Budwin Conn

Welcome to Lawrences Auctioneers for an auction celebrating the work of Budwin Conn.

Budwin Conn was an American artist, born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1927. He grew up in New York and studied under the painter Hans Hofmann (a close friend of Jackson Pollock), the sculptor Milton Horne and the artist Edward Melcarth (one of whose works is included here). He lived subsequently in Italy, England and Spain and travelled widely throughout Europe. Conn held solo exhibitions in New York, Italy, France and Spain from 1959-1987. He painted in his studio at 33 Tite Street in Chelsea, the former atelier of John Singer Sargent. Conn died in 2007.

His skill lay in the deft depiction of the human figure in compositions that were naturalistic and representational; these have an almost photographic directness (and many were evidently inspired by his photographs, some of which accompany the pictures). In addition, his colour sense often imparted a summery, plein air quality that is disrupted just a little by an intriguing uncertainty of mood. In many of his group subjects, the figures are focused upon something that may be happening beyond the composition itself. The varied depictions of themes of quiet observation suggest a greater activity occurring elsewhere. Titles, where given by Conn himself, seem to share little of the artist’s inspirations but these striking works, in formats large and small, allow us to consider afresh an artist who is due for critical reappraisal.