Lot 184: Clyde Connell, (American/Louisiana, 1901-1998), "Red Clay Series II", 1989, mixed media on wood, h. 62", w. 3", d. 2"

Clyde Connell
(American/Louisiana, 1901-1998)

"Red Clay Series II", 1989

mixed media on wood
titled and dated on reverse.
h. 62", w. 3", d. 2"

Provenance: Descended in the family of the artist.

Other Notes: Clyde Connell, the eldest of nine children of a Louisiana cotton planter, was a self-taught abstract expressionist artist who did not begin to receive nationwide acknowledgment until she was in her 70s. She briefly attended Brenau College in Gainesville, Georgia, before leaving that institution to raise her family and independently study art. Her earliest paintings were expressive documentary depictions of the society and culture around her. In the mid-50s, inspired by the Abstract Expressionist artists she encountered during a trip to New York City, such as Jackson Pollock and Adolph Gottlieb, Connell began to move away from figural representation. In 1959, she and her husband moved to the edge of Lake Bistineau, a remote and rural area, and it was at this time that she began to concentrate on sculpture. Connell's often larger-than-life sculptures required materials that were plentiful, inexpensive, and easily manipulated by the diminutive artist, and these were ultimately to be found in the environment around her - the brown earth, red clay, and wood of the Louisiana countryside. Frequently incorporating found objects and materials into her assemblages, she created powerful works evocative of ritual. Mythical and often spiritual, but not indicative of a particular dogma, these sculptures integrate symbols and hieroglyphs with geometric and linear elements, allowing for the viewer's personal interpretation. Connell had her first non-regional solo exhibition in 1981 at New York's prestigious and influential Clocktower Gallery. In 1988, she was included in the "Different Drummers" show at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. She was the recipeint of numerous honors, including a 1982 Adolph Gottlieb Foundation Award, a 1984 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women's Caucus for Art, and a 1985 Award for Visual Art from the National Endowment for the Arts. References: "Obituaries", New York Times. May 10, 1998; Moser, Charlotte. "Clyde Connell: 1901-1998". Sculpture. December 1998, Vol. 17, No. 10.