Untitled Abstraction

Richard Gentry Ayer

A fractal, inky Abstract Expressionist lithograph from artist Richard Gentry Ayer. Though he was raised in Utah, Ayer's identity as a San Franciscan was evidenced in his education, having attended the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute) in the early 1930s and again in the 1940s, working for the San Francisco chapter of the Federal Art Project on major murals and frescoes throughout the city, and, aside from participation in the Annual Northwest Printmaker Exhibition in Seattle he was almost exclusively a San Francisco exhibitor.

Ayer's earliest work was influenced by Surrealism as it made headway in the United States, but his style changed after his exposure to the melting pot of artists working for the WPA in the mid to late 1930s. However, it was his time at the California School of Fine Arts (CSFA) following his time in the war that ultimately cemented his place in West Coast Abstract Expressionism. Here, especially, is seen the influence of guest CSFA teacher Stanley William Hayter, whose encouragement of automatic line and non-representational imagery emerges from the stone.