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Lot Essay
In West 48th Street, Richard Lindner combines riotous color, hyper-sexualized human figures and a frisson of disquieting power, producing a canvas that superbly illustrates his unmistakable style. West 48th Street exposes the underbelly of life in the metropolis with its rich visual references. Giving voice to the characters that populate society's margins in 1960s New York, Lindner interpolates bright lights, modern society's rapidly changing morals and human sexuality as commodity into one dazzling canvas.
In West 48th Street Lindner summons elements, both formal and unrestrained, from a variety of artistic traditions, bringing them together in a coherent performance that he shrouds in intrigue. This remarkable portrait contains many of Lindner's signature elements: a statuesque, erotically charged woman, a vibrant color palette, linear simplicity and the complex composite way he constructs a human figure. A powerful figure dominates the canvas, part female, part machine-like form. She commands the space in her tight metallic armature, broken only by the exposed breasts and a tantalizing glimpse of bare shoulder and arm. The work is overtly sexual. However, the figure is still extremely feminine despite the masculine appearance; witness her scarlet red lips, her sapphire blue eye shadow and clutch purse placed firmly in front of her. The seemingly contradictory nature of this cyborg lies at the very heart of Lindner's unique aesthetic style. Lindner achieves the visual richness of his canvases by skillfully matching elements of abstraction and figuration that hauntingly evoke characters from his own personal experience and imagination. At times, he composes an image as if he intended us to read his shapes and colors almost totally as formal messages. At other times, he builds on the influence of modern masters like Leger, with his statuesque human figures, and George Grosz with his high-octane sexuality. All this comes together to produce works, like West 48th Street, that are highly emotional and visually charged.
Linder's deftly handles seemingly contradictory formal elements. This resulted from the place and time of his birth. Born in 1901, Richard Lindner came too late for the great artistic tradition of the 19th Century, but lived through the chaos and upheaval of the two world wars, modern history's greatest conflicts. He grew up in Nuremberg, a city with a medieval reputation as the birthplace of the Iron Maiden. This formidable torture device consisted of an iron cabinet tall enough to enclose a human being, with a small opening that enabled a torturer to interrogate his victim by piercing their body. Lindner carries this sense of tension through much of his work. Although not depicted explicitly, many of Lindner's female figures, including the striking figure in West 48th Street evoke unease as they are rendered machine-like, their bodies encased in Maiden-like metallic armature and stiff, restrictive corsets.
Lindner's father worked as a door-to-door salesman but never found his niche. Circumstances forced him to move his family numerous times during the artist's childhood. Lindner's mother started a successful corset making business from home to bring in some extra money. The intricate construction and fitting of these sexually charged undergarments made a lasting impression on a growing Lindner. The family's nomadic lifestyle contributed to his growing sense of being an outsider, a sense further engrained when the rise of the National Socialist Party in Germany meant that Lindner's Jewish heritage was liability. The family moved to Paris, and arrived in New York in 1941.
In the United States, Lindner felt he was on the fringes of New York's art world, meaning that his work began to center on the marginalized figures in society. Lindner found himself drawn to the similar characters he saw around him. In 1963, the year before he painted the present lot, he commented that his work was "dedicated to the street, that 'city jungle' where prostitutes, pimps, gangsters and all sorts of criminals reign, dressed in their peculiar bold-colored costumes that make them seem like rigid robots." (R. Linder, quoted in M. Bouisset, 'Biographical notes on Richard Lindner", Homage to Richard Lindner, New York, 1980, p. 123). He depicted women in many of his most successful canvases. For Lindner women are the main holder of secrets; according to him, "women are more imaginative than menthey have secrets they don't even realize they have" (R. Lindner, quoted in D. Ashton, 'Richard Lindner. The Secret of the Inner Voice", Lindner, Berkeley, 1969, p. 7). Even in his earliest fantasies, women appear as giant, colossal, Amazonian figures, decked out for their elemental struggle against their role in a patriarchal society.
Despite their modern appearance, Lindner always maintained his work was rooted in more traditional art history. He skillfully mixed a rich tapestry of inspiration with his unique blend of American and European motifs, resulting in the period's most striking canvases.
"I admire the Pop artists - Warhol and Lichtenstein and Oldenburg - but I'm not one of them - never was. My real influences have been Giotto and Piero della Francesca, timeless and ageless artists. I look at them all the time. And I hope that something of their strength has come into my pictures. Basically it's what I'm aiming for - that kind of structural solidity that kind of power!" (R. Lindner, interviewed by J. Gruen, 'Richard Lindner: 1901-1978", Homage to Richard Lindner, New York, 1980, p. 122).
