At the age of 24, Friedel Dzubas, the child of a Jewish father, fled to the USA shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. It was there that he first met artists including Adolph Gottlieb and the painter Helen Frankenthaler with whom he shared a studio on 23rd Street in 1952-3.
When looking at Argonaut, it is the presence of the colours which really stands out. The large-format work lays out a panoramic landscape reminiscent of German Romantic landscape painting and paintings by Tiepolo, his great inspiration. Like Helen Frankenthaler and Morris Louis, Dzubas appreciates the luminosity of Magna paint, but primes the canvas so that the paint remains on the surface, rather than sinking into the unprimed fabric as in the soak-stain technique.
Friedel Dzubas (1915–1994)
Argonaut, 1983
Currently exhibited: Yes (Gallery: Painting as a Home)
Material: Acrylic paint (Magna) on canvas
Size: 294.6 x 734.1 cm
Inv-Nr.: B_391
Keywords:
Previous owner: Artist owned; private collection
Acquisition: Reinhard Ernst Collection, Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York, 2017
Solo exhibition:
2017
‘Big Redux: Friedel Dzubas “Mural Paintings”‘, Tower 49 Gallery, New York, USA
Friedel Dzubas’ painting is an outstanding example of the combination of German painting tradition with the courage to use large formats and American materials and techniques. He was born in Berlin in 1915 and developed an interest in painting as a young man but was unable to study art because he failed to complete higher education. He trained as a decorative painter instead. As the son of a Jewish father, he fled to the USA shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. He was 24 years old. He met artists such as Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Adolph Gottlieb, Barnett Newman and Franz Kline with the help of Clement Greenberg. He was also introduced to Helen Frankenthaler with whom he shared a studio on 23rd Street from October 1952 to November 1953. A curtain separated the area where Frankenthaler painted in the afternoon from the room where Dzubas lived and worked.
His artistic process took him from illusionistic landscapes to large canvases on which he arranged pure colour formations without narrative content. He used Magna paint from 1966 onwards, an oil-based acrylic resin paint which dried very quickly but retained its colour intensity. Dzubas recalled: ‘I found Magna true in tonality; true to look the way I wished […] the way I wished that red should look, ultramarine should look, etcetera.’ [1] He primed the canvas with three layers of Gesso which meant the paint remained on the surface of the canvas rather than sinking into the unprimed fabric as in the soak-stain technique.
When looking at Argonaut, it is the colours’ presence which really stands out. The large-format work lays out a panoramic landscape reminiscent of German Romantic landscape painting and paintings by Tiepolo, his great inspiration. He himself noted: ‘When you work large, it’s easier to get lost, and I want to get lost. First you spend a good deal of your life saying you want to find things, you want to find yourself. Now, when I feel I have found it, I say I want to lose it, to forget it.’ [2]
[1] Patricia L. Lewy: ‘”A little ecstasy”: Friedel Dzubas’s color abstractions’, in: Friedel Dzubas: Affective Color, ed. by Patricia L. Lewy, ex. cat. Yares Art, New York 2019, p. 11.
[2] Ibid., p. 25.
