Robert Irwin

The Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles
Pace Wildenstein, New York
Ace Gallery, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above in May 1994

Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art; Cologne, Kolnischer Kunstverein; Paris, Musee de la Ville; Madrid, Centro de Art Reina Sofia, Robert Irwin, June 1993 - April 1995,  p. 86, illustrated in color
New York, Pace Wildenstein, Robert Irwin, Selection of Works: 1958-1970, May - June 1998, cat. no. 1, illustrated in color

This work is in good condition overall. The surface is slightly soiled and shows evidence of minor scuffs and wear along the edges with some minor and isolated paint loss, including an area along the top edge, approximately 13 in. from the left edge. There is some fine craquelure at the pull margins and other areas of scattered, stable craqulure visible throughout the richly-textured surface, the most evident of which is an area located 26 in. from the top edge and 18 in. from the left edge. There is no apparent evidence of restoration when examined under UV light.
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.
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The recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship or "Genius Grant" as it is often called, Robert Irwin is best known for his minimalist body of work and high-profile projects for Dia and the Getty Center Central Garden. An original member of the storied Ferus Gallery, which under Irving Blum's canny stewardship would later propel the careers of Andy Warhol and Ed Ruscha, Irwin was also key in articulating a patently "West Coast" style of abstraction in the late 1950's and early 1960's. In recounting the inchoate stages of Ferus' development, Irving Blum explains, "as Walter [Hopps] and I looked around the community, one of the artists who really caught our eye was Bob Irwin. So we invited him to join our group, and he accepted; and during the next few years we watched his transition from a figurative painter into an abstract expressionist. He was to paint some absolutely extraordinary abstract expressionist canvases. (...) I confront them now and then when I visit L.A. They're really technically marvelous." (Laurence Weschler, Seeing is Forgetting The Name of The Thing That One Sees: A Life of Contemporary Artist Robert Irwin, Berkeley, 1982, p. 46-47). Though Irwin would destroy many of his early works, there remain a few extant paintings of which, the present work is a rare and coveted example. Titled Ocean Park, after the same Santa Monica enclave that Richard Diebenkorn would immortalize in his eponymous series of the same title, this work is a visual exercise of the color and compositional themes which would remain operative for Irwin even as his practice became more reductive and conceptual in nature.  In the artist's inaugural exhibition at Ferus in 1959, critic Jules Langsner would observe, "Irwin paints with a sense of exhilaration in the way color and texture can be sprung into an independent mode of existence. He favors a flamelike turbulence which may erupt in isolated swirls or bursts in sheets of color over the surface." (Art News 58: Summer 1959, p. 60).