Beth Ames Swartz

'Abstract Composition', New York Jewish Museum, ASL, Woman Artist, Smithsonian

1967

Signed lower right, 'Beth Ames Swartz' (American, born 1936) and dated 1966. Primarily working in the idioms of abstraction and semi-abstraction, Beth's paintings and mixed-media works are commonly informed by philosophical and spiritual concepts shared by people of different cultural worldviews, and incorporate both symbols and words in the vocabulary of their visual language. Her art practice has been guided by aesthetic philosophies including Wassily Kandinsky’s Concerning the Spiritual in Art and Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty, and inspired by various religious and philosophical systems including Native American Healing practices, Buddhism, Jewish Mysticism, and Christianity in order to facilitate communication with viewers on both the conscious and unconscious level. Swartz synthesizes these spiritual traditions in her work with the purpose of revealing the commonality between them. Beth was born in New York City and grew up in Manhattan, and by her mid-teens was studying at the Art Students League in New York in the late 1940s. Her education continued at The High School of Music & Art in New York City, and Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where she graduated in 1957 with a Bachelor of Science degree, followed by a Master of Arts degree in 1959 from New York University. Beth Ames Swartz exhibited nationwide including at over seventy solo exhibitions including a solo show at The Jewish Museum in New York. In addition, she participated in three major traveling museum exhibitions and her work is held in the permanent collections of numerous major museums including the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian. She received the Governor's Individual Artist Award in 2001 in Arizona, and a retrospective of her work was mounted in 2002 at The Phoenix Art Museum, with a monograph about her work co-published by The Phoenix Art Museum and Hudson Hills Press. Swartz explores systems of knowledge by translating philosophical concepts into aesthetic visual experiences. Fellowships, Awards, Grants and Honors: New York, NY - 2003 Veteran Feminists of America, Medal of Honor Phoenix, AZ - 2001 Recipient, Governor's Arts Award, the highest honor in Arizona for one individual who may be a visual or performing artist or a writer. Snowmass Village, CO - 2000 Anderson Ranch, Artist in Residence Phoenix, AZ - 1994 Founder, Culture Care , an international, non-profit organization sponsoring The Sacred Souls Project, to identify, support and honor individuals who demonstrate positive human societal values New York, NY - 1994 Awarded Flow Fund grant for discretionary philanthropic use for non-personal benefit New York, NY - 1994 Panelist, College Art Association, Art, Earth and Medicine: A Healing Approach New York, NY - 1993 Panelist, The Sacred in the Arts Conference New York, NY - 1992 Speaker, MedArts Conference, Research Study on A Moving Point of Balance Stinson Beach, CA - 1991 Speaker, Symposium, Art as a Healing Force New Harmony, IN - 1990 Keynote Speaker, Art and Healing Conference Phoenix, AZ - 1988 Co-Founder, International Friends of Transformative Art (IFTA), an international, non-profit organization for positive global change Payson, AZ - 1988, '87 Project Coordinator, Rim Institute, Transformative Artist's Conference and Workshop Phoenix, AZ - 1985 Governor's Award, Outstanding Women of Arizona - Women Who Create Sun Valley, ID - 1980 Sun Valley Center for the Arts & Humanities, Artist in Residence, The Awesome Space: The Inner and Outer Landscape Hawaii National Park, HI - 1979 Volcano Art Center, Artist in Residence Phoenix, AZ - 1978, '77 Named Master Teacher by State Department of Public Instruction Phoenix, AZ - 1978, '77 Educational Grant for Inquiry Into Fire, Arizona Commission on Arts and Humanities Selected Bibliography and Reference: Davenport’s Art Reference Guide, 2007/8 Edition, p.2468; Arizona/Women '75 (exhibition catalogue). Tucson, AZ: Tucson Art Museum, 1975; Baigell, Matthew. "Art and Spirit: Kabbalah and Jewish-American Artists." Tikkun vol. 14, no.4, (July-August 1999): 59-61 (illus. in b&w of Shen Qi Series: the Cabalistic Scheme of the Four Worlds #5); Beth Ames Swartz, Inquiry Into Fire (exhibition catalog). Scottsdale, AZ: Scottsdale Center for the Arts, 1978. Introduction by Melinda Wortz; Beth Ames Swartz, 1982-1988: A Moving Point of Balance (exhibition catalog). Scottsdale, AZ: A Moving Point of Balance, Inc., 1988. Introduction by John Perreault; Biennial 1979 (exhibition catalog). Phoenix: Phoenix Art Museum, March 9-April 8, 1979, 35-37, 64 (illus. in color Sedona, #23; illus. in b&w, Torah Scroll, #5); Body and Soul: Contemporary Art and Healing (exhibition catalog). Lincoln, MA: DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, 1994. Introduction by Rachel Rosenfeld Lafo, Nicholas Capasso, and Sara Rehm Roberts; Cembalest, Robin. "The Ecological Art Explosion." ARTnews vol. 90, no. 6 (summer 1991): 96-105; The First Western States Biennial Exhibition (exhibition catalog). Denver: Western States Art Foundation, 1979. Introduction by Joshua C. Taylor (with illus. in color of Torah Scroll #4); Gablik, Suzi. The Reenchantment of Art. Thames and Hudson: New York, 1991, 155-57; Gadon, Elinor W. The Once and Future Goddess: A Symbol for Our Time. New York: Harper and Row, 1989, 245-46; 248; Henderson, Barbara. "Beth Ames Swartz," A Magazine of Fine Arts vol. 2, no. 15 (April 1976): 34-41; Israel Revisited: Beth Ames Swartz (exhibition catalog). Scottsdale, AZ: Beth Ames Swartz, 1981: 40 pp. Introduction by Harry Rand...

