Carl Oscar Borg (1879-1947)

The Red Rock Wall

Details

Carl Oscar Borg (1879-1947)
The Red Rock Wall
signed 'Carl Oscar Borg.' (lower left)
oil on canvas
30 x 34 in. (76.2 x 86.4 cm.)

Provenance

Private collection, St. Louis, Missouri.
J.N. Bartfield Galleries, Inc., New York, acquired from the above, circa 1997.
Steve Martin, acquired from the above, 1998.
Christie's, Los Angeles, California, 20 November 2002, lot 61.
Acquired by the present owner from the above.

Literature

H. Laird, Carl Oscar Borg and the Magic Region: Artist of the American West, Layton, Utah, 1986, pp. 93, 210, fig. 22, illustrated.

Lot Essay

The dramatic composition of The Red Rock Wall displays Carl Oscar Borg's interest in Native American life and the spectacular landscape of the Arizona desert. Borg began making annual journeys to Arizona and New Mexico from California beginning in 1916 and continued throughout the remainder of his career. The Native American life of this region captured Borg's interest and imagination and was one of his main artistic inspirations. Painting mostly the Hopi and Navajo tribes, Borg sought to capture, in a most straightforward and pure manner, the tribe's relationship with the earth. This environmental portrait displays the figure and the landscape as integral parts of a whole.

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