557 - Mark Tobey* (Centerville 1890 - 1976 Basel)

Mark Tobey* (Centerville 1890 - 1976 Basel) Transformation, 1974 silkscreen/paper 40 x 29 cm signed Tobey, numbered X/LXX SCHÄTZPREIS / ESTIMATE € 200 - 400 STARTPREIS / STARTING PRICE € 200 Mark Tobey (1890–1976) was an American painter and a pioneer of modern abstraction. Born in Centerville, Wisconsin, he studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and initially worked as a portrait artist and fashion illustrator in New York. In 1918, he converted to the Bahá’í faith, whose ideas of spiritual unity and universalism strongly influenced his artistic development. From 1922, he lived and taught in Seattle, where his encounter with Chinese calligraphy introduced him to East Asian artistic traditions. Extensive travels through Europe, the Middle East, China and Japan, including a stay at a Zen monastery near Kyoto in 1934, further shaped his interest in Zen, meditation, philosophy and calligraphy. From the 1930s onwards, Tobey developed an increasingly abstract visual language and became a central figure of the Northwest School alongside artists such as Morris Graves, Guy Anderson and Kenneth Callahan. PLEASE NOTE: The purchase price consists of the highest bid plus the buyer's premium, sales tax and, if applicable, the fee of artists resale rights and platform fee. In the case of normal taxation (marked ° at the estimate), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax is added to the sum of the highest bid, the buyer's premium and platform fee. This amounts to 13% for paintings, drawings, graphic works and sculptures and 20% for photographs and all other items. The buyer's premium amounts to 28% in case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.