Sylvia Spicuzza

"Self-Portrait With Student Creating a Mobile" watercolor by Sylvia Spicuzza

ca. 1950

This still life is an unusual example of Sylvia Spicuzza's work, as most of her most significant output are geometric and biomorphic abstract images. The objects in the image - a sea shell, a pitcher, a heavy necklace - are objects the artist likely had at home and staged for the image. But of particular significance is the insertion of the artist's hand, as though she was reaching into the still life while she was painting. The hand has been a significant symbol of the artist throughout art history as a source of creation: Albrecht Dürer's 'Self Portrait at the Age of Twenty-Eight' (1500) highlights the artist's hand much like traditional images of Christ giving gestures of blessing. Likewise, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's 'Self Portrait as a Soldier' (1915) shows the artist in military uniform but with a severed hand as a symbol of helplessness during the First World War. Another important comparison, given Spicuzza is a Midwestern artist, is Ivan Albright's magic realist work 'That Which I Should Have Done I Did Not Do (The Door)' at the Art Institute of Chicago. The massive painting...

In the 1960s, Sylvia Spicuzza made several watercolor abstractions with biomorphic qualities like the one presented here. While being a playful abstraction, the watercolor also seeps...

BARBARA DYONIZIAK-STUSS (born in 1952) She studied at the State Schools of Fine Arts in Gdańsk and in Łódź (now: Academy of Fine Arts) and graduated in 1981. She is involved in paint...

Image dimensions: 50.5 x 36 cm. Women is an original watercolor drawing realized by Guelfo Bianchini in 1961. The artwork is hand signed and daed by...