Jack Meanwell 1983 Oil Pastel Figure Drawing

Item Details

Untitled (abstracted figure), 1983
Oil pastel on paper
Signed and dated to lower left

An original oil pastel drawing on paper by well-listed American Abstract Expressionist Jack Meanwell (Cincinnati, Ohio; 1919 – 2005). The drawing depicts an abstracted nude illustrated in loose, gestural linework in vivid shades of teal, red, yellow, and deep purple. The drawing is signed and dated in graphite to the lower left. It is matted in white and presented behind glass in a red tone frame with a hanging wire to the verso.

Hailing from Ontario, Canada, Jack Meanwell began his formal artistic training at the Detroit Art Academy and the Society of Arts and Crafts during the Great Depression, focusing on commercial arts, before joining the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. After a brief and unfulfilling career advertising for Ford and Chrysler in 1945, Meanwell and his family relocated to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he would eventually call home and realize his true calling, painting and instructing with great zeal at the Art Academy of Cincinnati for over 25 years.

Meanwell remains one of the most highly sought-after collected Cincinnati painters and is often associated with fellow Cincinnati painter and friend, Paul Chidlaw. The pair had their works exhibited together in 2010 at the Mary Ran Gallery, in an exhibit called Paul Chidlaw and Jack Meanwell – Battle of the Abstract Expressionists. His works are represented in the permanent collection of the Cincinnati Art Museum.

Dimensions

- visible image area measures 15.25″ × 24.25″.

Item #

18CIN517-041