Carl Lewis Pappe
Abstract Watercolor #3 by Carl Lewis Pappe
1989

About the Item

Nahuatl art inspired this multicolor geometric abstract by artist Carl Lewis Pappe. The overall impression is of a colorful overlap of shapes of different sizes thanks to curvy black lines. The crossing of these black lines creates a large variety of geometric forms. Some forms have been left almost blank, because the artist added small red circles or ovals, suggesting some kind of mysterious gates to another dimension. It adds a sense of wonder to the general feeling of the artwork. Th abstract is signed by the artist at the lower right and dated 1989. It is labeled for Taxco, Mexico. Painter, sculptor, and printmaker Carl Lewis Pappe was born in Hungary in 1900. He died in 1998. Following grade school, Pappe first enrolled at the Cleveland School of Art (not the Cleveland Institute of Art) from 1921 to 1925. Upon graduation, the Hungarian Society awarded him a full scholarship to attend the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied under Daniel Garber and Hugh Breckinridge. In the late 1930s, Pappe and Goodspeed opened a studio and gallery in the silver mining town of Taxco, where Pappe began to expand his personal art career, exhibiting in the U.S. and Mexico. As political uprising surged in the Mexican capital, the two artists established their home as a sanctuary for Mexican artists fleeing persecution by the Mexican government, including many of the artists who had welcomed them into Mexico. Pappe and Goodspeed remained in Taxco for the rest of their lives, and their gallery and home were often at the center of goings-on among the artists of Mexico and beyond. Pappe's prolific oeuvre included sculpture, pastel, oil painting, watercolor, drawings, and more, and he worked in the genres of realism and abstraction throughout his career. Pappe was a fellow of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he often showed throughout his career. His work is included in private and public collections worldwide, including a collection of abstract pastels at the Government of Guerrero, and in 1995 the Woodmere Museum in Philadelphia held a retrospective of over eighty of his works.

Creator:

Carl Lewis Pappe (1900 - 1998, American)

Creation Year:

1989

Dimensions:

Height: 21.5 in (54.61 cm)Width: 17.5 in (44.45 cm)Depth: 1 in (2.54 cm)

Medium:

Watercolor

Movement & Style:

Abstract

Period:

20th Century