Paula Melcher

'Man Playing a Banjo', American Mid-Century Cubist-Derived Figural Oil, Fifties

1956

Signed lower left, 'Giambastiani' for Lida Marian Casentini Giambastiani (American, 1911-1973) and painted circa 1965. We are pleased to offer a large and powerful oil painting that...

Signed lower left, 'J.da Silveira' for Jose Da Silveira (French-American, born 1965), titled, 'The Soul is Music' and painted circa 2002. Additionally signed and titled, and with figural drawing, verso; Previously with: Chabot Gallery, Campbell, California Born in a tiny jungle village in Mozambique to a Portuguese bullfighter and the daughter of one of the leaders of the French Resistance...

Signed lower left, 'Ide' for Tom Ide (Canadian-American, 1919-1996) and dated 1965. Ide first studied at the Art Institute of Chicago (1951-1955) before movin...

Signed lower right, "Cucaro" for Pascal Cucaro (American, 1915-2003), additionally signed, verso, and dated 1959. An icon of the Beat years in San Francisco's North Beach, Pascal ...

Signed lower right, 'Z. Kavin' for Zena Kavin (American, 1912-2003) and dated 1966. Born in Berkeley, California, Zena Kavin studied at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco and, privately, with Kravchenko in Moscow. She lived in Berkeley and in Oakland her entire life, except for four years spent in New Mexico in the late 1930s. In 1949, she married artist Jon Cornin and settled with him in Oakland. Under the peudonym Corka, the Cornins produced cartoons for the Saturday Evening Post and the New Yorker. Kavin worked in various media, including wood engraving, lithography and sculpture. She was a member of the San Francisco Artists Association and exhibited with them as well as at the San Francisco Museum of Art Inaugural (1935), the California–Pacific International Exposition, San Diego (1935), the Golden Gate International Exposition (1939). Her work is held in the permanent collections of the Davis Art Center, the New Mexico Museum of Art and the Oakland Museum of California. Reference: Artists in California 1786-1940, Third Edition, Edan Milton Hughes: Crocker Art Museum, Sheridan Books 2002, Vol. 1, page 610; Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Peter Hastings Falk, Sound View Press 1999, Vol. 2, page 1801; Mallett’s Index of Artists, Supplement, Daniel Trowbridge Mallett, Peter Smith...

Signed lower left, 'Leon Franks'; additionally signed and titled, 'Portrait of a Girl', on old label verso. A bravura brushwork study of a young woman wearing a floral patterned shirt gazing calmly towards the viewer. A noted portrait and still life painter, Leon Franks studied at the Academie Julian and Grande Chaumiere in Paris and, subsequently, in Los Angeles at the Chouinard Art Institute and the Los Angeles Art Center. Franks additionally studied privately with Nicolai Fechin, Will Foster and F. Tolles Chamberlain. Before settling in Los Angeles in 1936, where Franks continued his education and began designing for the movie industry, he did portraits and decorations for Vancouver theaters. The author of several 'How to Paint' books, including titles 'How to Do Still Life' (1952) and 'Leon Franks on Techniques' (1964), Franks was a teacher. He privately taught several artists, including Vernon...

Predominantly recognized as a self-taught painter, he also worked in architectural murals, sculptures, ceramics, prints and drawings. Vigas is one...

Predominantly recognized as a self-taught painter, he also worked in architectural murals, sculptures, ceramics, prints and drawings. Vigas is one...

Beautiful cubist portrait of a woman by unknown Russian artist. Oil on canvas measures 17 x 25 inches. Signed and dated lower right. Label fragments affixed on verso.

ARTIST: Vladimir Cora MEIDUM: Oil on canvas Signed & dated lower left "Vladimir Cora 89" Painting dimensions 39 x 31 inches Framed dimensions 47 x 38 inches

Signed and titled oil on canvas by French cubist painter Camile Hilaire. The piece beautifully depicts a man at a port beside boats coloured in reds, blues and oranges. A wonderfully...

"Spirit" a bold and thoughtful cubist oil on canvas was painted in December of 2001 by African American artist William (Bill) Cooper. William Y. Cooper was a writer, painter, muralist, illustrator, and art teacher. He moved to Western New York in 1954 from Birmingham, Alabama, to pursue work, and Buffalo has been his home ever since. In 1975, he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University at Buffalo; he was also a state certified art teacher. Cooper woked primarily in oils and acrylics, but also creates drawings on paper. He has painted several commissioned murals and has had more than fifteen one-man shows in Western New York and Ghana, West Africa, and has participated in more than twenty-five group exhibitions since he began his professional career in 1969. His paintings and drawings address both his African heritage and his experience as an American through symbolism and metaphor. He observes, “I am an Afrocentric artist. My worldview is rooted in an African frame of reference and a deep, abiding sense of the creator from whence I draw my inspiration, strength, and a sense of who I am. The use of symbols allows me to explore literal ideas.” Among Cooper’s published works are two children’s books, 77 Jackson Street, Rear and Nakai and the Red Shoes, and a novel for adults, The Mopane Tree. Cooper founded the Afrocentric Artists’ Collective and ran the organization from 1979 to 1981. In 2013 he was designated a “Living Legacy” artist by the Burchfield Penney Arts Center, the latest in a series of honors which has also included awards from the Arts Council of Buffalo & Erie County, the New York State Council on the Arts, and Alpha Kappa Alpha...