About the work

Howard Mehring is best known for his hard-edged geometrical color field paintings and screenprints. But he first proved his worth as a painter in far more abstract expressionist work.

A magnificent work of hard-edged abstraction by one of the seminal Washington Color School painters, this example presented in strikingly bold color. Its color and scale make it a showpiece. This work is particularly important because it falls squarely within Mehring’s most-famous body of hard-edged geometric abstracts, but it also highlights in a superb way Mehring’s willingness to explore color—quite successfully in this case.

The artist was close friends with fellow Washingtonian artist James F. Hilleary, to whom Mehring gifted numerous works. There came an occasion during which Mehring, with Hilleary in Hilleary’s studio, suddenly picked up a pencil and scribbled out his name on all of the canvases he had given Hilleary, convinced that his work was unworthy. Time has proved Mehring wrong.

Beautifully float-framed in a solid oiled-Walnut frame.

Attributes	Value
Condition	Very Good Condition
Date	1950-1960
Type	Paintings, Washington Artists
Framing	Framed
Medium	Oil on canvas, Painting
Signing, Dating, and Titling	Hand signed by the Artist