Art by Medium: Masonite

Ben Wilson Rock Candy Mountain, ca. 1970 Oil on masonite board (Hand Signed, titled and dated) Hand signed, titled and dated by Ben Wilson on the back Frame Included: held in artist's original vintage 1970 wood frame This stunning painting with candy colors is done by the second generation Abstract Expressionist artist Ben Wilson - one of the youngest artists to be given a show at prestigious ACA Gallery in 1940. In 2017, he was the subject of a career retrospective at the George Segal Gallery at Montclair State University from September 6 to November 4 and it was accompanied by a catalogue. Measurements: Frame: 23.5 x 47.5 x 1 inch Artwork: 25 x 49 inches About Ben Wilson: Ben Wilson was born in Philadelphia in 1913 to Jewish parents who had emigrated from Kiev and settled in New York City. He was educated in Manhattan public schools and graduated from City College in 1935. To gain exposure to a wider range of styles, he also studied at the National Academy of Design and at the Educational Alliance. Admired by critics throughout his long career, Wilson was singled out as a “discovery” by the New York Times art critic Edward Alden Jewel even before his first one-man show at the Galerie Neuf in 1946. His paintings of the ’30s and ’40s were expressionistically rendered, often Biblical parables, filled with what he called “the grief of the intolerable” and reflecting an acute awareness of the agony of the time, from the Holocaust to the Spanish Civil War. A WPA artist who identified strongly with the plight of the Jews in Europe, he relentlessly explored themes of war, torment, and futility in his early decades of painting. When times changed and social pressures subsided, Wilson’s mood lifted. He spent 1952-54 in Paris working at the Academie Julien. During the ’50s his involvement with specific imagery persisted but became more psychological and mythic in orientation. Influenced by Cubism, he created a vocabulary of interlocking shapes and bold, sweeping gestures that served as a transition between his early figurative expressionism and his later abstract constructivist concerns. Towards the end of the decade Wilson reached a crossroads, moving towards abstraction and searching for what he called “a scaffolding under the externals.” By 1960, influenced by the Russian Constructivists, Mondrian, and Abstract Expressionism, Wilson turned to abstraction. Reexamining the basic elements of painting, he evolved his own personal vocabulary and structure, fusing the cerebral and the emotive. He became increasingly experimental, using house paint, sand, and other unorthodox materials in paintings that he worked from all directions, dripping, spraying, stenciling, and collaging. He employed elements of disjunction, repetitions of geometric motifs, linear networks, and complex overlays to create the transparent, multi-layer development of space that characterizes his later paintings. A consummate draftsman, Wilson filled notebook after notebook with drawings that he amplified in his paintings. Eschewing popular movements, Wilson was always one to pursue a personal aesthetic. Despite more than 30 one-man shows and 50 years of teaching, he increasingly withdrew from the gallery scene but continued to paint daily until his death at age 88 in 2001 in Blairstown, New Jersey, where he and his sculptor wife Evelyn Wilson...

Signed lower left, 'M. Kestor' for Mary Peterson Kestor (American, 1948-2021) and painted circa 1965. Born in Iowa, Mary Kestor first studied at the University of Northern Iowa, whe...

A colorful view of Martha's Vineyard (Depicting Edgartown's main street) by Francis Chapin, from around 1950. Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “Dean of Chicago Painters” by...

We are delighted to offer a unique and evocative piece by the Swedish artist Ingeborg Westfelt-Eggertz. This small oil sketch captures a moment in time, portraying a young man seated...

In a 1971 interview with Ebony Magazine, Alvin Hollinsworth commented on his African Jesus Christ painting, "I have always felt that Christ was a Blac...

I see each painting as a portal in life, a gateway to new experiences and perspectives, triggered by simple conversations or significant milestones. It fascinates me how viewers conn...

Athenian Woman Carrying a Water Jar In a White Dress Beautiful painting by a Central California artist circa 1890s (American 19th c). Oil painting of a Athenian woman holding a blue water vase on her shoulder with a red and orange shawl draped over her white dress. Painted on late 19th century Academy...

Artwork measures 48" x 30" and framed 56 ¼" x 38 ¼" x 3" Provenance: John Heller Gallery, NYC, circa 1975 (label verso) The artist's daughter Corbino Galleries, Sarasota, FL (1990)...

I see each painting as a portal in life, a gateway to new experiences and perspectives, triggered by simple conversations or significant milestones. It fascinates me how viewers conn...

I see each painting as a portal in life, a gateway to new experiences and perspectives, triggered by simple conversations or significant milestones. It fascinates me how viewers conn...

Painting measures 24 ¼" x 12 ¼" and framed 32 ½" x 22 ½". Signed "Aaron Bohrod" lower right. About this artist: Aaron Bohrod was known for the range of styles from social realism to...

