26 Sketches in Color

A remarkable sketchbook with 25 original gouache paintings (there is no work number 14) by Beryl Barr-Sharrar, for Pierre Lecuire. Small oblong octavo (8 1/8 x 5 1/4 inches). Cardboard covers, metal spiral binding. Some light bumping to edges, paintings in beautiful and bright condition, overall excellent. N.p. (Paris), 1968. This beautiful notebook is inscribed inside the front cover, "Pour Pierre de Beryl, 20 Août, 1968, ces 25 esquisses en couleurs". The title is hand-written on the front cover, and a date of 1965 given under Barr-Sharrar's name. There is also a hand-written note from Lecuire, which mentions that Béryl was his neighbor in Paris in the 1960's and was married first to sculptor Roger Barr and then to Bill Rubin of the Museum of Modern Art, and has since returned to New York. Beryl Barr-Sharrar (b. 1935) is an American artist who studied the American Abstract Expressionists in Berkeley and New York before moving to Paris in the 1960's and beginning her career as a professional artist. In 1962 she co-founded the College Art Study Abroad program, and served as its director until she returned to the United States in 1968. She taught painting and printmaking at Mount Holyoke, and in 1970 began studying classical archaeology at the IFA at New York University. She continued to paint and exhibit her work for several years but after 1980, focused primarily on her academic career. A handful of years ago, she returned to exhibiting her work as a painter with a three-person show in Long Island City, in 2016. Her work was exhibited at the Lucian Durand Gallery in 1967, and of her paintings it was said, "Beryl Barr-Sharrar's work has the vigor and know-how of American action painting at its best, and the refinement of color of the School of Paris. The result is both captivating and awe-inspiring." Pierre Lecuire (1922-2013) was a French poet and publisher who collaborated closely with numerous artists to design and publish beautifully crafted books. It is unclear how exactly Lecuire and Barr-Sharrar crossed paths, but perhaps he became aware of her work during those exhibitions in Paris in the late 1960s. The 25 small paintings in this sketchbook showcase Barr-Sharrar's study of Abstract Expressionism and her bold use of color. A beautiful and unique volume of original art.