Mid 20th Century Abstract Action Painting, Black & White Pen & Ink on Paper by Salvatore Grippi

Abstract Expressionist Gestural Black & White Pen & Ink Work by Salvatore Grippi ‘ Gorgeous early pen and ink on paper work by Salvatore Grippi. Signed. Circa 1955-56 New York School measures approximately 24″ x 18″. One of the original members of the Abstract Expressionist “New York School”, Salvatore Grippi (1921-2017) exhibited in two of the famous New York Painting and Sculpture Annuals (1953 and 1957) at the Stable Gallery alongside such artists as William Baziotes, Adolph Gottlieb, Willem de Kooning, Michael Goldberg, and Louise Nevelson. After spending several years in California teaching at Pomona College, Grippi was asked to start the painting department at Ithaca College in 1968 and taught there until 1991. Throughout his long and storied career, Grippi oscillated between the figural and abstract. He seemed to be most comfortable and successful in that liminal space between that which is recognized and that which is felt. His early figural works, of which this signed ink painting is an extraordinary example, are populated with multiple figures, congregating and seemingly effervescing into something completely non-figural all-together. Yes, there are early signs of gestural / abstract painting that the NYS is so known for (i.e. Jackson Pollock) but his lines hint at mass and space, however slight and overpowered by the two dimensional surface. There is a horizon line that breaks down into one of its own orthogonals. The planarity of the picture planes meets its tilted self, spilling from within, slicing toward the viewer. A girthy vertical mass to the left off this speeding horizon anchors the viewer, serving as mise en place. Grippi’s work is in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art, among many other notable public and private collections. Salvatore Grippi died in Brewster, Massachusetts on November 30, 2017 at age 96.