Untitled Abstraction

Gertrude Barrer, Amer., (1921-1997), Untitled Abstraction, Colored Ink Drawing, 1948, 10-13/16 x 14-1/16, signed and dated in ink, a darkening to the paper lower right edge and corner, on smooth cream wove bristol board. A classic 1940's abstraction by Barrer, with delicate planar skeins of multicolored ink lines defining architecture of the ephemeral and intangible, demonstrating Barrer's concerns with capturing unseen forces and feelings; like "painting the wind". The ghostly, spikey forms and negative spaces are given equal attention, inspired by the treatment of positive and negative space Barrer encountered in the art of indigenous American tribes of the southwest and northwest coast. As a member of the "Indian Space" group of painters in New York in the 1940's, Barrer helped to foment a new and historically significant direction for American abstract painting based on those indigenous American sources..