Mid-20th Century Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Serge Tchekhonine was a Russian artist who studied applied drawing, ceramics, and pottery in St. Petersburg. He settled in France in 1928, gaining attention for his finely crafted ce...

Jack Youngerman Untitled Study #26, 1967 Gouache painting on paper (with original JL Hudson and PACE Gallery labels) Hand signed and dated '67 on the front; J.L. Hudson Gallery Label on Verso. Unique Abstract Expressionist work on paper Frame included Framed Measurements: Framed: 15 inches by 15 inches by 1.5 inch Artwork: 7.75 inches by 7.5 inches Provenance From the estate of Anne Markley Spivak J. L. Hudson Gallery Label affixed to verso (back). The J.L. Hudson Gallery, Detroit, Michigan This 1967 unique, signed gouache painting by renowned abstract expressionist painter Jack Youngerman was acquired from the estate of Anne Markley Spivak. It is held in the original vintage metal frame with the original J.L. Hudson Gallery label, as well as the PACE gallery label on the verso The artwork has been newly loated and framed in a museum quality white wood frame; the original labels from the original back board have been affixed to the back to preserve provenance. Jack Youngerman Biography Jack Youngerman was born in St. Louis, Missouri on March 25, 1926. He moved to Louisville, Kentucky in 1929 and studied at the University of Missouri, Columbia from 1944 to 1946 under a wartime navy training program. He graduated from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in 1947 and, that same year, he returned to Missouri to finish his Bachelor’s degree in Journalism before moving to Paris on a G.I. scholarship. In Paris, Youngerman enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, studying drawing with Jean Souverbie. He explored Paris, taking in the cathedrals, museums, and history in order to grasp a greater sense of art history. He also traveled to the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Italy, and Greece on fine art excursions. In 1948, Youngerman became friends with Ellsworth Kelly, Eduardo Paolozzi, and Cesar – fellow students at Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He married Delphine Seyrig in 1950, and later that year he had his first group exhibition at Galerie Maeght in Paris. He visited the studios of Constantín Brancusi and Jean Arp and became heavily influenced by the organic forms present in their work. He also met artist Alexander Calder through his father-in-law, Henri Seyrig, and experimental filmmaker and artist, Robert Breer...

Untitled Collage and crayon drawing, 1967 Signed and dated lower center (see photo) Condition: Small imperfections from the creative process Small tear on the left sheet edge (repai...

Art Deco Illustrator Charles Perry Weimer creates a powerfully graphic depiction of a 1930s couple in front of a classic Art Deco building with a...

Sam Francis Untitled (#2 Pri-Rain) (SF64-592) 1964 Gouache on paper 57.2 x 75.6 cms (22 1/2 x 29 3/4 ins) Frame size: 82.9 x 103.2 cms (32 5/8 x 40 5/8 ins) SF14652 $300,000 Exhibit...

"Surrealist Texas Oil Rig" is an original, double-sided watercolor and ink piece by David Barnett, signed and dated in the lower right. It is framed with a w...

A drawing by Richard Diebenkorn. This Untitled work from the Urbana Series is an ink of paper, abstract drawing by Post War, Bay Area Figurat...

Stunning, rare original project drawings, hand-painted with colored pencil on translucent tracing paper by a French artist, circa the 1960s. The two paintings feature a geometric stu...

Stunning original project drawings, hand-painted with colored pencil on translucent tracing paper by a French artist, circa 1960. The two paintings feature a geometric study in color...

Dorothea Tanning (American, 1910–2012) Initially associated with the Surrealist movement, Dorothea Tanning developed a personal visual language that blurred the boundaries between r...

This is a rare, pencil signed print based upon the original drawing which is illustrated in the catalogue raisonne of Richard Lindner's Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings, Edited by...

"Barns" Watercolor Mid-20th Century Modern Abstract Realism Excellent Provenance Arthur Dove (1880-1946) "Barns" 5 x 7 inches Watercolor on paper, 1940 Singed lower center Framed: 9...

