Ze'ev Raban

"Song of Songs Illustration" Old Testament, Watercolor

"Mexicantown: Bagley Bridge" is a proposal drawing for a mural completed by Hubert Massey in 2016. It is colorfully rendered on paper with color pencil a...

"McDonald's Hamburgers Invading Japan" is a delightfully inventive comic self-portrait by the creative genius Masami Teraoka. He has presented himself dressed in the traditional kimono robe and the artwork is in the famous Ukiyo-e style. Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk tales; travel scenes and landscapes; flora and fauna; and erotica and sometimes humorous characters. The term ukiyo-e (浮世絵) translates as "picture[s] of the floating world". This delightful watercolor self-portrait, comments on the problematic relationship between the United States and Japan and the Americanization of his country in the work, utilizing subtle pun humor that is the hallmark of Japanese culture. As Teraoka explains, "the character 'maku; means spread, 'donald; means screaming, 'do' and 'han' mean often, and 'Han' also means obnoxious or annoying. 'Burger' sounds like 'Baka' which means stupidity." This work was originally purchased by filmmaker Eric Saarinen...

The idyllic atmosphere of this local dock scene falls within a couple of styles one being regionalism, an American realist modern art movement that included paintings, murals, lithographs, and illustrations depicting scenes of rural and small-town America primarily in the Midwest and frequently associated with Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton. The other style is romanticism wherein the scene depicted is a more desired or dramatic version of what actually is. “Untitled (Dock Scene)” is typical of a small town dock scene from Michigan where Culver lived or from places as far away as Maine, but what makes it important is its easy familiarity: water, gulls or terns, slanting wood shanties, scruffy dirt patches and course grasses. It is not idealized, but does set the tone of fresh air, the scream of birds and the sun on water. This piece has been professionally reframed with acid-free matting and museum glass. In a 1952 Detroit Free Press article, entitled “Artist Explains His Work,” Culver was asked why he painted the way he did. He stated: “I try to ‘see’ though not too exactly; I try to think though not too ponderously; I feel emotion yet I try not to become overwrought. I interpret rather than describe, and design rather than depict. I work with values, not light and shade; hence, when I am successful, I achieve substance rather than three-dimensional form, and this satisfies me as being wholly sufficient. In my work I wish to be serious without becoming a bore, exuberant without being frivolous, humorous without being silly. I believe that good paintings are conceived, not contrived; and I am interested in art much more than in pictures.” Charles Culver...

"Man with Bicycle" is an extraordinarily complex painting by Artis Lane. The figure is in a Classical Greek pose balancing the body's weight on the left leg while the right is slight...

"Nude on Throne" shows a beautiful strong young woman seated upon what appears to be a ancient throne. There are objects held by her and placed on her legs, one of which can clearly ...

"Spiritual Self-Portrait" is a portrait of the artist by the artist. She has presented herself nude gazing boldly and directly at the viewer not so much challenging, but inviting dia...

"The Matador" is a gouache on paper by Elaine de Kooning. The artwork is signed lower left, "E. de K." The framed piece measures 15 3/8 x 17 1/4 x 3/4 in....

Luigi Bazzani (Bologna 1836 - 1927), Roman fresco with fountain, roosters and herm Watercolor 18 x 35 cm signed lower right. Provenance: Arch. Cesare Bazzani (Rome 1873 - 1939).

Dutch School, 17th Century. In the manner of Herman van Swanevelt (1603-1655). Title: An Italianate Landscape. This work closely relates to a group called the Italianate painters. Th...

This beautifully excecuted landscape with cattle in watercolor was made by Abraham Hendrik Winter (1800-1861). Winter was born in Utrecht (the Netherlands) in 1800 and was a teacher ...

Acrylic & watercolour on marouflaged paper with wooden panel

Acrylic & watercolour on marouflaged paper with wooden panel