Michael Goldberg (b. 1924)

This still life is a significant work from the period 1963-65 when Goldberg's interest in images, usually indicated by the color, structure or titles of his canvases, becomes more explicit. In an interview in 2001 Goldberg remarked that the work of Giorgio Morandi represented the pinnacle of aestheticism, a view that suggests works like these may represent some of Goldbergs most direct engagement with European tradition. Like fellow painter Willem de Kooning, Goldberg was on comfortable terms with both abstraction and imagery something one sees here somewhat differently, where the rough blocking of paint and blunt draftsmanship lend the muscularity of Abstract Expressionism to a traditional still life composition.