Signed lower right, 'A. Cunningham' for Alfred A Cunningham (American, 20th century) and painted circa 1965. Alfred Cunningham was active in Northern California from the 1950's thro...

Stamped, verso, with certification of authenticity for Suzanne Gertz (American, 1938-2003) and painted circa 1985, partial signature lower right. Suzanne Gertz first studied at the...

'Midcentury Biomorphic Abstract', NYMoMA, Paris, XXXII Venice Biennale, MALI, Lima, Peru Signed, lower right, 'E.R. Larrain' for Emilio Rodríguez Larraín (Peruvian, 1928-2015), and inscribed 'Roma, Nov 1963, Enero 1964'. (Rome, Nov 1963-January 1964). Verso titled, "L'Homme C'est Sujet à Errer" (Man Tends to Wander), and bearing the artist's self-portrait in india ink and wash. Exhibited: XXXII Venice Biennale, 1964. (original exhibition label verso) Previously with Staempfli Galleries, New York. This painting is registered in the Archives of American Art as 'Staempfli Gallery, inventory #775'. A monumental and historically distinguished work by this groundbreaking Peruvian Modernist who drew inspiration from Peruvian indigenous and pre-colonial culture. The paintings of Emilio Rodríguez Larraín are held in the permanent collections of museums worldwide including the Musée de la Ville de Paris, Peru's Museo de Arte de Lima and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. This painting was selected by the Peruvian Government for exhibition at the XXXII Venice Biennale in 1964 and is the largest single recorded work by the artist. Emilio Rodríguez Larraín received his Bachelors of Architecture in 1949 from Peru's Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería and held his first solo exhibition in Lima after visiting Europe in 1950. In 1951, he returned to Europe in the company of the artists Alfredo Ruiz Rosas and Joaquín Roca Rey...