MINO DELLE SITE 1914-1996 [Domenico Delle Site] Lecce 1914-1996 Rome (Italian) Title: Untitled Senza Titolo, 1935 Technique: Signed and Dated Crayon...

Grace Hartigan (American, 1922–2008) Grace Hartigan’s work is defined by its bold color, gestural intensity, and a striking synthesis of abstraction and figuration. A central figure ...

Rolph Scarlett Untitled Abstract Expressionist Painting, ca. 1960 Gouache, Ink, Watercolor on Paper . Hand signed, with original Jonas Aarons Gallery label 23 × 18 3/4 inches Signed ...

Diana Kurz Light White Pastel on Paper 14 x 11 inches Diana Kurz (born 1936) is an Austrian-born feminist painter. In 1938, Diana Kurz's family fled Austria, first to England and t...

Ron Gorchov Untitled early 1960s Abstract Expressionist work, 1962 Ink and watercolor painting on paper Signed and dated in black ink lower left recto Frame included: elegantly floa...

Manfred Schwartz (American, b. Poland, 1909-1970), Beach Seascape, Charcoal on Paper, with the artist's signature stamped lower right, unframed. 25.5" H x 20" W. Provenance: From a 3...

A lovely signed pen drawing in three colours by Thilo Maatsch. Artist: Thilo Maatsch Date: 1966 Framed size: 49 x 37.5cm Signature: Signed in pencil: “TM 66” Mounting: Conservation-...

Abstract Expressionist Composition by Jacques COULAIS (1955-2011) gouache painting on thick board unframed: 8 x 8 inches condition: excellent provenance: all the paintings we have fo...

Les Voiles by Léopold Survage (1987-1968) Watercolour on paper 23 x 38 cm (9 x 15 inches) Monogrammed, stamped and dated lower right Executed in 1945 Provenance Private collection, ...

Oil Pastel on paper realized in 1969. Hand signed and dated in pencil lower right. Hand dedicated, signed and dated (1971) on rear. Includes a wooden frame cm. 43.5x52.  Very goo...

Dorothea Tanning (American, 1910–2012) Initially associated with the Surrealist movement, Dorothea Tanning developed a personal visual language that blurred the boundaries between r...

Abstract Expressionist Composition by Jacques COULAIS (1955-2011) gouache painting on canvas unframed: 9.5 x 7.5 inches condition: excellent provenance: all the paintings we have fo...

Frank Duffield (British, 1908-1982) signed original watercolour painting on artistic paper, unframed size: 10 x 14 inches condition: overall very good, minor wear to the edges as is ...

Original watercolor on archival paper by the California artist, Edward Darrell Crisp. Signed in pencil lower right margin. Dated in pencil lower left m...

