David Delong (NJ/GA, 1930-2001) Untitled, Two Standing Figures, Acrylic on Canvas, c. 1963, signed lower left, painted in tones of black and gray, the two figures facing to the right, framed. Frame Size: 51 in. x 43 in. David Delong had two passions - Art and Motorcycles. Over his fifty-year career, he was a versatile artist exploring many media to examine persistent themes - The genre of motorcycle racing, the figure, architecture and Tybee tides. The turbulent sixties prompted monochromatic, abstracted figures. "They were Baconian in feeling long before Francis Bacon was an icon. The highs and lows of the Kennedy years resulted in these negative feelings...the series was a summation of my feelings about the human condition at the time. "During the early 1960's, Delong's style continued to evolve. Always painterly, his brushwork become looser and broader and his subject matter, while still recognizable, grew far more abstract. The artist's experimentation with abstraction culminated in a series of large-scale figures...generally exhibiting a reductive, monochromatic palette. Reflecting the social turbulence of the early 1960's. Delong's abstracted figures look and lurk on the canvas, their faces obscured by broad swaths of white, their bodies hulking and unsubstantial. A critic in 1966 described these works as "fluid, mysterious things" and so they remain today. In 1965, Delong enrolled in painting classes at New York University, graduating with a BS in painting in 1970. His presence in New York during the 1970's assured his familiarity with the abstract expressionists, who had revitalized the New York art scene during the previous decade. Delong's continued reference to the figure in his abstract works suggests the influence of Willem de Kooning in particular (David Delong: Passages, Telfair Museum of Art 2006, pg. 23). Height: by sight 49 1/8 in. x Width: 41 1/8 in.