Emil Ganso Paintings

Still Life with Flowers oil on board, c. 1935 Signed lower left on table cloth (see photo) Done while the artist was in Woodstock, New York in the 1930's Provenance: Weyhe Gallery, New York Joseph Mark Erdelac, noted Cleveland collector of American Art Condition: Excellent Cleaned by Monica Radecki, South Bend Housed in a metal leaf American profile frame by Hackman Frames, Columbus Image/board size: 18 x 15 inches Frame size: 24-5/8 x 21-1/2 x 1-3/4 inches Emil Ganso (1895-1941) Ganso was born in Germany in 1895. At age 14, he apprenticed to a baker and then worked his way to America when he was 17. He worked in bakeries in Scranton, Pennsylvania; and Cincinnati and Akron, Ohio. By 1916, Ganso out of a job, and was living the life of a bohemian in New York City, sometimes on less than 30 cents a week.1 In 1921, Ganso painted a realistic nude on a bedsheet, and was forced by the police to remove it from an exhibition. The bedsheet with the painting was later stolen. He soon had a job baking again at $140 a month, and with time to spare for painting and study. Ganso quit baking in 1925 when a New York dealer gave him financial backing of $50 a week. Ganso prospered from his art after that. His work is in over 15 American museums, and the Print Club of Cleveland awarded him a $500 purchase prize for a wood engraving. A versatile artist, he painted a variety of subjects. (from a profile written by Clyde Singer) Museum holdings : Biblioteque National Paris; Boston Museum of Fine Arts; Brooklyn Museum; Cleveland Museum of Art; Kupferstich Cabinet in Berlin; Library of Congress; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Museum of Modern Art; New York Public Library; Victoria and Albert Museum in London; Whitney Museum of American Art. Exhibitions : (one-man) Weyhe Gallery 1926 - 1946; Washington Irving Gallery 1960; Retrospective at the Whitney 1941; Retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum 1944; William Benton Museum of Art at the University of Connecticut in1976. (1. from an exhibition catalog held at Marti Sumers Graphics in 1978 Courtesy: AskArt Source: Butler Institute of American Art Courtesy of D. Wigmore “Emil Ganso was born in Halberstadt, Germany in 1895 and came to the United States as a teenager. By 1914 Ganso was taking evening classes at the National Academy's School of Fine Arts while supporting himself as a baker. His work was soon identified by Erhard Weyhe who went on to show Ganso's work at the Weyhe Gallery. Ganso first exhibited at the Society of Independent Artists in 1921, as well as at the Salons of America from 1922 to 1925. By 1925 Weyhe Gallery began to represent Ganso which gave him the funds to spend his first summer in the art colony of Woodstock, New York in 1926. Weyhe Gallery continued to exhibit Ganso's work through the 1940s. In Woodstock Ganso met George Ault, Doris Lee, Charles Rosen, Katherine Schmidt, Eugene Speicher, Alexander Brook, Louis Bouché, Konrad Cramer, Leon Kroll, and George Bellows leading Ganso to settle in Woodstock and continue to benefit from Woodstock connections throughout his life. In 1927, the same year he settled in Woodstock, Ganso began to share a studio with Jules Pascin. Ganso printed Pascin's lithographs and prepared paper for him in 1927 to 1928 while Pascin was in America. In 1929 Ganso visited Pascin in Paris. Perhaps it was this Paris trip that sparked Ganso's interest in photography. By 1930 he was exploring photography as an art form, as well as an aid to his art compositions. Konrad Cramer, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and Russell Lee were other Woodstock artists who joined Ganso in these photography pursuits. Ganso received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1933 which he used to study and paint in Europe. In the 1930s Ganso also kept a studio at 54 West 74th Street, an artists' building where Walter Pach...

EMIL GANSO "SEATED NUDE" CHARCOAL WITH COLOR WASH, SIGNED AMERICAN, C.1930 21.5 X 15.5 INCHES Biography from Butler Institute of American Art Emil Ganso 1885-1941 Ganso was born in Germany in 1895. At age 14, he apprenticed to a baker and then worked his way to America when he was 17. He worked in bakeries in Scranton, Pennsylvania; and Cincinnati and Akron, Ohio. By 1916, Ganso was out of a job, and living the life of a bohemian in New York City, sometimes on less than 30 cents a week. In 1921, Ganso painted on a realistic nude on a bedsheet and was forced by the police to remove it from an exhibition. The bedsheet with the painting was later stolen. He soon had a job baking again at $140 a month, and with time to spare for painting and study. Ganso quit baking in 1925 when a New York dealer game him financial backing of $50 a week. Ganso has prospered from his art ever since. His work is in over 15 American museums, and the Print Club of Cleveland awarded him a $500 purchase prize for a wood engraving. A versatile artist, he paints a variety of subjects. Source: from a profile written by Clyde Singer...