ERNEST BRIGGS
(AMERICAN, 1923-1984)
Number 73

Provenance:  Stable Gallery

Oil on canvas

57 ½ ” x 127”

Painted in 1955

Ernest Briggs studied at CSFA in San Francisco at the time when the faculty consisted of artists like Mark Rothko, Ad Reinhardt and Clifford Still.  Still impressed Briggs, with his raw and primeval approach to surface.  In the mid 1950’s, Briggs moved to New York, was accepted as a member of the New York avant-garde and had a one-man show at the Stable Gallery, almost immediately.  He taught at the University of Florida, Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and at the Graduate school of Art at Yale University.
Briggs’ paintings from the 1950’s are some of his most original. The rugged aesthetic that he picked up from California developed into fiery explosions of paint that seem to have erupted on to the canvas as if by a force all of their own, as seen in his work number 73, 1955.  He invented a volcanic approach of painting, interpreting nature as a cataclysmic force and the powerful compositions of his paintings have a forceful and energetic strength unequaled during their time.  The luminous atmosphere and rhythmic brush-strokes form the dynamism of expression that characterizes Briggs’ work. The museum of Modern Art was instrumental in recognizing his talent from the beginning.  Briggs’ involvement in the development of Abstraction in New York during the 1950’s has had a lasting influence on succeeding generations.

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