Arieh Merzer

Rare Judaica Drawing Sephardic Rabbi Gentleman, Palestine

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner ( Germany 1880-1938 ) Expressionist Female Women Dancing Mixed Media on Paper Drawing or Painting Expressionism Dimensions: 20" L 16" H in This bore a sticker from Christies auction house and another collection sticker verso but they have been inadvertently removed. I do have the photo. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880 – 1938) was a German expressionist painter and printmaker and one of the founders of the artists group Die Brücke or "The Bridge", a key group leading to the foundation of Expressionism in 20th-century art. He volunteered for army service in the First World War, but soon suffered a breakdown and was discharged. His work was branded as "Entartete Kunst" or "degenerate" by the Nazis in 1933, and in 1937 more than 600 of his works were sold or destroyed. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was born in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria. His parents were of Prussian descent and his mother was a descendant of the Huguenots, a fact to which Kirchner often referred. As Kirchner's father searched for a job, the family moved frequently and Kirchner attended schools in Frankfurt and Perlen until his father earned the position of Professor of Paper Sciences at the College of technology in Chemnitz, where Kirchner attended secondary school. Although Kirchner's parents encouraged his artistic career they also wanted him to complete his formal education so in 1901, he began studying architecture at the Königliche Technische Hochschule (royal technical university) of Dresden. The institution provided a wide range of studies in addition to architecture, such as freehand drawing, perspective drawing and the historical study of art. While in attendance, he became close friends with Fritz Bleyl, whom Kirchner met during the first term. They discussed art together and also studied nature, having a radical outlook in common. Kirchner continued studies in Munich from 1903 to 1904, returning to Dresden in 1905 to complete his degree. In 1905, Kirchner, along with Bleyl and two other architecture students, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Erich Heckel, founded the artists group Die Brücke ("The Bridge") later to include Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein and Otto Mueller. From then on, he committed himself to art. The group aimed to eschew the prevalent traditional academic style and find a new mode of artistic expression, which would form a bridge (hence the name) between the past and the present. They responded both to past artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Matthias Grünewald and Lucas Cranach the Elder, as well as contemporary international avant-garde movements. As part of the affirmation of their national heritage, they revived older media, particularly woodcut or woodblock prints. Kirchner's studio became a venue which overthrew social conventions to allow casual love-making and frequent nudity. Group life-drawing sessions took place using nude models from the social circle, rather than professionals, and choosing quarter-hour poses to encourage spontaneity. In 1911, he moved to Berlin, where he founded a private art school, MIUM-Institut, in collaboration with Max Pechstein with the aim of promulgating "Moderner Unterricht im Malen" (modern teaching of painting). This was not a success and closed the following year, when he also began a relationship with Erna Schilling that lasted the rest of his life. In 1917, at the suggestion of Eberhard Grisebach [de], Helene Spengler invited Kirchner to Davos where he viewed an exhibition of Ferdinand Hodler paintings. "When I was leaving, I thought of Vincent Van Gogh's fate and thought that it would be his as well, sooner or later. Only later will people understand and see how much he has contributed to painting". In 1921 Kirchner visited Zurich at the beginning of May and met the dancer, Nina Hard, whom he invited back to Frauenkirch (despite Erna's objections). Nina Hard would become an important model for Kirchner and would be featured in many of his works. Kirchner began creating designs for carpets which were then woven by Lise Gujer. In 1925, Kirchner became close friends with fellow artist, Albert Müller...

Genre: Israeli Subject: People Medium: Print Surface: Paper Country: Israel Dimensions w/Frame: 16" x 13" Ben-Zion Shechter artist, illustrator Ben-Zion Shechter, artist, illustrator. City of Jerusalem scholar, 1963, 64; Israeli Ministry Education scholar, 1965, 66. Served with Israeli Air Force, 1958-1961. Shechter, Ben-Zion was born on August 7, 1940 in Tel Aviv. Son of Isaac and Elka (Demb) Shechter. Education Bachelor of Fine Arts, Bezalel Academy Fine Art, Jerusalem, 1966. Career Airplane mechanic Israeli aviation industry (Lod), 1961-1962. Free-lance commercial artist New York...

Hand-augmented collotype on layered paper by Patricia A. Pearce (American, b. 1948). Signed "Patricia A. Pearce" in the lower right corner. Titled "Red Medusa...

Abstract nude figurative drawing by George Giusti, (Italian 1908-1990). India ink on gesso patterned drawing paper created in 1949. Signed “George Giusti 1949” in the lower right corner. Presented in a distressed giltwood frame with glass and a light pink and grey mat. Image size: 15.75”H x 10”W This extraordinary artist was born in 1908 in Milan, Italy, of a Swiss father and an Italian mother. He studied at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan and did graphic design there before deciding to move to Zürich, Switzerland, where he opened a design studio, which he operated for seven years. While on a visit to the United States in 1938, Giusti was induced to stay by the several excellent commissions that were offered to him, including the opportunity to collaborate with Herbert Matter on the design of the Swiss pavilion at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Giusti is well known in Europe and America for his architecture and sculpture, as well as his graphics. He studied architecture in Milan and worked at it from time to time, producing stunning examples of contemporary design. For more than four decades in America, and before that in Italy and Switzerland, George Giusti’s graphic designs have graced the covers of Time, Fortune, Holiday and other major magazines, as well as most of the publications of the United States Information Agency, and Giusti had a twelve-year design association with Geigy Pharmaceuticals. He has done advertising and graphic designs, illustrations, trademarks, client and employee publications, package designs for major corporations, and drawings. He has succeeded to the extent that his designs are consistently ahead of their time. It is Giusti’s expressed intention to build a bridge between fine art and art for commercial use. He disdains the terms “fine” and “commercial” as defining a distinction which should not exist. Art is art, he believes, whatever its purported use. Exhibitions: George Giusti’s work has been exhibited in America’s large cities and in most of the capitals of the world. His portfolio has been published in Graphis, Switzerland, Idea, Japan, Gebrauschsgraphik, Germany, Pagina Art, Italy, and Communication Art, and The United States. Awards and Affiliations: Over the years, Giusti has garnered more than ten gold and silver medals and eighty other awards and citations. He is a member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts, Alliance Graphique Internationale, International Center for Graphic Art (Typographic Art...