Tony King
$14,000
American (1944)
About the artist:
Born in Massachusetts in 1944, and educated at Stanford University (BS ’67) and the New York Studio School (1964–65), Tony King moved to New York City in the late 1960s. He began his career as an abstract painter, employing a reductionist approach and using geometric forms incorporating illusionistic space and complex color arrangements. While showing this work in Soho through the 1970s and 80s, he pursued many other projects and ideas: conceptual pieces, “combine” paintings of abstract forms with photo emulsion images, and a series of large scale paintings of color replications of US currency.
In the mid 1980s King's interests shifted to landscape painting. At first he conceptualized the landscape as an image within an abstract field of either color or newsprint, but began to concentrate on plein aire painting when he relocated to Sonoma County. The landscapes edged toward a more traditional format, retaining a modernist awareness of the ever-changing relationship of man and the natural world. His series The Oldest Trees, portraits of Bristlecone Pines, was shown at OK Harris in New York in 2012, and at the Pepperwood Preserve later that year.
Recently, he has renewed his interest in geometric abstract work, as well as continued the Bristlecone series and painting local landscapes. Since his first show in 1965, he has exhibited nationally in museums and galleries.