SwissArtGallery · Documented identity
John O’Neil (1915–2004), born in Kansas City, earned fine arts degrees at the University of Oklahoma in 1936 and 1939. He continued studying in Colorado Springs, Taos and Rome. During the Second World War he worked as a topographer in North Africa and then as a graphic artist at the Pentagon. After the war he directed the University of Oklahoma’s art department before joining Rice University in Houston in 1965.
His abstract painting arranges colour and form into strongly structured compositions. Overlapping shapes, tonal differences and warm contrasts generate visual rhythms rather than literal descriptions of landscape. Umbral Series X exemplifies this construction through colour relationships. As teacher and gallery director, O’Neil also helped develop art education and exhibitions at Rice, where he retired in 1983.
This profile brings together identity references for John O'Neil and paintings, drawings and works on paper documented in auction catalogues.
Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer
References include catalogue entries and available results; they do not all represent completed sales. Attributed works and special lots are excluded from the priced results.
Oil on canvas
Interlocked Forms, 1942
huile sur toile
Catalogue period : 2019-06-19
Published result : 2188 CHF
Including buyer’s premium
Estimate : CHF 1000–1500
View the lot at the auction house ↗SwissArtGallery documentary note based on the cited sources. Titles, media and qualifications are provided in the profile language; the original catalogue wording remains available in each record.
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