Leonard Baskin (American, 1922-2000) ink and gouache drawing on paper titled "Darkened Man", signed lower right, circa 1957. Provenance: Grace Borgenicht gallery, Jeffrey M. Kaplan collection. bears label verso Art: 31" H x 22" W; Frame: 36" H x 27" W. Leonard Baskin was an American sculptor, illustrator, wood-engraver, printmaker, graphic artist, writer and teacher. Baskin was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey. While he was a student at Yale University, he founded Gehenna Press, a small private press specializing in fine book production. From 1953 until 1974, he taught printmaking and sculpture at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Subsequently Baskin also taught at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. He lived most of his life in the U.S., but spent nine years in Devon at Lurley Manor, Lurley, near Tiverton, close to his friend Ted Hughes, for whom he illustrated Crow. Sylvia Plath dedicated Sculpto to Leonard Baskin in her famous work, The Colossus and Other Poems (1960). The Funeral Contege (1997) bronze, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, Washington, D.C. His public commissions include a bas relief for the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial and a bronze statue of a seated figure, erected in 1994 for the Holocaust Memorial in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His works are owned by many major museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Boca Raton Museum of Art, the British Museum, the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Udinotti Museum of Figurative Art and the Vatican Museums. The archive of his work at the Gehenna Press was acquired by the Bodleian Library at Oxford, England, in 2009. The McMaster Museum of Art in Hamilton, Ontario owns over 200 of his works (some religious and biblical), most of which were donated by his brother Rabbi Bernard Baskin. He was included in the MoMA show, Summer Exhibition: New Acquisitions; Recent American Prints, 1947–1953; Katherine S. Dreier Bequest; Kuniyoshi and Spencer; Expressionism in Germany; Varieties of Realism along with Alexander Archipenko, Francis Bacon, Balthus, Will Barnet, Leonard Baskin, Eugene Berman, Reg Butler, Lovis Corinth, Andre Derain, Otto Dix, Raoul Dufy, Max Ernst, Lucian Freud, George Grosz, Alexei Jawlensky, Oskar Kokoschka, Roberto Matta, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp and more. In 1955, he was one of eleven New York artists featured in the opening exhibition at the Terrain Gallery, they showed many great artists, Chaim Koppelman, for many years, headed the gallery's Print Division; printmakers such as Will Barnet, Leonard Baskin, Robert Conover, Edmond Casarella, Vincent Longo, and Nicholas Krushenick were frequent exhibitors. the gallery has represented many well-known artists, including Richard Anuszkiewicz, Robert Blackburn, Lois Dodd, William King, Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman, Roy Lichtenstein, Harold Krisel...

Venice is an original modern artwork realized by Zoran Mušic in 1959. Mixed colored pastel drawing. Includes frame. Hand signed and dated on the lower m...

One of a group of over 100 works personally selected by the artist and gifted to a close personal friend in 1969, this work was never matted, framed, glued, taped or exposed to light...

'Raining in Formosa on the Tamsui River' by Taiwanese artist, Ran In-Ting (Lan Yinding, 藍蔭鼎) (1956-59). Although elements of landscapes often appear in paintings produced by various cultures, before the 17th century in the West they were only peripheral. In 5th century China, shan shui or landscape painting developed, expressing harmony and natural beauty. These were among the first paintings to make landscape their subject (ref: 'The Short Story of Art...

Watercolor painting of standing prophet or Rabbi, Judaica artwork Born in 1897, Ben-Zion Weinman celebrated his European Jewish heritage in his visual works as a sculptor, painter, ...

Ceri Richards Lyre Bird (Design for the cover of Poetry London), 1943 Ink, gouache and pastel on paper Bears original Jonathan Clark & Co. label on the back of the frame Unique Frame...

Dorothea Tanning (American, 1910–2012) Initially associated with the Surrealist movement, Dorothea Tanning developed a personal visual language that blurred the boundaries between r...

Abstract Expressionist Composition by Jacques COULAIS (1955-2011) gouache painting on paper/ card unframed: 12.5 x 7.15 inches condition: excellent provenance: all the paintings we h...

