Including a Rich Art Studio Sketch Book with five loose charcoal sketches, unsigned, each numbered by Howard Thomas in the upper right corner (9 x 6 in.) (good estate condition); a drawing signed and dated "Carl Holty 1939-49" at lower right, crayon on paper laid on board (Sheet 12 3/4 x 9 1/2 in.) (laid down with unidentified adhesive, scattered foxing); and a drawing, crayon on wove paper, unsigned, inscribed "Drawing by Carl Holty - Collection of Howard Thomas - (estate stamp) - Anne Wall Thomas (signature) 3/06," unframed (Sheet 17 x 14 in.) (scattered foxing).

Exhibited:
Athens, Georgia, Georgia Museum of Art, Carl Holty: Romantic Modernist, August 29, 2020 - January 17, 2021

Carl Holty was a German-American abstract painter known for his contributions to modernist art and his role in the American Abstract Artists group. Born in Freiburg, Germany, and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Holty studied art in both the United States and Europe, where he was influenced by Cubism, Abstract Expressionism, and Bauhaus principles.
Holty’s early work was representational, but he later shifted to pure abstraction, focusing on geometric forms, vibrant color fields, and lyrical compositions. His work is noted for its dynamic use of color, light, and spatial depth. He was a prominent figure in the New York art scene during the mid-20th century and became a respected teacher at institutions like Brooklyn College. Holty’s work is held in several major museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum.
In 1948, Lamar Dodd offered Holty the opportunity to serve as an artist in residence at the University of Georgia, based on a recommendation from UGA faculty member Howard Thomas. Holty spent two years in Georgia where he found ways “to create a surface tension of suspended pictorial space by laying down a mosaic of patches of color that simultaneously described, developed and denied the picture plane.” (from Carl Holty, Romantic Modernist, an exhibition booklet published by and in conjunction with the show mounted at the Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia)