Lot 40: Victor Reinganum (1907-1995)

Diagram (i)
signed and dated 'Reinganum.39' (lower left) and inscribed 'Diagram (i)' (on the reverse)
gouache and collage on board
14 1/4 x 21 in. (36.2 x 53.4 cm.)

Victor Reinganum trained at Heatherley's and in Paris at the Académie Julian. He also studied with Fernand Léger. Reinganum entitled his most abstract works 'Diagrams'. The present work is one of a small number of 'Diagrams' made by the artist between 1938-39, in his studio in Gloucester Terrace, Paddington (see also lot 38). Of this series and of the marbling effect in the present work, Reinganum wrote 'The marbling was made by me; waterproof ink floated on the surface of water (in the kitchen sink) and lifted off on sheets of paper. I have indulged in abstract painting on and off since the early 30s, interspersed with my more usual semi-abstract or slightly surrealist work. My rather tight and carefully thought-out manner I suppose derives from the strict discipline of illustration, i.e. the filling of a given space by the most effective arrangement of forms... I chose the word 'diagram' because I thought 'abstract' rather unsuitable to describe work not abstracted from anything (correspondence from the artist to Tate Britain in letters dated 20 and 28 August 1984).

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