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Urbana #1
Urbana #1
Urbana #1

Urbana #1

Date1953
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions45 5/8 x 67 1/2 in. (115.9 x 171.5 cm)
Signed"RD 53" lower left
CR number1244
RD number1094
Exhibitions
Pasadena Art Museum, Calif.,
September 6, 1960 - October 6, 1960
San Francisco Museum of Art,
August 17, 1954 - September 5, 1954
Bibliography
Description
This painting was the subject of a lawsuit by former trustees of the Pasadena Art Museum (then in the process of becoming the Norton Simon Museum) when Mr. Simon sent it to auction in 1980. "In looking through the Christie's auction catalogue before the sale, Robert Rowan noticed two works that he had donated to the museum: Richard Diebenkorn's 'Urbana #1' and Franz Kline's 'Composition 1948.' Rowan, along with two former trustees, Alfred Esberg and Gifford Phillips, sued to stop the sale, charging the museum with depleting its assets." The trial took place in September of 1981 and was dismissed, upon which the painting was again placed at auction (Sara Campbell, Collector Without Walls, pp. 194–95).

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