Jack Tworkov

Stable Gallery, New York
Collection of Dr. Winston Price and Mrs. Grace Hartigan, Baltimore
Sotheby's, New York, May 27, 1976, lot 326
Private Collection, Houston (acquired from the above sale)
Watson/de Nagy & Company, Houston
Acquired by the present owner from the above

New York, Stable Gallery, Tworkov, April 1959, cat. no. 3
Baltimore Museum of Art, New Paintings and Sculpture from Established and Newly Formed Collections in Baltimore, July - September 1959

It Is Magazine, vol. 2, Autumn 1958, pl. 1, p. 7, illustrated 
Martica Sawin, "In the Galleries: Jack Tworkov (Stable Gallery)," Arts Magazine, vol. 33, January 1959, p. 54

This work is in good condition overall. The canvas is unlined. There is some wear to the edges and corners. There is extensive hairline craquelure throughout, most notably along the left edge and in the top quadrant of the canvas. Under Ultraviolet light there is evidence of inpainting approximately 6 inches from the top edge and 17 inches from the left edge. The second area of inpainting is located approximately 3 inches from the top edge and 5 ½ inches from the right edge. Framed.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Like other artists of his generation including Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell and Mark Rothko, Provincetown played an integral role in the creative life of Jack Tworkov. Beginning with his first visit in 1923, Tworkov lived there intermittently until the fall of 1958, when he purchased a cottage in Provincetown's West End with views of the bay and a short walk to the dunes of Herring Cove.

"There is a quality of light that you get nowhere else," Tworkov said of the Cape, "because the bay and the dunes act like mirrors to the sky." (Robert Hatch, "At the tip of Cape Cod," Horizon III, no. 6, July 1961, pp.10-29)

Likely inspired by his long walks on the dunes and daily swims in the often-choppy waters of the bay, Tworkov painted Capelight in 1958 at the height of his abstract expressionist period. "Something to do in Provincetown," he wrote in his journal, "the dunes and woods, in a way nobody has done them. Seen thru my abstract painting, like Red Lake, Cape Light." (Mira Schor, ed. Extreme of the Middle: The Writings of Jack Tworkov, New Haven, 2009, p. 89).

In Capelight, we see Tworkov's trademark "stroke" enhanced by the artist's subconscious impressions of sky and sea. "My painting," Tworkov wrote, "is always a work of long progression of action absorbed by time." (Ibid, p.89)

Jason Andrew, Manager/Curator, Estate of Jack Tworkov