Donald Bear

'Still Life of Fruit', Denver Art Museum, WPA, Santa Barbara Museum, Who Was Who

Circa 1945

Signed lower right, 'A. Minewski' for Alexander Minewski (American, 1917-1979) and painted circa 1950. Born in Detroit, Alexander Minewski left home at the age of 14 to work in the circus. He subsequently worked as a sign painter and a logger. Minewski first studied at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Detroit (1936-1939) and received scholarships that allowed him to attend the Art Students League in New York City (1939-1942). There, he studied under artists including Jean Charlot, Ernest Fiene, George Grosz and Vaclav Vytlacil. During World War II, Minewski joined the army and fought as a combat engineer. Wounded in Burma while fighting with Merrill's Marauders, he spent two years there recovering from his wounds. Following his time in Burma, Minewski studied for two years on the G.I. Bill in Paris at the Académie de la Grande Chaumiere (1950-1952) and, independently, with Hans Hofmann in New York City (1952-1953). Hofmann was influential on his style and his work shifted away from a moody realism towards a fuller expressionism. In 1954, Minewski began spending his summers at the artist’s colony in Monhegan Island, Maine. While there, he was able to work and collaborate with other artists and friends such as Ted Davis...

Signed lower left, 'Sam Colburn' for Samuel Colburn (American, 1909-1993) and dated 1982. A powerful, late work by this well-listed American regionalis...

Victor Di Gesu (American, 1914-1988) estate stamp verso and painted circa 1960. Winner of the Prix Othon Friesz, Victor di Gesu first attended the Los Angeles Art Center and the Cho...

Signed upper left, 'V. Isbrand' for Victor Isbrand (Danish, 1897-1989) and painted circa 1945. A vibrant Post-Impressionist still-life showing a view of a farmhouse interior with a...

Michael Frary (1918 - 2005) Austin Artist Image Size: 16 x 20 Frame Size: 17.5 x 21.5 Medium: Oil "Still Life Fruit" Biography Michael Frary (1918 - ...

Albert Swinden (1901 - 1961) Still Life of Fruit, 1937 Oil on canvas 18 x 30 inches Provenance: Graham Gallery, New York Albert Swinden (1901–1961) was an English-born American abstract painter. He was one of the founders of the American Abstract Artists, and he created significant murals as part of the Federal Art Project. Albert Swinden was born in Birmingham, England in 1901. When he was seven, he moved with his family to Canada, and in 1919 he immigrated to the United States. He lived in Chicago, where he studied for about a year and a half at the Art Institute. He then relocated to New York City, where his art education continued briefly at the National Academy of Design. He soon changed schools again, to the Art Students League, which he attended from 1930 to 1934. He studied with Hans Hofmann and gained an appreciation for Synthetic Cubism and Neoplasticism. According to painter and printmaker George McNeil, Swinden "could have influenced Hofmann ... He was working with very, very simple planes, not in this sort of Cubistic manner. Swinden was working synthetically at this time." While still a student, Swinden began teaching at the Art Students League, in 1932. Swinden married Rebecca Palter (1912–1998), from New York. Their daughter, Alice Swinden Carter, also became an artist. Carter, who attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, received an award from the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston for her large sculptures. Swinden was hired for the Federal Art Project (FAP) of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and he is best known for the murals which he painted as part of that project. In 1935, New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia attended the opening of the inaugural exhibit at the Federal Art Project Gallery, accompanied by Audrey McMahon, New York regional director for the Works Progress Administration/Federal Art Project. Among the works on display was Abstraction, a sketch by Swinden; it was the design for a mural planned for the College of the City of New York. A newspaper account described it as consisting of "brightly colored T-squares, triangles and rulers in horizontal, vertical and diagonal positions". La Guardia asked what it was, and upon being told it was a mural design, he said he didn't know what it depicted. Someone joked that it could be a map of Manhattan. The displeased mayor stated that "if that's art, I belong to Tammany Hall." (Tammany Hall, which the Republican mayor referenced, was the New York Democratic Party political society.) Fearing that the mayor's negative attitude could jeopardize the future of abstract art within the Federal Art Project, McMahon dispatched an assistant to summon an artist who could speak to the mayor in defense of abstraction. The assistant returned with Arshile Gorky. Swinden played an important role in the founding of the American Abstract Artists. In 1935, he met with three friends, Rosalind Bengelsdorf, her future husband Byron Browne, and Ibram Lassaw, with the goal of exhibiting together. The group grew and started meeting in Swinden's studio, which adjoined those of Balcomb and Gertrude Greene...

Best known as an impassioned supporter and avid collector of modern art, Earl Horter was also an artist himself. Largely self-taught, Horter was a highly skilled draftsman and engrav...

Paul Cezanne The green jug, 1971 Lithograph and stencil (Jacomet workshop) Unsigned Numbered / 225 On paper applied on Arches vellum 41.5 x 53.5 cm (c. 16.5 x 21 in) INFORMATION : ...