The present lot is among the powerful selection of works by women artists from the Allan Stone Collection. Not only was Allan Stone a pioneering supporter of Abstract Expressionism and emerging artists, he also celebrated works by women who were forging new ground in the world of art, often without the support or recognition of the larger art community. Driven by personal experience and the need for expression, these women created inventive works exploring politics, gender roles, storytelling, abstraction and art history.
He could make a visual decision very quickly. It was like love at first sight. He trusted his instincts.
Lorraine Shemesh
Founded in 1960 by art dealer Allan Stone (1932–2006), the New York gallery known today as Allan Stone Projects has been admired for over half a century. Celebrated for its eclectic approach and early advocacy of pivotal artists of the 20th century, Allan Stone Gallery was a leading authority on Abstract Expressionism, the New York dealer for Wayne Thiebaud for over forty years, and showed the works of Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Arshile Gorky, Joseph Cornell, John Graham and John Chamberlain. Stone also promoted the work of a younger generation of artists that were in conversation with other artists in his collection, working in the mediums of assemblage, collage and new modes of abstraction. In addition to modern masterworks and contemporary art, Allan Stone also collected and exhibited international folk art, Americana and important decorative arts and industrial design.
Kazuko Inoue b. 1946
Born in Japan, Kazuko Inoue moved to the United States in the 1960s, and received her BFA and MFA from Michigan State University. Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions throughout the Northeast and Midwest, and is included in public and corporate collections such as the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, the Newark Museum, the Mobil Oil Corporation and Bank of America. Inoue lives and works in Pennsylvania.
Combining early abstraction’s focus on spirituality with a Minimalist grid structure, Inoue creates canvases that are lyrical, austere, and subtle, yet compelling. Channeling a plethora of inspirations from Kazimir Malevich and Vasily Kandinsky to Henri Matisse and Fra Angelico, Inoue’s tactics aptly reflect her sentiment that "good painters understand the importance of clarity of composition and color." At first, the straightforward planar explorations seem simple, but upon closer inspection reveal themselves as methodical palimpsests of color and materiality.
The basic grid structure of Inoue’s current work features varied colors and tones that play off of each other, encouraging the eye to bounce around the canvas, seeking nuanced or stark interplays. Each square is achieved by building up multiple layers of different acrylic paints that are resolved into one single shade on the surface, simultaneously providing luminosity, depth and dimension. The squares are articulated at their edges by the recesses run between them like thin canals defining the grid. The result of Inoue’s endeavor is a checkerboard synthesis of tones, shades and colors. Each painting chronicles a private event, a distinct mood, a complex emotion or a subtle feeling.
