Paper and scrap of handmade paper by Kenneth Noland, 1993 / 2002, signed on verso of work, engraved signature on aluminum under mounting, inscribed to verso of framing, sold with autograph letter signed by Kremen, framed under glass.

Frame dimensions 16 1/8 x 12 1/8 in.

From the Collection of Sarah Schroth, Director Emerita, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University

Originally from Chicago, Irwin Kremen found his passion and profession in North Carolina. In 1946, after briefly attending Northwestern University and working as a reporter, he went to North Carolina to study at the renowned Black Mountain College. While at the college, he focused on writing and literature classes taught by the poet M. C. Richards. The following year Kremen moved to New York. He maintained his friendship with Richards, who introduced him to fellow Black Mountain artists including John Cage and Merce Cunningham. The 1950s was an exceptionally productive period for Kremen. Not only was he surrounded by an avant-garde circle of friends, while also earned a B.A. from the New School for Social Research in New York, a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Harvard, and married his wife, Barbara Kremen.

In 1963, Kremen returned to North Carolina after accepting a faculty position at Duke University. He remained a beloved and integral part of the university community until his retirement in 1992. A few years after moving to Durham, and at the encouragement of his friend MC Richards and the Italian artist Italo Valenti, Kremen began creating his own artwork.

Kremen crafted lyrical collages using found papers, cloth and other materials. He did not publicly show any work until 1977, when the Smithsonian Institution's National Collection of Fine Arts mounted a solo exhibition which traveled from the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) in Winston-Salem to the Smithsonian's museum in Washington, D.C.

In 2007, the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University held a retrospective of Kremen's work titled "Irwin Kremen: Beyond Black Mountain (1966 to 2006)." Other recent solo exhibitions of his work include a 2011 show at the Black Mountain College Museum + Art Center in Asheville, North Carolina and a 2017 exhibition at the Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive at the University of California, Berkeley.

Kremen's work is in numerous prominent public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Yale University Art Gallery; the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Philadelphia Museum of Art and more.

Minor nicking to frame; not examined out of the frame.