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Untitled
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 24 × 24 in |
| Year | 1976 |
| Additional notes | Part of the 'Moth Lights' series |
About the Work
This 1976 oil on canvas is a key example from the artist's 'Moth Lights' series, representing a **mature phase of her abstract and perceptual explorations** inspired by the New Mexico landscape, a significant departure from her figurative work but consistent with her lifelong thematic interests, created during a period of **relative obscurity before her late-career institutional acclaim**.
Wider Context
This work dialogues with major art historical movements, including **_Color Field_ painting and the _Light and Space_ movement**, showing strong visual parallels to artists like **Wojciech Fangor and Josef Albers**, yet it carves a unique path by infusing modernist abstraction with a deeply personal, **introspective**, and ecofeminist perspective that sets it apart.
Market Outlook
The investment potential is strong, driven by the fact that it is a **rare oil on canvas from a key series**, a category of work yet to appear at auction but commanding six-figure prices on the primary market; however, this potential is tempered by the **significant risk of a thinly traded and untested secondary market** that relies on institutional reputation rather than public sales data.
Insights
Strengths
- A rare oil on canvas from a desirable series
- Artist is backed by a major blue-chip gallery
- Strong institutional support with recent museum retrospectives
- Market for rediscovered female artists remains robust
- Connects to major post-war abstract movements
Potential Risks
- The secondary market for paintings is completely untested
- Public auction data is extremely limited and thin
- Market value is heavily reliant on primary sales
- Future supply is controlled by the artist's estate
- Relatively small scale may affect value
- Born in Maiquetía, Venezuela, Hurtado immigrated to New York City in 1928, where she later studied at the **Art Students League**.
- Her career spanned eight decades but she remained largely **overlooked until her late 90s**, with a dramatic market rediscovery occurring just years before her death.
- Early in her career, she was immersed in the **Surrealist** and **Dynaton** movements, living in Mexico City and California and socializing with **Frida Kahlo**, **Leonora Carrington**, and **Marcel Duchamp**.
- She was married to two prominent artists: the Austrian Surrealist **Wolfgang Paalen** and later the American abstractionist **Lee Mullican**.
- Her "rediscovery" began around 2015 when **Ryan Good**, the director of Lee Mullican’s estate, cataloged her stored paintings, leading to a solo show at Park View Gallery in 2016.
- Her breakout institutional moment was the **Hammer Museum's 'Made in L.A.' biennial** in 2018, where her vitality and historical depth captivated critics and collectors.
- In 2019, she received her first major museum retrospective, *I Live I Die I Will Be Reborn*, at the **Serpentine Galleries** in London, which traveled to **LACMA** in 2020.
- She was named one of **TIME's 100 Most Influential People** in 2019, cementing her status as a cultural icon of resilience and creativity.
- Hurtado's practice is often divided into distinct series, including the celebrated **"I Am"** self-portraits (1960s–70s), which depict her body from a downward-looking perspective.
- The artwork described likely belongs to her **"Sky Skins"** or **"Moth Lights"** series, which feature geometric apertures and gradients floating in void-like fields, often inspired by the skies of **Taos, New Mexico**.
- Her style bridges **biomorphic abstraction**, **geometric spiritualism**, and **feminist figuration**, often exploring themes of ecological connectivity and the cosmos.
- She is represented by the blue-chip mega-gallery **Hauser & Wirth**, which secured her legacy with global exhibitions and publications.
- Her work is held in major permanent collections, including **MoMA** (New York), **LACMA** (Los Angeles), and the **British Museum** (London).
- Collectors prize her work for its synthesis of **mid-century modernism** and **contemporary relevance**, appealing to those interested in **Surrealism**, **feminist art history**, and **spiritual abstraction**.
Luchita Hurtado
1940
Crayon and ink on paper
27.6 × 34.6 cm
USD 90,000
Est. USD 40,000 - USD 60,000
Sotheby's, Nov 2024
This work, Four Square, set Luchita Hurtado's current auction record of $90,000. It is a much earlier piece from 1940 and, crucially, is a work on paper. The high price for a crayon and ink drawing demonstrates the strong demand for her work, but it also highlights the significant valuation gap, as the analyzed oil on canvas from a prime period is expected to be valued considerably higher, reflecting the market's preference for this medium.
Wojciech Fangor
1967
Oil on canvas
61.2 × 61.2 cm
USD 181,144
Bonhams, Jun 2018
Wojciech Fangor's M90 is a vital stylistic comparable. The use of a soft-edged, glowing geometric form that appears to pulsate with light is almost identical to the optical effect in Hurtado's 'Moth Lights' series. Fangor has a mature and established market, with similar works commanding strong six-figure prices. This provides a compelling, albeit aspirational, market benchmark for this specific style of spiritual, optical abstraction.
Etel Adnan
2014
Oil on canvas
23.5 × 30.5 cm
USD 31,250
Est. USD 25,000 - USD 35,000
Phillips, May 2018
Etel Adnan is a critical market peer, sharing the powerful narrative of a female artist achieving widespread acclaim late in life. This small, untitled oil on canvas is representative of the abstract landscapes that have become highly sought after. Its sale price of $31,000 in 2018 for a similar-sized work demonstrates the collector appetite for intimate, abstract canvases by rediscovered senior female artists, providing a solid market comparable and suggesting a strong baseline value for Hurtado's piece.
Josef Albers
1951
Oil on Masonite
60.9 × 60.9 cm
USD 605,000
Est. USD 300,000 - USD 400,000
Christie's, May 2016
Josef Albers's Homage to the Square: Restrained Glow offers an essential art-historical context. While Hurtado adopts the square format, she subverts Albers's rigid, hard-edged formalism. This work highlights the crucial difference between Albers's analytical color theory and Hurtado's intuitive, atmospheric approach. The robust and high-value market for Albers's works demonstrates the long-standing collector interest in geometric abstraction, providing a strong foundation for the collecting category in which Hurtado's work resides.
Lee Mullican
1962
Oil on canvas
190.5 × 190.5 cm
USD 69,063
Bonhams, Dec 2021
This large-scale oil painting by Lee Mullican, Hurtado's late husband and fellow artist, provides a direct market comparison. His work shares a similar interest in spiritual abstraction rooted in the Dynaton group. That this much larger canvas sold for $69,000—below Hurtado's record for a small work on paper—is a clear indicator that Hurtado's market has now decisively surpassed her husband's, a testament to the power of her recent institutional validation and the market's focus on her unique story.
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