Private collection, Temple, Texas.

Ben L. Culwell (American, 1918-1992) Twenty-Eight-Year-Old Unmarried Young Woman, 1945-46 Watercolor and collage on board 20 x 16 inches (50.8 x 40.6 cm) Initialed and dated lower right: BLC / 1945-6 Signed twice and titled on the reverse: "Twenty-Eight Year Old/ Unmarried Young Woman" / Ben L. Culwell / B. L . Culwell PROVENANCE: Private collection, Temple, Texas. Ben Culwell was among the artists included in the Museum of Modern Art's landmark 1946 exhibition Fourteen Americans, a seminal presentation that introduced many of the ideas that would soon define Abstract Expressionism. The exhibition placed Culwell alongside artists such as Robert Motherwell, Arshile Gorky, and Isamu Noguchi and prompted New Yorker critic Robert Coates to coin the term "Abstract Expressionism." Significantly, Coates cited Culwell's work specifically as an example of the powerful synthesis of abstraction and emotional expression that characterized the emerging movement. MoMA's subsequent "Americans" exhibitions would go on to feature figures such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Robert Rauschenberg, establishing the institution as the principal platform for the rise of postwar American art and underscoring Culwell's place within its earliest formation. HID12401132022 © 2026 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved www.HA.com/TexasAuctioneerLicenseNotice

Condition report upon request. Framed under glass.
Framed Dimensions 23 X 19 Inches