The Alhambra
1955
31 1/2 x 24 in. (80 x 61 cm)
Vaclav Vytlacil
United States
(New York, NY, 1892 - 1984, New York, NY)
Object Type:
Painting
Medium and Support:
Oil on paper laid down on board
Credit Line:
Marion Stratton Gould Fund
Accession Number:
1957.1
Location: Not currently on view
Vaclav Vytlacil was at the epicenter of the American modernist movement. A student of Hans Hofmann, his own star pupils included Cy Twombly, James Rosenquist, Robert Rauschenberg, and Louise Bourgeois. In 1936, he co-founded the American Abstract Artists Group with his friends Arshille Gorky, Byron Browne, and Willem de Kooning. The New Yorker reviewed his 1956 exhibition of “engaging, atmospheric abstractions” of the Alhambra, from which MAG purchased this painting. It was not MAG’s first choice, but unfortunately the artist had just presented that one to his wife for Christmas and was reluctant to ask her to give it up. The energy and spontaneity of our painting, however, is an excellent example of his work from this period.
[Label text from It Came From the Vault exhibition, 2013]