Alfred Leslie (American, 1927-2023). Large oil on canvas Abstract Expressionist painting titled "The Silver Thistle," painted in cool tones of blue and gray with splashes of red and yellow, 1955. Signed and dated along the lower center. Further signed and titled along the verso.

Provenance: Signa Gallery, New York; B.C. Holland Gallery, Chicago; Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago; Private Minnesota Collection.

Lot Essay:
Alfred Leslie is well known as being one the key figures in the second generation of Abstract Expressionist artists along with Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Milton Resnick. He took part in the landmark show "New Talent" organized by Clement Greenberg and Meyer Schapiro at Kootz Gallery in 1950 as well as the "Ninth Street Show" the following year. His first show at Tibor de Nagy Gallery in 1952 was highly praised with one critic writing that the "fresh, romantic, reckless expressionism" made the competition "seem prim and tight by comparison."

By the 1960s he began moving away from Abstract Expressionism, favoring figurative paintings, often portraits. His grisaille paintings were realistic, dramatically changed from his work of the previous decade. The subjects were often dramatically lit from multiple angles. In 1966, nearly all of his monochrome works were destroyed in a fire. It was at this point that he began introducing color back into his works.

While he would never return to the Abstract Expressionist works of his youth, the figural works of the present would remain influenced by his time with the movement. While the subject matter was rooted in the old master paintings of the past, he introduced modern elements that refreshed the genre and breathed new life into the act of portrait painting.
Unframed; height: 78 1/2 in x width: 70 3/4 in. Framed; height: 79 1/2 in x width: 71 3/4 in.

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