Thomas Brownell Eldred, Untitled, 1941

This gorgeously colored gouache painting on thick paper was created at a time when the Guggenheim Museum (Museum of Non-Objective Painting) was collecting Eldred's work, alongside works by Kandinsky and Bauer. It typifies the artist's eclectic style, reflecting his involvement with Surrealism and the New York School. It also highlights Eldred’s excellent draftsmanship through the characteristic bright colors and patterns that he developed during his time as a naval wood pattern maker in the merchant marines.
Thomas Brownell Eldred (1903-1993) was born in Michigan and was admitted to the prestigious Art Institute of Chicago. After serving in the Merchant Marines, he attended The Art Students League in New York with Thomas Hart Benton. In the 1930s, he was accepted into the famous artist’s colony Yaddo, but instead took a position teaching at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, funded through the WPA’s Federal Art Project, which established to provide struggling artists with economic support during The Great Depression. Eldred worked amongst other WPA artists, such as, Ben Shahn, Mark Rothko and Philip Guston. In Brooklyn, Eldred met the innovative print-maker Werner Drewes, who studied at Bauhaus with major modernists Johannes Itten, Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger and Wassily Kandinsky. Drewes also served as Director of the Graphic Art Project of the WPA in New York and was a founding member of the influential American Abstract Artists (AAA) group. In the late 30s and 40s, when this painting was created, the Guggenheim's acquired Eldred's work for their new Museum of Non-Objective painting (now the Guggenheim Museum), which focused on international abstraction.

Good vintage condition; the gradations in color & darkening in the color bands appear to be part of the artist's gouache technique; minor waviness