Bonhams to Feature Work by Wallace Berman, Ed Moses, and Other California Artists

Bonhams’ upcoming Post War & Contemporary Art X Made in California sale will present over 120 lots of American fine art by the likes of Wallace Berman and Ed Moses. Leading the sale is a Verifax collage titled Dirty Tree by Wallace Berman. A sharp and insightful critic of American visual culture, Wallace Berman is credited with founding the California Assemblage movement. He was a leading figure in San Francisco’s avant-garde scene. The artist’s oeuvre includes a series of collages he created using an early Kodak photocopier, the Verifax, and painted text. The Kabbalah, jazz music, astronomical images, occult symbols, and American folklore all played an important role in Berman’s psychedelic art. This art took many forms, such as encrypted letters, magazines like Semina, and inscriptions on stones in Hebrew. 

Other notable lots in the sale include a 2008 acrylic on canvas work by American painter Ed Moses. A pioneer of abstract painting and an explorer of materials, Moses played an important role in postwar West Coast art. Using multiple techniques, he created cracks, marks, and striations on the surface of his canvases, sometimes in conjunction with geometric abstraction. A founding member of the “Cool School,” Moses helped turn Los Angeles into a major force in the field of contemporary art. The available lot, titled Break-Out, is signed and marked ‘BREAK-OUT YBRANCO 08’. Find the complete catalog and register to bid in the Post War & Contemporary Art X Made in California event by visiting Bonhams.