BROR ALEXANDER UTTER (American, 1913-1993). The Visitors, 1943. Oil on canvas board. 24 x 17-3/4 inches (61.0 x 45.1 cm)...

Description

BROR ALEXANDER UTTER (American, 1913-1993)
The Visitors, 1943
Oil on canvas board
24 x 17-3/4 inches (61.0 x 45.1 cm)
Signed along table edge: "Bror Utter'

PROVENANCE:
Mr. Charles H. Debuis, Fort Worth (label verso).

EXHIBITED:
Dallas Museum of Art, "Fifth Texas General Exhibit," 1943-44 (label verso).

The Visitors was painted in 1943 by Bror Utter. It is a stunning example of his early work and has many elements to which he will return over the course of his career. He continued to paint vessels and seashells, even as his work became more abstract in later years. Women in hats, especially groups of three women, are also a subject that he will resume repeatedly and are heavily influenced by the work of Henri Matisse. However, unlike Matisse, Utter's beautiful but muted palette invokes a surrealistic, dreamlike mood. His early works of this quality seldom come on the open market, making this painting a rare opportunity for any collector of early Texas art.

Utter was a leading member of the Fort Worth Circle, a group of artists that also included Bill Bomar, Veronica Helfensteller, and Dickson Reeder. In the 1930s and 1940s, these friends and collaborators helped each other to develop their work in styles that included the influence of art movements such as Surrealism, Modernism, and Regionalism.

Born in 1913, Utter was a Fort Worth native. He studied with Sallie Gillespie and attended the Fort Worth School of Fine Arts while he worked in the lithograph store that his family owned. Later, he went to the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center on a scholarship. After returning to Fort Worth, he taught until 1951, when he was able to become a full-time artist.


More information about BROR ALEXANDER UTTER. See also: Utter, Bror, Bror Alexander Utter Artist.



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