Hassel Smith Manner Original Vintage San Francisco Bay Area Figurative American Abstract Expressionist School Contemporary Art Oil Painting

Original vintage abstract expressionist painting in the San Francisco school of artists, in the manner of Hassel Smith, (1915-2007). Painting is very well done, with an influence shown from Clyfford Still. Tiny flecks of blue, orange, and violet red display details only found in Hassel Smith's finer, and more complex abstract expressionist and figurative works.
Hassel Smith was born in 1915, in Sturgis, Michigan. Smith studied art history at Northwestern University until 1936, and painting at California School of Fine Arts, San Francisco, 1936-8. His subjects range from landscapes, portraits and figure scenes of American life. Hassel smith taught painting at the California School of Fine Arts from 1945 to 1948 and 1949-52; at the same period as Douglas MacAgy, Clyfford Still and Mark Rothko. In 1947, Smith began in to paint in an Abstract Expressionist style related to Clyfford Still's. His first one-man exhibition was at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, in San Francisco, in 1947. From c.1954, Hassel Smith introduced fragmentary calligraphic imagery, sometimes erotic, with a dynamic emphasis akin to traditional jazz. He lived from 1953 at Sebastopol, California, then 1962-3 in England, mainly at Mousehole, Cornwall; where he began to return to a more figurative style. He returned and taught at the University of California; first at Berkeley 1963-5, then at Los Angeles 1965-6. Smith was known to have made humorous, satirical figure paintings of Southern California. Still returned to England in 1966, to teach art at Bristol Polytechnic, and began c.1970 to paint in a geometric abstract style. His last known residence was in Bristol.


Hassel Smith, Manner of
(1915-2007)
Abstract Expressionist, San Francisco School
Oil on Canvas
Painting alone measures approximately 20" X 24", plus frame. Painting is annotated 20"X26" on reverse of canvas; this is incorrect.
Estimated to have been created approximately 1964
Painting is in good condition. There is some separation of the canvas, that has caused some minor lines/light small feathered cracks in isolated portions, evident in the last image. Please email for more photos, and review images as part of the description. A coat of varnish professionally applied may help to seal the painting.
Painting is in original wood carved vintage frame, that was painted a black lacquer. Frame is in good and stable condition.

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