'Vacation Ii' by Curtis Fields, 1980, New York Modernism, Art Students League, Montreal Museum of Art

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Signed lower left, 'Curtis Fields' (American, 1921-2008) and dated 1980.
Provenance: Austin Hills estate, San Francisco.

After graduating from Yale … Read more Signed lower left, 'Curtis Fields' (American, 1921-2008) and dated 1980.
Provenance: Austin Hills estate, San Francisco.

After graduating from Yale Art School, Fields served in the Navy during World War II. In 1946, he moved to New York where he studied at the Art Students League with Will Barnett and Cameron Booth. Later, he attended New York's Cooper Union and, subsequently, studied at the New School for Social Research with Alexei Brodevitch, then art director for Harper’s Bazaar.

In 1951, Fields moved to Paris for five years where he continued to study and paint, and also exhibited successfully including at a one-man show on the Left Bank. By 1956, he was working for an ad agency in Montreal and enjoyed painting on the Rouge River west of the city and at Saranac Lake in upstate New York with his second wife, Veronica. In 1960, they moved to San Francisco where he continued to pursue his vocation as a professional artist. Over the course of a long career, Curtis Fields exhibited widely and with success including at the Montreal Museum of Art.

From the artist's book:

"Lying in bed at age five, charged with taking a nap, it occurred to me that my room needed decorating. I got up and found a pencil. I drew a long, continuous scene of cars going up and down hills. I drew it all the way around the room. This early evidence of an artistic leaning earned me a spanking. I put further drawings of cars on hold.

As time passed, I visited my extended family in Woodstock, Vermont. My subject matter shifted to houses and barns, horses and pastures. One painting, done in my teen years, very nearly didn’t survive. I tossed it in the trash during a studio cleanup in the 1950’s. My wife Veronica rescued it. She hadn’t seen it before, and thought it had a certain charm.

I entered Yale in 1939 with the intention of becoming a mechanical engineer. It wasn’t my idea. My father, having struggled during the Depression, felt mechanical engineers had a significantly better chance of survival than painters. At the conclusion of my first year I once again visited my Vermont relatives. One evening I saw a gorgeous, heart-stopping sunset. An inspiration struck me.

“I shall be a painter!” I cried.

This was not good news to my father. Nevertheless, the following fall I became an art major. The wisdom of my choice became abundantly clear when I walked into my first life-drawing class. I could hardly believe my luck. A woman! Stark naked!" See less