Louise (McClure) Schatz (1916 – 1997) Born in Vancouver, Canada, Louise Schatz moved with her family at age three to Minnesota. Her father, a stage director, was part of the local Bohemian culture and traveled the theater circuit around the U.S. She earned a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts at the University of California, where she became a skilled water colorist. “My Japanese instructor showed me how to preserve several colors together on paper,” she noted. “Water colors can bleed into the paper, and the paper plays with the colors – some of which can even disappear. I have a great love of texture and what materials do to color. I was very excited to discover what happens to colors and how to achieve what I wanted.” Her interest in astronomy also led Louise to study science at the university. Louise joined the “California Seven” artists in 1945 and for the next three years created prints and textile patterns. During WWII, she earned her living as a sketch artist for ship builders in San Francisco Bay, and it was there she met her future husband, Bezalel. “Then, it was very avant-garde to hire women in ship-building,” she once recounted. “We used to take dimensions from engineers and make sketches. It was very trailblazing and exciting, and the ships were constructed very quickly and launched very quickly. Besides the fact that we contributed to the war effort, it was really beautiful art.” The Bohemian society developing in San Francisco at the time included the novelist Henry Miller, who was then married to Louise’s sister, Eve. “There was a group of artists in Big Sur, all of them poor,” according to Bezalel Schatz’s sister, Zohara. “They were a group of Beatniks before the hippy era of the 1960s. There were novelists, poets, and painters there who lived communally under primitive conditions and were close to nature.” Bezalel and Louise were married in 1948 and moved to Israel. There, together with Zohara, they founded the arts and crafts workshop, “Yad,” with the goal of creating and selling alternative art objects that differed in style from those of the Bezalel School of Art. The couple divided its time between the family home in Jerusalem and a residence in Ein Hod designed for them by the architect David Resnik. Despite her connection to the Schatz family and her active involvement in the Israeli art world at the time, Louise guarded her privacy and rarely granted interviews. As Henry Miller wrote, “Her paintings reflect and reveal the extent of her sensitivity, shyness, and gentleness…” Scenes of Israel were a source of inspiration for Louise, and, in addition to her abstract Bauhaus geometric works, she also painted landscapes, flowers, and other elements of the environment in which she worked. Louise worked mainly in water colors but also created collages, book illustrations, and applied art. Among her outstanding works are murals for Zim’s “Shalom” and “Theodore Herzl” ships (together with Bezalel), El Al’s London office, and Jerusalem’s tenth anniversary exhibition, as well as ceramic walls for Jerusalem’s Midreshet Amalia and Beit Ha’am Library. She was awarded the Silver Medal in 1954 at the tenth Triennale in Milan for her copper designs, and in 1952 she received the “Above Competition” prize for her textile designs at the Bezalel National Museum. She was also awarded the Shen Beit Haomanim Prize in 1970 and the Jerusalem Prize for painting in 1973. Louise took part in many art exhibitions in Israel and abroad. Her works are held by the Israel, Tel Aviv, and Haifa Museums, and in private collections in Israel, the U.S., England, Switzerland, France, and Italy. Following her husband’s death in 1978, Louise continued to live with her sister-in-law, Zohara, at the family home in Jerusalem on Schatz Street. Louise died in Jerusalem in 1997. She has been called in the pages of the Jerusalem Post " the greatest Schatz of all" and "Israel's finest watercolorist" Parts of her work summon up affinities with Paul Klee and Julius Bissier and occasionally even Joan Miro. But she never copied any of them. Her work also bears affinities for Lyonel Feininger and Wassily Kandinsky Between 1937 and 1951, Bezalel resided in the U.S. Near the end of WWII, he worked in a California shipyard, and it was there he met his future wife, Louise. He was also introduced to the novelist Henry Miller in California, and their friendship blossomed into a creative collaboration. The artist May Ray recorded his observations about the two, noting that “I have never encountered such smooth cooperation…” Bezalel produced silkscreen prints for Miller’s novel, Into the Night Life, an innovation for both the art and publishing worlds. In Florence, New Mexico, New York, San Francisco, and other locations, Bezalel exhibited his own work and participated in group shows with some of the greatest artists of his era – Picasso...

Abstract Expressionist Composition by Jacques COULAIS (1955-2011) gouache painting on paper/ card unframed: 12.75 x 9.75 inches condition: excellent pr...

Frank Duffield (British, 1908-1982) original watercolour painting on board, unframed size: 11 x 14.75 inches condition: overall very good, minor wear to the edges as is normal for an...