Broad areas of bold, flat red, magenta, and pink characterize this mid-century painting by Barbara Warren Ebersole ( Barbara Tate Ebersole ). It depicts a block party festooned with balloons and a street organ grinder with a smartly dressed performing monkey. The overall look of a lot mid-century art inspires many of today's most celebrated contemporary artists. Signed and dated upper left. Oil on Masonite. Barbara Warren Ebersole was a painter and an author. She may have been of Native American...

These works are playful take-offs on sensual body parts and voluptuous curves. My desire to juxtapose a variety of fabrics, differing in color and texture, was born from my work in u...

The rock formations and water sources of Colorado and New Mexico served as the starting points for these more abstracted pieces I painted while living there. Encustic thickness lends...

Art Sz: 14"H x 18"W On masonite board Provenance: The Estate of Paul Desmond Brown Paul Desmond Brown (American, 1893-1958) was an artist, illustrator, and chronicler of sporting ...

Signed upper right, 'Graham' for Ellwood Graham (American, 1911-2007) and painted circa 1985; additionally signed, verso, and titled, 'View Study'. This early California Modernist ...

Art Sz: 14"H x 18"W Oil on masonite board Provenance: The Estate of Paul Desmond Brown Paul Desmond Brown (American, 1893-1958) was an artist, illustrator, and chronicler of sport...

Beautiful watercolor painting depicting a side view of the Santa Cruz Wharf by Beth Teall Wilkins (American, 1906-1992). Alice Elizabeth Teall (Beth T. Wilkins) was born in Moline, I...

Gorgeous oil painting depicting a young blonde ballerina in pose next to a colorful vase with hues of green and pink in the background. Presented in a giltwood frame. Image, 6.5"H x ...

A quaint interior scene of clothes hanging & drying by artist Harold Haydon. Harold Emerson Haydon was born in Fort William, Ontario, Canada in 1909. Haydon came to Chicago with h...

Signed lower right: "Atherton", inscribed "John Atherton Original Tempera 7/28/50" on verso. Artwork measures 16" x 20" and framed 20" x 24" x 2 ½" About this artists: John Atherton (1900-1952) did not show an early aptitude for art; rather, his first love was nature and the activities he relished there, mainly fishing and hunting. Born in Brainerd, Minnesota in 1900, he learned to fish with his father from the age of four. Later the family moved to Spokane, Washington, and when he was old enough, Atherton worked at a variety of jobs to help support his family. One such job, in the sorting plant of a lead and silver mine, paid $4.25 a day—a good wage, though he never had time to spend his money, since he worked seven days a week. After serving in the Navy for a year during World War I, Atherton was determined to get an education. He worked as a sign painter and played the banjo in a dance band, finally accumulating enough money to enroll in the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Once there, he worked like a fiend, attending classes both during the day and at night, getting the best training available. Though he had always intended to be a fine artist, Atherton’s first jobs were for commercial art firms. In 1929, using the prize money won for a painting he entered in an art competition, Atherton and his wife moved to New York City. Though the economic situation was difficult in those years, he managed to keep going by taking commissions for magazine illustrations, and over the years he would paint more than forty covers for The Saturday Evening Post. In 1938, an artist friend suggested that he use the same flat, decorative style as his commercial work for his gallery paintings. This was a breakthrough for Atherton; soon afterwards he held a one-man show at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York, and his paintings began to be collected by museums including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Atherton’s reputation increased to a national scale when he designed the art deco stone lithograph poster for the 1939 World’s Fair that strikingly depicted Earth and its atmospheric layers in the lap of Liberty. Atherton was highly influenced by the magic realist...

Ben Wilson Ozymandias, 1989 Oil on masonite board Boldly signed by Ben Wilson on the back 36 × 48 inches Unframed Provenance: acquired from the Estate of Ben Wilson This work is titled "Ozymandias" after the famous sonnet written by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822). Shelley's poem is one of the most poignant meditations on the fleeting nature of human power and the inevitability of decline. The poem serves as a reminder that time erodes even the most imposing empires and leaders and that the pursuit of lasting fame and control is ultimately futile. Depending on how one views Ben Wilson's Abstract Expressionist painting of "Ozymandias" -- some of the imagery might reveal the head of an angry king and a sickle. Shelley's poem Ozymandias reads: I met a traveler from an antique land...

19th century American school; unsigned and painted circa 1860. Displayed in a substantial and period, carved wood and gilt-gesso frame Frame dime...

