Artist Profiles

 Page 3 - Ernest Briggs / November

as flat graphics even as they suggest multi-faceted forms instilled with a 3 dimensionality. In this piece space becomes   delightfully confusing in a way possible only through abstract painting. A different take is explored in the two Untitled paintings from 1959. In these paintings Briggs shatters space along with form and color into a scattering of floating shards.  The result is another duality between a sense of motion and static forms.

Untitled, 1959 oil on canvas 85 x 70 in

As with many artists engaged in abstract painting at the time, Ernest Briggs was constantly exploring the potential of painting well beyond the  

Previous Page

Untitled, 1959, oil on canvas, 89 x 70 in

confines of what had been acceptable. But Briggs, like Ray Parker or his good friend Edward Dugmore, was one of those artists who was just under the art world radar in comparison to (relatively) household names like de Kooning, Pollock or Rothko.  Because (or in spite) of this, many of the second generation New York School artists are all the more compelling for the lack of such media hyper-attention. If these paintings are less familiar they also seem fresher through the wonderful experience of (re)discovery.

Artist Profile Directory