Untitled (Tulips), c. 1967 84 x 72"

Monumental large-scale floral abstraction by Margaret Milliken, associated with the American Abstract
Expressionist movement. Executed in richly textured acrylic impasto, the canvas transforms naturalistic
tulip forms into expressive color and light. At nearly seven feet tall, the work functions as both painting
and architectural statement. Milliken studied with Hans Hofmann and exhibited widely, including at the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Provincetown Art Association, Columbia Museum Biennial, and
the Philadelphia Art Alliance. Two of her large florals were on long-term display at the Huntington
Hartford Museum in New York


“In my earlier paintings the brushwork is free, but the forms restricted the flower I saw and limited the blossoming of the canvas as well. In the development of my work, I have been trying to transform the flowers into a flowering canvas: to turn naturalistic forms into pictorially expressive light.” — Margaret Milliken“

Only a handful of Milliken’s monumental floral canvases are known today. Many were sold during her
lifetime, and her archive of records was tragically lost in the 1980s, leaving surviving works of this scale
particularly rare.