Victor Pasmore

Marlborough Fine Art, London
Gifted by Mr. and Mrs. Solomon B. Smith to the Art Instiute of Chicago in 1965

London, Tate Gallery, Victor Pasmore: Retrospective Exhibition 1925-65, May - June 1965, cat. no.214, illustrated pl.70;
Allentown, The Allentown Museum, Victor Pasmore Exhibition, 12th December 1970 - 10th January 1971, with tour to The Arts Club, Chicago.

Alan Bowness and Luigi Lambertini, Victor Pasmore: with a Catalogue Raisonne of the Paintings, Constructions and Graphics 1926- 1979, Thames and Hudson, London, 1980, cat. no.353, illustrated.

The central board and backboard are sound and the overall structure is stable. There are a few nicks about the edges of the central relief and some small spots of staining near the lower right corner. There are hairline cracks to some areas of the backboard, only visible upon close inspection. There are areas to the backboard where the paint covering nailheads protrudes slightly. There are two small surface scuff marks near the centre of the lower edge Otherwise the work appears in good overall condition. Under ultraviolet light there appear to be no signs of retouching. The wooden frame around the backboard is an integral part of the overall piece. Please telephone the department on 0207 293 6424 if you have any questions about the present work.
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Although Pasmore had made his first crucial break with figuration in the paintings of 1948-49, the process by which he achieved full abstraction took some time and in statements of the period the artist often takes great pains to ensure that his constructed abstraction was not seen as derived from a subject.

During the early 1950s, Pasmore developed a new formal visual vocabulary that embraced a more minimalist idiom and took on a three dimensional nature through the use of construction and relief resulting in works such as Abstract in White, Black and Maroon (1954, see Alan Bowness and Luigi Lambertini, op.cit., cat. no.181) exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1960. He continued to explore the use of relief and its consequent sculptural and architectural ability to bring the traditional two dimensional picture plane into a three dimensional space. The early reliefs focus principally on the formality of the constructed forms themselves, however, in the 1960s he began to introduce paint and colour into the series; 'a return to painting meant a return to the fluid process of line, liquid paint, the paint brush or the paint spray, thus producing an entirely different image from that of rigid construction but still organic in process' (Pasmore, quoted in Bowness and Lambertini, op.cit., p.132). The resultant combination of abstract yet organic form, evident in the present work, achieve a new intensity of expression previously unseen in Pasmore's oeuvre.