'Roofs of Ravello' by Margaret Wentworth Millard Owings, 1959, Mid-Century Abstract, Fogg Museum, San Francisco Art Association, Chicago Art Institute

Description

Initialed lower right, 'M. W.' for Margaret Wentworth (American, 1914-1999) and dated 1959.
Exhibited: Feingarten Galleries, Carmel, California, 1960, and … more Initialed lower right, 'M. W.' for Margaret Wentworth (American, 1914-1999) and dated 1959.
Exhibited: Feingarten Galleries, Carmel, California, 1960, and titled on label, verso, 'Roofs of Ravello'.
Accompanied by old exhibition information, laid down on card.

A complex, cabinet-size abstract comprising contiguous, rectangular areas of scumbled rose and tan overlain with diagonal and geometric elements in turquoise, parchment and slate; a finely composed, mid-century work with elegant palette and exceptional attention to detail.

Born in Berkeley, California, Wentworth first studied at Radcliffe College and with Roi Partridge at Mills College. She subsequently attended the Art Institute of Chicago and the Fogg Museum at Harvard University. During her first marriage, she also painted under the name Margaret Millard (1934-49). A lifelong resident of California, she married architect Nathaniel Owings in 1952 and settled on the coast in Big Sur. A member of the Carmel Art Association and the San Francisco Art Association, Wentworth exhibited widely and with success including at the Santa Barbara Museum, Mills College, Stanford Art Gallery, the Carmel Art Association Gallery, San Francisco's de Young Museum and Carmel's Feingarten Gallery, where this particular piece was exhibited in 1960.

Reference:
Artists in California 1786-1940, Third Edition, Edan Milton Hughes: Crocker Art Museum, Sheridan Books 2002, Vol. 2, page 1178; Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Peter Hastings Falk, Sound View Press 1999, Vol. 3, page 3517; et al. less