Chorus Line Oil pastel on paper, c. 1960's Signed (see photo) Provenance: Estate of the Artist Estate of the artist (Estate No. 745) Condition: Excellent Image/Sheet size: 5 3/4 x 4 inches Sam Spanier (1925-2008) Born in Brooklyn New York, Sam Spanier studied painting with Hans Hofmann (1949–50) and also at the Taos Valley Art School (1951). His formative years as a working artist were spent in Paris (1951–52), where he also became involved with the work of G. I. Gurdjieff, through his disciple, Mme. Jeanne de Salzmann. By 1953, Spanier’s work had already begun to meet with critical acclaim. That year, he had his first solo gallery show, and was selected by Milton Avery and Hans Hofmann to receive the prestigious Lorian Fund Award. His second solo exhibition, in 1955, was curated by renowned museum director, Gordon Washburn. Spanier’s early work was reviewed by Dore Ashton, Donald Judd, Fairfield Porter, Stuart Preston, and Irving Sandler, among other significant critics of the period. Spanier’s spiritual path increasingly became the central focus of both his life and his art. In 1960, he was introduced to the teachings of Sri Aurobindo, which led to visits to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India, in 1962 and 1964, during which he was inspired to leave New York City and found Matagiri (in 1968)—a spiritual center in Woodstock, New York—with his lifelong partner, Eric Hughes. The work he embarked upon there bifurcates his life as an artist, separating him from New York’s art world, and radically altering the trajectory of his career. From that point forward, it would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to consider his artistic endeavor apart from the life of dedication he had undertaken, and to which he remained committed. As early as 1954, Dore Ashton had recognized in Sam Spanier a “haptic visionary;” in 1960, Irving Sandler wrote that the people in Spanier’s paintings “seem to have witnessed some transfiguring event.” In his later paintings—usually worked in oil pastel on panel or paper—made during intermittent creative periods, from the mid-1970s to the final years of his life, the artist’s inner life remains always apparent in his subject matter; and from the portraits and abstract Buddha-like figures and heads, to the fantasy landscapes, the paintings are redolent with a rich intensity of color and light that can only be described as inspired. Sam Spanier’s works are in the collections of the Historical Society of Woodstock Museum, and the Woodstock Artists Association & Museum. He received the Woodstock Artists Association Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. Selected Solo Exhibitions: Urban Gallery, New York (1954, 1955, 1956); Wittenborn Gallery, New York (1958); Gallery Mayer, New York (1958, 1959, 1960); Unison Gallery, New Paltz (1986, 1995, 2009); Limner Gallery, New York (1988); Fletcher Gallery, Woodstock, New York (1999). Selected Group Exhibitions: Salon des Comparaisons, Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris, France (1952); October Exhibition of Oil Paintings, New York City Center Gallery, New York (1954); Salon de Mai, Musée d’Art moderne de la ville de Paris, Centre Culturel de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Paris, France (1954); Carnegie International, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1955); Les Plus Mauvais Tableaux, Galerie Prismes, Paris (1955); Première Exposition Internationale de l’Art Plastique Contemporain, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris (1956); Recent Paintings USA: The Figure, The Museum of Modern Art (1960); Winter’s Work, Woodstock Artists Association, Woodstock, New York (1985); Juried Group Show, Woodstock Artists Association, Woodstock, New York (1986); Woodstock Artists, Self-Portraits, Historical Society of Woodstock Museum, Woodstock, New York (1988); Portraits, Albert Shahinian Fine Art, Poughkeepsie, New York (2003); The World We Live In, Upstate Art, Phoenicia, New York (2003); Show of Heads, Limner Gallery, Phoenicia, New York (2004). Selected Writings on the Artist: Dore Ashton, “Sam Spanier,” Art Digest (May 1, 1954) and “Sam Spanier,” The New York Times (March 16, 1960); Cassia Berman, “Sam Spanier: A Divine Calling,” Woodstock Times (February 7, 2008); Lawrence Campbell, “Sam Spanier: Exhibition of Paintings at Urban Gallery,” Art News (April 1, 1954); Sam Feinstein...

This original project drawing, hand-painted with colored pencil on translucent tracing paper, was designed by a French artist circa the 1960s. The painting features a geometric study...

