In the mid-1950s when Abstract Expressionism began to give way to Minimalism, Rolf Nelson was there. A resident of Coenties Slip, a rundown seaport turned art colony at the lower tip of Manhattan, Nelson became friendly with fellow inhabitants Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Indiana and Agnes Martin. The cheap rent, large loft spaces and views of the East River made the Slip an attractive locale for artists, writers, and the budding gallerist. In the late 1950s, Nelson was hired by Martha Jackson Gallery and cut his teeth in the contemporary art world alongside Claes Oldenburg and Allan Kaprow. In 1962 he moved across the country to set up the Los Angeles branch of San Francisco Dilexi Gallery, and opened his eponymous gallery on La Cienega Boulevard just one year later.
Nelson’s impact on the art world still resonates today, and his albeit brief time spent on the West Coast helped launch the careers of many visionary artists.
Nelson quickly established himself as a central figure in the vibrant Southern California art scene, exhibiting both emerging and established artists including Llyn Foulkes, George Herms, Irving Petlin, Robert Indiana, Ron Nagle and H.C. Westermann. In 1965 Nelson hosted the first solo show of Midwestern artist Judy Gerowitz, dubbing her Judy Chicago because of her thick accent. The same year, David Hockney started a portrait of the gallerist (completed in 1968 and published in 1975), a lithograph with pink hand-colored cheeks. The Rolf Nelson Gallery was short-lived however, and in 1966 Nelson moved back to New York to work as a private dealer. Before closing, he held a single-painting exhibition of Georgia O’Keeffe’s masterpiece Sky Above Clouds IV, now at the Art Institute of Chicago. Nelson’s impact on the art world still resonates today, and his albeit brief time spent on the West Coast helped launch the careers of many visionary artists.
The work offered here comes from Rolf Nelson's personal collection—comprised of works he admired and gifts from artists he represented, but also called friends.
I feel that life is very fragile. We're all just hanging by a thread; it's very spooky. I can best come to grips with it by doing my work. I guess that's why I'm an artist.
H.C. Westermann
H.C. Westermann 1922–1981
Born in 1922, Horace Clifford "H.C." Westermann was raised in Los Angeles, California. He served as a Marine in both World War II and the Korean War. Westermann studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and supplemented his income through employment as a woodworker and carpenter. His love for the craft of woodworking led him to become a full-time artist ultimately. Westermann produced a variety of works, including woodcuts, paintings, drawings, and collages, but he is best known for his highly detailed and impeccably finished wood sculptures and constructions.
During his lifetime, Westermann never explained the meaning behind his art, but it is quite evident that he was heavily influenced by his intense wartime experiences and his complicated feelings concerning the human condition. Much of his oeuvre can be interpreted as a critique of the American military and consumer culture. In particular, certain Westermann paintings, drawings, and illustrated correspondence point clearly to his views.
Ahead of his time, Westermann's output was a great influence on artists from the 1960s and 1970s, including the Chicago Imagists and California Funk artists William T. Wiley and Ken Price. Westermann died in Danbury, Connecticut in 1981 at the age of fifty-eight. In the decades since, major retrospectives have been held at a range of institutions, several of which have Westermann's works in their collections, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC.
Auction Results H.C. Westermann
