Lot 819: Ted Burnett Mid-Century Tennessee Abstract Painting

Ted Burnett (Tennessee, 1908-1982) casein on paper gestural abstract expressionist painting in orange, white, ochre, blue, and black, mid 20th-century. Signed lower right. Inscribed "Composition #2" to backing. Housed under glass in a painted wood frame with black fabric liner, likely original. Sight: 17 3/4" H x 32 1/4" W. Framed: 27" H x 41 1/2" W. Biographical note: "Born in Knoxville, Ted Burnett began his career as a teenager producing promotional displays at the then brand-new Tennessee Theatre in 1928. He studied art with Hugh Poe, a nationally known pastel artist, and Knoxville 's Robert Lindsay Mason before attending the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and the Chicago Art Institute. Later he studied at the Eliot O 'Hara Watercolor School in Maine. His first one-man show was held at UT 's Audigier Art Gallery in 1948. He opened the Ted Burnett School of Art in the late 1950s, before transitioning to paint stylized birds in the early 1970s. His Bicentennial print, 'Bald Eagle,' was displayed at the White House in 1976. His works were featured posthumously at the East Tennessee History Center 's show, 'Bagels and Barbecue: The Jewish Experience in Tennessee' in 2010-2011." (Courtesy of Knoxville History Project)

CONDITION: Overall very good condition, with craquelure to areas of heavy impasto. Not examined outside of frame.