LARRY POONS LAWRENCE POONS, dit (Né à Tokyo en... Lot n° 53

WITHOUT TITLE Signed and dated on the back "1982" 213.4 x 154.9 cm Acrylic and mixed techniques on canvas Private collection After musical studies at the New England Conservatory in Boston. In 1955-1957, Poons entered the Boston School of Fine Arts, which he left six months later to settle in New York. An autodictate, he tried in his first works to transcribe musical themes into black and white geometric drawings (Art de la Fugue, 1958). Quickly, the use of colours for optical effects led him to use a seedling of coloured spots mathematically distributed on a monochrome background. In Orange Crush (1963, Buffalo, Albright-Knox Art Gallery), the blue-green dots, painted in oil on an orange acrylic background, activate the surface and create a feeling of vibration. From the 1970s, rediscovering the importance of Pollock's dripping, Poons changed direction and created works by vertically pouring a thick paint on unstressed canvases. The colours mix freely, creating cascading patterns (596, 1969, Toronto, David Mirvish collection) or gushing (Polish Mix, 1970, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts). These solid compositions have been described by Michael Fried as "colorful bas-reliefs". In his latest work, Poons adds paper, cotton and other vegetable substances to the pigments, thus accentuating the granular aspect of the surface. Linked to the "optical art" movement at the beginning of his career, he participated in numerous exhibitions: The Responsive Eye, 1965; Systemic Painting, 1966; The Structure of Color, 1971. His work can be found in the main American museums as well as at the Tate Gallery in London and the Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven. His works are now in institutional collections such as those of the MoMA, the MET of New York, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art and, closer to home, the Tate Moderne and the Van Abbemuseum. He is represented by the greatest New York galleries of his time, including Leo Ca