DAVID HAMMONS (1943 - ) Untitled. Enamel on masonite board, circa 1972. 610x305 mm; 24x12 inches. Signed in ink, lower right. Provenance: private collection, North Carolina. A very good example of an early painting by this important contemporary artist, David Hammons's abstraction in enamel shows a seldom-seen side of his early work. Hammons created these beautiful and organic compositions in swirling mixtures of enamel painting. Within the framework of minimal abstraction, they display his early experimental use of material. These paintings date from the years of his studies at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles (1968 - 1972) before he began his more celebrated body art prints. A very similar orange enamel painting by David Hammons sold at Heritage Auctions on May 16, 2014; both paintings have fragments of San Francisco Chronicle newspaper from 1972 adhered to the masonite on the verso.