors and will style beautifully in a wide array of spaces and settings, from Mid-Century Modernist to Contemporary and Minimal Interiors. In Excellent Vintage Condition.

American, circa 1963

Dimensions:

Height: 15 in (38.1 cm) x Width: 17 in (43.18 cm) x Depth: 1 in (2.54 cm)

Creator: Robert Natkin (1930-2010, American)

Creation Year: circa 1963

Medium: Watercolor, Gouache

Period: 1960-1969

Condition: Excellent

Reference Number: LU711315353562

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