Rolph Scarlett Abstract Composition Painting

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Rolph Scarlett
Canadian/American
1889 - 1984
Abstract Composition
Mixed media
17 3/4 x 22 1/4 in.
Signed on the lower … Read more Rolph Scarlett
Canadian/American
1889 - 1984
Abstract Composition
Mixed media
17 3/4 x 22 1/4 in.
Signed on the lower right
Frame 28 x 34 1/2 in.
Provenance: Artist estate, Woodstock New York

Rolph Scarlett was a Canadian artist known for both his abstract paintings and jewelry designs. Scarlett’s nonobjective style of painting emerged from his interest in both Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinksy. Born on June 13, 1889 in Guelph, Canada, he worked in his uncle’s jewelry store as a teenager before moving to New York in 1908. After briefly studying at the Art Students League, Scarlett relocated to Los Angeles where he became a successful set designer for plays and films. During the 1920s, the artist traveled to Europe on business, where he met Klee and shifted from a more traditional observational painting style to abstraction. After settling in New York in 1937, Scarlett became friends with the new curator of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Hilla Rebay, who introduced him to a number of avant-garde circles in the city. Throughout the remainder of his career, the artist continued to produce both jewelry and paintings. He died on August 7, 1984 in Woodstock, NY. Today, Scarlett’s works are held in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and The Museum of Modern Art in New York, among others. See less