Initialed lower right, 'M. W.' for Margaret Wentworth (American, 1914-1999) and dated 1959. Exhibited: Feingarten Galleries, Carmel, California, 1960, and titled on label, verso, 'Ro...

In this painting, Sylvia Spicuzza demonstrates her skill as an illustration artist, representing the Milwaukee character Billie the Brownie with a pair of flowers. An illustration like this could grace the pages of a children's book or illustrated magazine, or as an advertisement for Schuster’s Department Store. 10 x 8 inches, artwork 17 x 13.13 inches, frame stamped with artist signature lower left Born in 1908, Sylvia Spicuzza was the daughter of noted painter Francesco Spicuzza. Sylvia devoted herself to teaching art to the students of Lake Bluff Elementary School in Shorewood, WI. During this time Sylvia produced a magnificent body of work that was undiscovered until her death. Sylvia's work is rich, diverse and fascinating collection of drawings, watercolors and prints from the 1920's to the 1990's. Her style ranges from early figurative drawings to regionalism, Art Deco, lyrical abstractions of every conceivable subject (both real and imagined), as well as figurative paintings that reflect the work of Picasso, Kandinsky and Max Ernst in the 1930's and 1940's. Biomorphic and organic, Modernist images are presented with Sylvia Spicuzza's own unique sense of style, humor and fantasy. Billie the Brownie was a multi-media star of Christmas in Milwaukee from the 1920s to the 1950s. Years earlier, the writer and artist Palmer Cox...

Taro Yamamoto Untitled Abstract Expressionist watercolor, ca. 1957 Watercolor wash, drips & splatter on rice paper Pencil signed on the front 12 × 16 inches Unframed Mid century mod...

Interior Abstract by Bernard Labbe (French mid 20th century), signed, stamped verso original gouache painting on paper overall size: 16 x 12 inches condition: very good and ready to...

Dorothea Tanning (American, 1910–2012) Initially associated with the Surrealist movement, Dorothea Tanning developed a personal visual language that blurred the boundaries between r...

Abstract Expressionist Composition by Jacques COULAIS (1955-2011) gouache painting on thick board unframed: 8 x 8 inches condition: excellent provenance: all the paintings we have fo...

Outstanding pencil on paper Abstract drawing. Marcel Dumont was a Liège artist who painted in oils and gouache, also produced collages and was an illustrator and engraver, doing so in a number of different styles. Early on in his career, he tended to produce paintings displaying a poetic realism but this changed over time until, in 1957, he was employing geometric abstraction and later still, the influence of pop art could be discerned. His geometric style has strong linear structure which occasionally veers to expressionism and the effect of this is an interesting sense of detachment that the viewer of the work can feel and one engages with the subject on a different level than one would normally expect. A critic wrote of him," Sometimes expressionist, sometimes linear, the abstraction forms itself willingly, in Marcel Dumont's world, to leave the rectangular structure to connect to carefully prepared tones. He retains also, in his abundant output, a few poetic pop-art collages together with a number of drawings and engravings illustrating Stefan Zweig...

Jim's of Lambertville Fine Art Gallery is proud to present this piece by Burgoyne Diller (1906 – 1965). Born in New York City in 1906, Burgoyne Diller began drawing when he was stri...

Richard Stankiewicz Study for Sculpture (Untitled), ca. 1968 Graphite on Paper Signed in graphite lower right front Frame Included: held in original vintage frame with Kulicke label ...

Watercolor on heavy paper work is unframed Signed by artist in pencil, lower right verso. Property from the estate of Anne E. C. Porter, with the estate stamp, verso. ...