In West 48th Street Lindner summons elements, both formal and unrestrained, from a variety of artistic traditions, bringing them together in a coherent performance that he shrouds in intrigue. This remarkable portrait contains many of Lindner's signature elements: a statuesque, erotically charged woman, a vibrant color palette, linear simplicity and the complex composite way he constructs a human figure. A powerful figure dominates the canvas, part female, part machine-like form. She commands the space in her tight metallic armature, broken only by the exposed breasts and a tantalizing glimpse of bare shoulder and arm. The work is overtly sexual. However, the figure is still extremely feminine despite the masculine appearance; witness her scarlet red lips, her sapphire blue eye shadow and clutch purse placed firmly in front of her. The seemingly contradictory nature of this cyborg lies at the very heart of Lindner's unique aesthetic style. Lindner achieves the visual richness of his canvases by skillfully matching elements of abstraction and figuration that hauntingly evoke characters from his own personal experience and imagination. At times, he composes an image as if he intended us to read his shapes and colors almost totally as formal messages. At other times, he builds on the influence of modern masters like Leger, with his statuesque human figures, and George Grosz with his high-octane sexuality. All this comes together to produce works, like West 48th Street, that are highly emotional and visually charged.
Linder's deftly handles seemingly contradictory formal elements. This resulted from the place and time of his birth. Born in 1901, Richard Lindner came too late for the great artistic tradition of the 19th Century, but lived through the chaos and upheaval of the two world wars, modern history's greatest conflicts. He grew up in Nuremberg, a city with a medieval reputation as the birthplace of the Iron Maiden. This formidable torture device consisted of an iron cabinet tall enough to enclose a human being, with a small opening that enabled a torturer to interrogate his victim by piercing their body. Lindner carries this sense of tension through much of his work. Although not depicted explicitly, many of Lindner's female figures, including the striking figure in West 48th Street evoke unease as they are rendered machine-like, their bodies encased in Maiden-like metallic armature and stiff, restrictive corsets.
Lindner's father worked as a door-to-door salesman but never found his niche. Circumstances forced him to move his family numerous times during the artist's childhood. Lindner's mother started a successful corset making business from home to bring in some extra money. The intricate construction and fitting of these sexually charged undergarments made a lasting impression on a growing Lindner. The family's nomadic lifestyle contributed to his growing sense of being an outsider, a sense further engrained when the rise of the National Socialist Party in Germany meant that Lindner's Jewish heritage was liability. The family moved to Paris, and arrived in New York in 1941.
In the United States, Lindner felt he was on the fringes of New York's art world, meaning that his work began to center on the marginalized figures in society. Lindner found himself drawn to the similar characters he saw around him. In 1963, the year before he painted the present lot, he commented that his work was "dedicated to the street, that 'city jungle' where prostitutes, pimps, gangsters and all sorts of criminals reign, dressed in their peculiar bold-colored costumes that make them seem like rigid robots." (R. Linder, quoted in M. Bouisset, 'Biographical notes on Richard Lindner", Homage to Richard Lindner, New York, 1980, p. 123). He depicted women in many of his most successful canvases. For Lindner women are the main holder of secrets; according to him, "women are more imaginative than menthey have secrets they don't even realize they have" (R. Lindner, quoted in D. Ashton, 'Richard Lindner. The Secret of the Inner Voice", Lindner, Berkeley, 1969, p. 7). Even in his earliest fantasies, women appear as giant, colossal, Amazonian figures, decked out for their elemental struggle against their role in a patriarchal society.
Despite their modern appearance, Lindner always maintained his work was rooted in more traditional art history. He skillfully mixed a rich tapestry of inspiration with his unique blend of American and European motifs, resulting in the period's most striking canvases.
"I admire the Pop artists - Warhol and Lichtenstein and Oldenburg - but I'm not one of them - never was. My real influences have been Giotto and Piero della Francesca, timeless and ageless artists. I look at them all the time. And I hope that something of their strength has come into my pictures. Basically it's what I'm aiming for - that kind of structural solidity that kind of power!" (R. Lindner, interviewed by J. Gruen, 'Richard Lindner: 1901-1978", Homage to Richard Lindner, New York, 1980, p. 122).