(New York/Louisiana, 1919-1985)

Idea IX, 1958, unsigned, oil on canvas, 11-7/8 x 13 in.; original wood gallery frame, 13-1/4 x 14-1/4 x 1-1/4 in.

Provenance: Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, Solo Exhibition, 1959, No. 3110 (label verso); Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence C. Kline; by descent in family

Note:  In 1950, Fritz Bultman aligned himself with the group of New York School artists, nicknamed the "Irascibles," seventeen other artists who also signed a letter to the Metropolitan Museum of Art protesting the institution's conservative policies and predjudices concerning Modern art. He was and friend of Hans Hofmann and rented his apartment in Germany where he witnessed intolerance toward modern art and the persecution of artists with exhibitions of “Degenerate Art” preceeding WWII. Abstract artists went underground and eventually migrated to New York, Chicago, Black Mountain, and other locations in the United States, in what would define the New York School and subsequently, Abstract Expressionism.

original stretcher, some light surface dirt, some white paint accretion; frame with paint