Ben Wilson Concert, ca. 1989 Oil on masonite board (Hand Signed by the artist; also bears the Estate Stamp) Boldly signed front and back, titled and dated on the back by Ben Wilson and also stamped on the back by the estate of Ben Wilson 42 × 48 inches Unframed This stunning painting is done by the second generation Abstract Expressionist artist Ben Wilson - one of the youngest artists to be given a show at prestigious ACA Gallery in 1940. This work "Concert" - depicting instruments, in a light, lyrically abstract painting. Exquisite colors and subtle imagery. In 2017, he was the subject of a retrospective at the George Segal Gallery at Montclair State University from September 6 to November 4 and it was accompanied by a catalogue. About Ben Wilson: Ben Wilson was born in Philadelphia in 1913 to Jewish parents who had emigrated from Kiev and settled in New York City. He was educated in Manhattan public schools and graduated from City College in 1935. To gain exposure to a wider range of styles, he also studied at the National Academy of Design and at the Educational Alliance. Admired by critics throughout his long career, Wilson was singled out as a “discovery” by the New York Times art critic Edward Alden Jewel even before his first one-man show at the Galerie Neuf in 1946. His paintings of the ’30s and ’40s were expressionistically rendered, often Biblical parables, filled with what he called “the grief of the intolerable” and reflecting an acute awareness of the agony of the time, from the Holocaust to the Spanish Civil War. A WPA artist who identified strongly with the plight of the Jews in Europe, he relentlessly explored themes of war, torment, and futility in his early decades of painting. When times changed and social pressures subsided, Wilson’s mood lifted. He spent 1952-54 in Paris working at the Academie Julien. During the ’50s his involvement with specific imagery persisted but became more psychological and mythic in orientation. Influenced by Cubism, he created a vocabulary of interlocking shapes and bold, sweeping gestures that served as a transition between his early figurative expressionism and his later abstract constructivist concerns. Towards the end of the decade Wilson reached a crossroads, moving towards abstraction and searching for what he called “a scaffolding under the externals.” By 1960, influenced by the Russian Constructivists, Mondrian, and Abstract Expressionism, Wilson turned to abstraction. Reexamining the basic elements of painting, he evolved his own personal vocabulary and structure, fusing the cerebral and the emotive. He became increasingly experimental, using house paint, sand, and other unorthodox materials in paintings that he worked from all directions, dripping, spraying, stenciling, and collaging. He employed elements of disjunction, repetitions of geometric motifs, linear networks, and complex overlays to create the transparent, multi-layer development of space that characterizes his later paintings. A consummate draftsman, Wilson filled notebook after notebook with drawings that he amplified in his paintings. Eschewing popular movements, Wilson was always one to pursue a personal aesthetic. Despite more than 30 one-man shows and 50 years of teaching, he increasingly withdrew from the gallery scene but continued to paint daily until his death at age 88 in 2001 in Blairstown, New Jersey, where he and his sculptor wife Evelyn Wilson...

Mid Century Modern Portrait of a Man in a Suit in Oil on Masonite Mid Century Modern portrait of an older man by Honora Berg (American, 1897-1985). This portrait is made of layers o...

This abstract is signed and dated "Jimmy Ernst 63" on the lower right. Measurement of artwork is 8 ½" x 8 ¼" and framed measures 15 ½" x 15" x 1 ¼" in a painted frame. Provenance: Gift from the artist to his personal friend architect John Johansen...

A colorful view of Martha's Vineyard by Francis Chapin, from the 1930s. Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “Dean of Chicago Painters” by his colleagues, was one of the city’s most popular and celebrated painters in his day. Born at the dawn of the 20th Century in Bristolville, Ohio, Chapin graduated from Washington & Jefferson College near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania before enrolling at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1922. He would set down deep roots at the Art Institute of Chicago, exhibiting there over 31 times between 1926 and 1951. In 1927 Chapin won the prestigious Bryan Lathrop Fellowship from the Art Institute – a prize that funded the artist’s yearlong study trip to Europe. Upon his return to the United States, Chapin decided to remain in Chicago, noting the freedom Chicago artists have in developing independently of the pressure to conform to pre-existing molds (as was experienced by artists in New York, for example). Chapin became a popular instructor at the Art Institute, teaching there from 1929 to 1947 and at the Art Institute’s summer art school in Saugatuck, Michigan (now called Oxbow) between 1934 – 1938 (he was the director of the school from 1941-1945). A prolific painter, Chapin produced numerous works while traveling in Mexico, France, Spain, Saugatuck and Martha’s Vineyard, where he frequently spent summers and taught at the Old Sculpin Gallery there. Chapin was best recognized for his dynamic and vibrant images of Chicago during the 1930s and 40s. Chapin was a resident of the Old Town neighborhood where he lived and kept his studio on Menomonee Street for many years. Described as a “colorful figure, nearly 6 feet 6 inches tall, and thin, and usually wearing tweeds”, it is easy to imagine Chapin at work observing the busy street life of the city. In addition to his many exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago, Chapin’s work was shown during his lifetime at such institutions as the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia; the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.; the National Academy of Design, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, among others. Francis Chapin’s paintings are represented in the collections the Art Institute of Chicago; the Friedman Collection, Chicago; the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown; the Denver Art Museum; the Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse; the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach...

