Description:

Raymond "Ray" Parker
American/New York, 1922-1990
"Untitled"
oil on canvas
1964, signed lower center, signed, titled, dated and inscribed "For Cora" en verso, handwritten label with artist, title and date on hanging wire, framed.

Provenance: Gift of the artist; Cora Kelley Ward (1920-1989); by descent in the family; Private Collection, LA.

Note: Originally from South Dakota, Ray Parker moved to New York City in 1951 after receiving an MFA at the University of Iowa. In New York, he became a professor of art at Hunter College where he would remain until his passing in 1990. An essential participant of the bustling art scene of the city, he was included in numerable group exhibitions at museums such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was represented by the premier Kootz Gallery. Parker was inspired by the works of Henri Matisse and an integral member of the "Post Painterly Abstraction" movement, as coined by his friend and formidable art critic Clement Greenberg.

The painting offered here by Parker boasts the dedication "For Cora" en verso. This piece was a gift from the artist to fellow abstract expressionist, Cora Kelley Ward, who moved to New York in 1955. Ward had no trouble finding a place for herself in the buzzing metropolis, inevitably making friends with the city's greats such Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Frost and the aforementioned Clement Greenberg, although she often remained behind the scenes and behind the camera at gallery openings, documenting her influential friends through her photography. Ward and Parker ran in the same circles and were part of the same integral period in art history that would define American Art for the latter half of the twentieth century.

Ref.: Bradley, John Ed. "Unearthing the Art of Cora Kelley Ward." Garden and Gun. Feb./Mar., 2021. www.gardenandgun.com. Accessed Nov. 3, 2025; "Ray Parker." Vallarino Fine Art. www.vallarinofineart.com. Accessed Nov. 3, 2025; "Ray Parker." Lincoln Glenn. www.lincolnglenn.com. Accessed Nov. 3, 2025.

  • Dimensions: 16 3/4 x 21 1/8 in. (42.5 x 53.7 cm.), Frame: 19 x 23 1/2 x 2 1/4 in. (48.3 x 59.7 x 5.7 cm.)
  • Medium: oil on canvas
  • Condition: No signs of past restoration; very light surface dirt; very few light scattered marks and surface irregularities appear to be hand of the artist; frame has marks, nicks and abrasions; not examined out of frame.

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November 21, 2025 11:00 AM CST
New Orleans, LA, US

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