Untitled Acrylic on paper, c. 1975 Signed by the artist in ink lower right (see photo) An early Modernist Abstraction, created shortly after the death of her husband, Adolf Dehn in 1968. Condition: Excellent Archival framing Image size: 18 x 24 Provenance: Estate of the artist Dehn Heirs Virginia Dehn From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Virginia Dehn Virginia Dehn in her studio in Santa Fe Virginia Dehn (née Engleman) (October 26, 1922 – July 28, 2005) was an American painter and printmaker. Her work was known for its interpretation of natural themes in almost abstract forms. She exhibited in shows and galleries throughout the U.S. Her paintings are included in many public collections. Life Dehn was born in Nevada, Missouri on October 26, 1922.] Raised in Hamden, Connecticut, she studied at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri before moving to New York City. She met the artist Adolf Dehn while working at the Art Students League. They married in November 1947. The two artists worked side by side for many years, part of a group of artists who influenced the history of 20th century American art. Their Chelsea brownstone was a place where artists, writers, and intellectuals often gathered. Early career Virginia Dehn studied art at Stephens College in Missouri before continuing her art education at the Traphagen School of Design, and, later, the Art Students League, both located in New York City. In the mid-1940s while working at the Associated American Artists gallery, she met lithographer and watercolorist Adolf Dehn. Adolf was older than Virginia, and he already enjoyed a successful career as an artist. The two were married in 1947 in a private ceremony at Virginia's parents house in Wallingford, Connecticut. Virginia and Adolf Dehn The Dehns lived in a Chelsea brownstone on West 21st Street where they worked side by side. They often hosted gatherings of other influential artists and intellectuals of the 20th century. Among their closest friends were sculptor Federico Castellón and his wife Hilda; writer Sidney Alexander and his wife Frances; artists Sally and Milton Avery; Ferol and Bill Smith, also an artist; and Lily and Georges Schreiber, an artist and writer. Bob Steed and his wife Gittel, an anthropologist, were also good friends of the Dehns. According to friend Gretchen Marple Pracht, "Virginia was a glamorous and sophisticated hostess who welcomed visitors to their home and always invited a diverse crowd of guests..." Despite their active social life, the two were disciplined artists, working at their easels nearly daily and taking Saturdays to visit galleries and view new work. The Dehns made annual trips to France to work on lithographs at the Atelier Desjobert in Paris. Virginia used a bamboo pen to draw directly on the stone for her lithographs, which often depicted trees or still lifes. The Dehns' other travels included visits to Key West, Colorado, Mexico, and countries such as Greece, Haiti, Afghanistan, and India. Dehn's style of art differend greatly from that of her husband, though the two sometimes exhibited together. A friend of the couple remarked, "Adolf paints landscapes; Virginia paints inscapes." Virginia Dehn generally painted an interior vision based on her feelings for a subject, rather than a literal rendition of it.] Many of her paintings consist of several layers, with earlier layers showing through. She found inspiration in the Abstract Expressionism movement that dominated the New York and Paris art scenes in the 1950s. Some of her favorite artists included Adolf Gottileb, Rothko, William Baziotes, Pomodoro, and Antonio Tapies. Dehn most often worked with bold, vibrant colors in large formats. Her subjects were not literal, but intuitive. She learned new techniques of lithography from her husband Adolf, and did her own prints. Texture was very important to her in her work. Her art was influenced by a variety of sources. In the late 1960s she came across a book that included photographs of organic patterns of life as revealed under a microscope. These images inspired her to change the direction of some of her paintings. Other influences on Dehn's art came from ancient and traditional arts of various cultures throughout the world, including Persian miniatures, illuminated manuscripts, Dutch still life painting, Asian art, ancient Egyptian artifacts...

Untitled Watercolor on paper, 1990 Signed lower left corner Provenance: Gift of the Artist to one of hr patrons Distinguished Midwest Private Collection Conditi...

"Untitled," Flashe on Paper, 30 x 22 Inches A highly sophisticated series of large and small paintings, drawings and monoprints by Margo Margolis, NY artist who recently retired as...

Over the past 20 years, Michelle Oppenheimer has become well known for composing paintings that capture the imaginative and organic possibilities of abstract watercolor and acrylic. ...