The Red Fiddle

There's an improvisational quality to this piece that feels entirely intentional — Lela Cooney working in marker on paper with the kind of loose, gestural confidence that places The Red Fiddle firmly in the expressive tradition of mid-century American abstraction. The fiddle emerges from layered mark-making rather than defined outline, color and line doing the work together, the whole composition carrying a rhythm that makes the subject feel less like an object and more like a sound.
Cooney was a Kentucky-based artist whose abstract and contemporary work circulated within regional Mid-Century Modern collections. Signed by the artist, this is an original work on paper, in it's orginal frame and mat, reset with new Museum Tru Vue glass. Some fading to marker pigment consistent with age, minimal mat burn, and light wear to the frame — all expected for a work of this era and medium.