Holmead Phillips (1889-1975) - Femme en Vert

\Artist: Holmead Phillips (1889-1975)
Technique: Oil on panel\Signature: Hand signed
Beautiful oil on panel by the great American expressionist painter Clifford Holmead Phillips (1889-1975) . Signed lower left and on the back. Dated '73. Dimensions without frame 40,5 cm x 30,5 cm. Titled on the back "Femme en Vert". Framed. About the artist: Born in the United States, Clifford Holmead was trained in his father's furniture factory, early 20th century. In 1912 he made his first trip to Europe, visiting France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Germany. This stay of several months allowed him to familiarize himself with art, from antiquities to modern art, and he decided to become a painter. Returning to the United States, Holmead frequented numerous museums and art galleries, gaining immense knowledge of art history and making numerous drawings and sketches. His early works, made before 1920, reflected the influence of the Hudson River School, the first national art school in the United States. The artist was also inspired by the artists of the Barbizon School, a newly created French group back then. Like many American artists, Holmead moved to the artists' colonies in New England for several months; the traditional landscapes, he painted there, showed his belonging to the movements chosen by these painters. Between 1924 and 1941 he made numerous visits to Europe, notably to Paris and Bruges, then to Copenhagen and The Hague. It was impressed by the painting of the fauvist Maurice de Vlamick, causing a fundamental shock in his artistic life. His compositions were accompanied by warm and expressive hues. Holmead gave increasing emphasis to movement and intensity, now considering himself an expressionist artist- and he refused abstract expressionism and abstraction in his paintings for the rest of his life. From 1926 to 1936, the painter exhibited in numerous renowned galleries in New York, Philadelphia, Paris, Detroit, Chicago and Munich. In 1929, a solo exhibition showed over 40 works at the Bernheim-Jeune gallery in Paris. Critics of the time emphasized his independence, courage and individualism. In the 1930s, Holmead encouraged young artists, and he took care of the sale and purchase of paintings. With the deterioration of the political climate in Europe and the rise of National Socialism, Holmead was forced to leave Europe and return to his native country. Biblical motifs appeared in his art related to the fundamental questions of existence. These themes, and then the horror of war, mingled with motifs borrowed from Greek legends, and they continued to occupy it until the early 1960s. Holmead moved permanently to Europe in 1956, settling in Brussels. But his pre-war good relations with gallery owners and collectors were deteriorated, and Holmead was forced to start from scratch. Until his death, he lived very remote in his studio in Brussels, creating landscapes where he expressed his very own vision of abstract expressionism, which he called "Shorthand Painting". These landscapes executed in a few strokes with a spatula, the heads of characters were the result and the essence of his long life as a painter. Holmead placed everything he knows, everything he learned or tried to achieve, in these layers of furrowed colours with quick strokes with a spatula. Holmead's works are housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) , the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston) , the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven) , the National Museum of Modern Art Centre Pompidou (Paris) , the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (Brussels) , etc.