Encaustic on Canvas Signed Rose — Modernist Figural Abstract

A paired modernist figural composition in encaustic on stretched canvas, bisected by a heavy black vertical that anchors two distinct figures across the picture plane. The left side gathers organic, vegetal forms — tangled contours, ovoid red-brown shapes, a pale rounded body grounded at the base. The right side opens into a more angular, kinetic figure crowned by a hammerhead silhouette in dense black, with a horizontal frieze of brick-red and umber running across its middle register and a long calligraphic line trailing off the canvas edge. The palette is restricted and earth-anchored: cream and ivory dominate, slate blue cools the right field, ochre warms the left, and deep black carries all the structural drawing.

The encaustic surface — pigment fused into hot wax — has been worked in successive campaigns: built up, scraped back, redrawn, and partially reburied, so ghosted shapes register beneath the top layer alongside crisp dimensional impasto. The visual language draws on the post-war figural abstraction lineage running from late Picasso and de Kooning through the CoBrA painters and Dubuffet's art brut — figures that refuse to fully resolve, paint handled with deliberate aggression, surface treated as the record of revision rather than finish. Signed "Rose." From a multi-state private collection with Delaware, Minneapolis, and Taos provenance.

CONDITION In Good condition with no remarkable damage. The encaustic surface is stable, with impasto and fused-wax passages intact. Minor edge wear and scattered paint bleed-through on the reverse linen are consistent with studio production and age.

DIMENSIONS / SPECIFICATIONS

• Height: 29 3/4"
• Width: 35 3/4"
• Depth: 1 7/8"
• Medium: Encaustic on stretched canvas
• Format: Unframed; wood stretcher with kraft-paper-reinforced corners
• Hanging: Wired, ready to hang
• Signature: "Rose"