20th Century Art 
14 March 2019
Albert Stadler, Ballast - Image 1 of 1
20th Century Art 
Albert Stadler, Ballast - Image 1 of 1
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Albert Stadler 1923–2000

Ballast

1964
oil on canvas 59 h × 24 w in (150 × 61 cm)
estimate: $5,000–7,000
result: $12,500
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Signed, titled and dated to verso 'A. Stadler Ballast 1964'.
provenance: Acquired directly from the artist | Private Collection, New York
exhibited: Post-Painterly Abstraction: An exhibition organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and sponsored by the Contemporary Art Council, 23 April - 7 June 1964, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles (on loan from Poindexter Gallery)
literature: Post-Painterly Abstraction, Greenberg, no. 83

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Post-Painterly Abstraction

In 1964 Albert Stadler was invited to participate in Clement Greenberg’s groundbreaking exhibition, Post-Painterly Abstraction at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Stadler was one of thirty-one artists chosen for the exhibition who illustrated what Greenberg conceived as a departure from the inward-looking Expressionism of the 1950s and a return to the basic elements of painting and compositional clarity. The present lot was exhibited alongside works by Gene Davis, Sam Francis, Helen Frankenthaler, Frank Stella, and Ellsworth Kelly. 

Cover of Post-Painterly Abstraction, exhibition catalog, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles 1964

It certainly has nothing to do with doctrine, with geometrical form for its own sake. These artists prefer trued and faired edges simply because these call less attention to themselves as drawing - and by doing that they also get out of the way of color.

Clement Greenberg

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