(Genf 1909–Gland)

French painting: Courmont. 1990.

Oil on canvas.

Signed, titled and dated on the reverse on the overlap: FRENCH PAINTING: COURMONT MARCIA HAFIF 1990.

133 x 132 cm.

Provenance:
- Galerie Dr. Luise Krohn, Badenweiler.
- Purchased from the above by the present owner, since then private collection Switzerland.

The American artist Marcia Hafif was born in Pomona, California in 1920. After she completed her studies on the Italian Renaissance and Far Eastern Art at Pomona College in 1951, she travelled to Italy, where she spent 8 years in Rome. She later returned to California, where in 1969 she completed further studies at the University of California and made a new home in New York from 1971. From the 80s, terms such as ‘radical’ have been used to describe her monochrome works.

The artist calls her group of works “Table of Pigments”. To produce her works she applies saturated colours on mostly rectangular canvases using a slightly stubbly style, with minor colour variations, which at the same time creates a barely visible powdery surface. The monochrome surfaces appear to move slightly. Hafif’s artworks are shown in numerous museums such as MoMa in New York, the Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich, MAMCO in Geneva and numerous museums in France. A retrospective is taking place at the Kunsthaus Basellland from September to November 2017 and also at the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, from 16 September 2017 to 14 January 2018.