Flowers in a Blue Vase, 1958
by Robert Kulicke (1924–2007)7½ x 7 inches
Inscribed lower left: For Barbara + Ernie; signed and dated upper right: Kulicke 58
Provenance
The artist
Barbara and Ernest Kafka, New York, New York, acquired from above
Sale, Sotheby’s, New York, New York, October 4, 2022, lot 802, from above
Related Work
Untitled, 1963, oil on canvas board, 10 x 9 inches, signed and dated top center; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
Note: Barbara and Ernest Kafka were passionate art collectors who befriended contemporary artists throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
Artist Biography
Robert Kulicke was an artist and frame maker who is credited for changing the appearance of postwar art by modernizing frame design. Born in Philadelphia in 1924, Kulicke first studied art in high school, and then went on to study advertising at the Philadelphia College of Art. After serving three years in the army during World War II, he became interested in framing. Disenchanted with the techniques of his contemporaries, however, he developed his own designs, studying in the atelier of Fernand Léger in Paris on the G.I. Bill.
When he returned to New York in 1951, he opened Kulicke