3077 - Mark Tobey

Mark Tobey 1890 Centerville, WI – 1976 Basel Untitled. 1964 Tempera on paper Signed and dated lower right: Tobey 64 Framed 38 × 26 cm (sheet size) Certificate of Authenticity: Committee Mark Tobey (CMT), Heiner Hachmeister, Münster, April 20, 2024, No. 20/04/24-64.40. The American painter Mark Tobey is considered one of the most important pioneers of Abstract Expressionism. After his training and early career as a portrait painter, he developed a distinctive visual language that combined Western abstraction with influences from East Asian calligraphy and philosophy. Beginning in 1925, he lived for extended periods in Europe and the Middle East. After the Basel gallery owner Ernst Beyeler acquired a significant body of the artist’s work, Tobey moved to Basel in 1960. Works on paper occupy a central place in Tobey’s oeuvre. Through his direct engagement with the support, he developed that characteristic, net-like linear structure that became known as “White Writing.” In the work on offer from 1964, his abstract formal language unfolds in the subtle interplay of line, plane, and rhythm. This tempera painting on paper illustrates Tobey’s interest in a multi-layered, almost calligraphic composition in which movement and concentration merge into a balanced whole. Auction Date: November 28, 2026 Approximate Auction Time: 2:23 p.m. CET