Surrealist proto-Afropunk drawing by African-American artist, Roland Ayers (1932-2014). Hesitation Blues, 1968. Ink on paper, sheet measures 13 x 23 inches; 14 x 18 inches in archival pH-neutral matting. Signed and dated lower right. Excellent condition with no damage or restoration. Provenance: Sheila Ayers-Whitelaw Exhibition History: Roland Ayers: Calligraphy of Dreams, Woodmere Art Museum, 07/10/2021 - 10/24/2021 Artist and art educator, Roland Ayers was born on July 2, 1932, the only child of Alice and Lorenzo Ayers, and grew up in the Germantown district of Philadelphia. Ayers served in the US Army (stationed in Germany) before studying at the Philadelphia College of Art (currently University of the Arts). He graduated with a BFA in Art Education, 1954. He traveled Europe 1966-67, spending time in Amsterdam and Greece in particular. During this period, he drifted away from painting to focus on linear figurative drawings of a surreal nature. His return home inaugurated the artist’s most prolific and inspired period (1968-1975). Shorty before his second major trip abroad in 1971-72 to West Africa, Ayers began to focus on African themes, and African American figures populated his work almost exclusively. In spite of Ayers’ travel and exploration of the world, he gravitated back to his beloved Germantown, a place he endowed with mythological qualities in his work and literature. His auto-biographical writing focuses on the importance of place during his childhood. Ayers’ journals meticulously document the ethnic and cultural make-up of Germantown, and tell a compelling story of class marginalization that brought together poor families despite racial differences. The distinctive look and design of Germantown inform Ayers’ visual vocabulary. It is a setting with distinctive Gothic Revival architecture and haunting natural beauty. These characteristics are translated and recur in the artist’s imagery. During his childhood, one of the only books in the Ayers household was an illustrated Bible. The images within had a profound effect on the themes and subjects that would appear in his adult work. Figures in an Ayers’ drawing often seem trapped in a narrative of loss and redemption. Powerful women loom large in the drawings: they suggest the female role models his journals record in early life. The drawings can sometimes convey a strong sense of conflict, and at other times, harmony. Nature and architecture seem to have an antagonistic relationship that is, ironically, symbiotic. A critical turning point in the artist’s career came in 1971 when he was included in the extremely controversial Whitney Museum show, Contemporary Black Artists in America. The exhibition gave Ayers an international audience and served as a calling card for introductions he would soon make in Europe. Ayers is a particularly compelling figure in a period when black artists struggled with the idea of authenticity. A questioned often asked was “Is your work too black, or not black enough?” Abstractionists were considered by some peers to be sell-outs, frauds or worse. Figurative* work was accused of being either sentimental or politically radical depending on the critical source. Ayers made the choice early on to be a figurative artist, but considered his work devoid of political content. Organizations such as Chicago’ s Afri-Cobra in the late 1960‘s asserted that the only true black art of any relevance must depict the black man and woman...

Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork by: Lloyd R. Ney (1893 – 1964) Called “Bill” by his friends, Lloyd Ney was one of the pioneers of Modernist art in New Hope. Ne...

Autograph Portrait of Gérard Philipe und Lilli Palmer is a b/w postcard reproducing the photographic portrait of the above-mentioned actors, during the fi...

Abstract Expressionist Composition by Jacques COULAIS (1955-2011) gouache painting on paper/ card unframed: 10 x 10 inches condition: excellent provenance: all the paintings we have ...

Surrealist Drawing is an exceptional pencil drawing by the artist Roberto Sebastián Antonio Matta Echaurren, who signed on the lower right of the paper “Matta”. The artwork is in ver...

Original watercolor on archival paper by the California artist, Edward Darrell Crisp. Signed in pencil lower right margin. Dated in pencil lower left m...

Paul Feeley Rafina II Greece, 1961 Watercolour on paper Hand Signed, titled and dated lower front In 1961, color field painter Paul Feeley created a series of watercolors - Rafina an...

Jim's of Lambertville Fine Art Gallery is proud to present this piece by Burgoyne Diller (1906 – 1965). Born in New York City in 1906, Burgoyne Diller began drawing when he was stri...

Original pastel on paper. Hand signed on front and authenticated on verso by the artist. Framed. Artwork is in excellent condition. Certificate of authenticity included. All reasonab...