NEW YORK, NY.- Sotheby’s S|2 is presenting Alfonso Ossorio: Works from the Foundation from 1 May – 9 June 2017. Organized in close collaboration with the Ossorio Foundation, the exhibition surveys over thirty years of works on paper, paintings and sculptures by this seminal figure of post-war American art. The works in this exhibition range from Ossorio’s abstract canvases and wax resist watercolors of the 1950s to his mixed media assemblages from the 1970s.

Allan Schwartzman, Chairman of Sotheby’s Fine Art Division, commented: “As our S|2 gallery refocuses towards artists who have been celebrated art historically but are under-recognized by the market, we are thrilled to present shows dedicated to Alfonso Ossorio and Roy Newell. While these artists have many differences, both are distinguished for a creative output that stands alongside many of the giants of 20th-century art. We curated these exhibitions to showcase the depth and breadth of the artists’ practice, from forty years of Newell’s brightly-colored, geometric abstractions, to works-on-paper, paintings, sculpture, and assemblage by Ossorio. It is my hope that S|2 can contribute to broader recognition of these as well as other influential, but less commercial artists.”

Nicholas Cinque, S|2 Gallery Director, New York, stated: “This exhibition presents a unique opportunity to rediscover one of the great American artists of the post-war period. Synthesizing elements of Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism and Art Brut through his applications of wax, enamel and found object assemblages, this exhibition highlights the multifaceted career of Alfonso Ossorio. It has been a great pleasure to work with the Ossorio Foundation to organize this group of 14 works from the artist’s estate, many of which have not been exhibited publicly for decades. This collection of works-on-paper, paintings and sculptures represent key components of Ossorio’s creative output, detailing his technical processes and engagement with varying artistic ideals.”

Alfonso Ossorio was born in 1916 in Manila, Philippines and died in 1990 in New York. In the 1930s, he studied fine art at Harvard University and the Rhode Island School of Design. He became an American citizen in 1933 and served as a medical illustrator in the United States Army during World War II. In the decades following the war, Ossorio lived and worked between New York, Paris and the Philippines, eventually settling in East Hampton in the early 1950s. Through his exhibitions at Betty Parsons Gallery, Ossorio emerged as a prominent figure among a group of artists working in New York including Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning and Barnett Newman. Pollock and Krasner were responsible for introducing Ossorio to East Hampton, where he acquired the historic estate known as the Creeks on Georgica Pond and established his permanent studio.

The Creeks put Ossorio and Pollock in close proximity as their studios were only a few miles apart. Ossorio was a friend and early patron of Pollock, championing his work as well as a number of their other contemporaries. Over the years, Ossorio's studio and home became a central hub for the art scene, housing Jean Dubuffet’s Art Brut collection as well as serving as a seasonal studio for Clyfford Still and other artists. Ossorio and his circle maintained an open exchange of ideas, mutually influencing one another’s artistic development. This is perhaps best summarized by Dubuffet’s 1951 Peintures initiatiques d’Alfonso Ossorio (The Initiatory Paintings of Alfonso Ossorio), a monograph written by the French artist detailing his studio observations of Ossorio’s artistic process.

Not only did the Creeks bring together Ossorio and his peers, but it also provided the artist access to an immense range of natural materials from seashells to deer antlers; these found objects would become the foundation of his iconic assemblages referred to as congregations. It was also during this time that Ossorio continued to explore various painting techniques such as his intensive wax resist process on paper as well as the use of enamel and oil paint on canvas.

Ossorio's work is included in such institutional collections as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Museum of Modern Art, NY; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; L’Art Brut Museum, Switzerland and The Brooklyn Museum, NY, among others. Most recently, at the Whitney’s inaugural downtown exhibition, America is Hard to See(2015), Ossorio was displayed directly next to Jackson Pollock, curatorially establishing a repositioning of the artist as a peer to those that he shared the wall with in that important exhibition.