Portrait of a Man Smoking a Pipe in Oil on Masonite Detailed portrait of a man with a pipe by Heinz Robert Schubert (German, 1912-2001 approx.). A man wearing a short-brimmed hat is...

A colorful view of Menemsha in Martha's Vineyard by Francis Chapin, from around 1950. Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “Dean of Chicago Painters” by his colleagues, was one...

A view of Oak Bluffs, MA on Martha's Vineyard by Francis Chapin, from around 1950. Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “Dean of Chicago Painters” by his colleagues, was one of...

'Blue Landscape' is an original painting by the master of Haitian art Antonio Joseph. In the painting, Joseph works with magic realist themes: The landscape is a deep and saturated blue, with greens and yellows covering the Haitian mountains as they emerge out of the sea. The mountains are likewise dotted with the colorful houses so emblematic of Haitian vernacular architecture. The viewer looks out toward at these features while seemly contained within a set of sea walls. In the immediate foreground, pushed up against the picture plane, a mysterious vine grows out of the hard industrial ground, with nearly a dozen different flowers bursting from the same vine. The impossibility of these flowers perhaps relates the artist's work to the strong Latin American surrealist artists, like Frida Kahlo and Remedios Varo, while also referencing Haitian folk culture and spirituality. caesin on masonite 23.88 x 36 inches, artwork 26.38 x 38.25 inches, frame signed "Antonio Joseph" lower right and dated 53 inscribed "172" in green ink, on reverse, center inscribed "380- 91-150" in white chalk, on reverse, center left inscribed "13" in graphite, on reverse, center right Overall good condition; some dust accumulation to surface; tidemarks on reverse; some scratches and surface losses to vintage frame. Presented in a mid-century modern profile wood moulding with gold leaf bevel and 1-inch linen liner. Antonio Joseph was born on April 15, 1921 in Barahona, Dominican Republic to Haitian parents. In his youth he was trained as a tailor and also attended Varones' "La Escuela Graduata" and studied at the Santa Cecilia Music Academy. When he was seventeen, at the time of the "perejil" massacre where thousands of Haitians were murdered, he was smuggled out of the Dominican Republic with his mother, brother and sister. When he arrived in Haiti, he first lived thanks to the practice of tailoring. In 1944, he was the first student and member registered at the Art Centre upon the official opening of the institution. There he studied geometric design and watercolor with DeWitt Peters, who recognized his potential as the Centre's first "discovery" and an asset to the nascent institution. He also practiced sculpture with Jason Seley, ceramics with Edith Wegard, and silkscreen printing with Franck Jacobson. He learned the first notions of composition and perspective with the French sculptor Pierre Bourdelle, who came to Haiti to oversee the creation of the murals of the Cité de l'Exposition in Port-au-Prince. From 1945 to 1949, he worked with Bourdelle on the enormous state-funded project, conceived as part of the festivities commemorating the bicentenary of the founding of the city of Port-au-Prince. In 1952, Paul Keene, an artist from Philadelphia taught and exhibited at the Art Center. While there, he passed on to Antonio Joseph the techniques of casein painting, which combine the virtuosity of oil painting with the possibilities of watercolor. This discovery was instrumental in Antonio Joseph’s career, and he then entered an intense production phase. He at that time produced a series of paintings for which, in 1953, the Guggenheim Foundation awarded him a prestigious research and development grant. He was the first Haitian artist to receive this scholarship in the field of "creative painting...

Beautiful Orient, Long Island, New York painting by well known Hampton artist, John Crimmins. Acrylic on masonite. Circa 1995. Signed lower left. Condition is excellent. The painting is housed in a a new contemporary antique silver frame 26 by 30.25 inches. Provenance: A Southampton, New York collector. East End artist, John Crimmins was born in New York in 1963. As an American Impressionist painter, he lives in New York and he is very active in the Hamptons. Incredibly, he is self-taught, having studied the works and techniques of the prominent American artist Charles Hawthorne and living by his saying “Let Color make form”. If you view John’s paintings at close inspection you will see single spots of color silhouetted with another which not only shows his skill but his passion and intricate dedication to his work. His paintings are done 'alla prima', that in Italian means 'at first attempt', it is a painting technique, used mostly in oil painting, in which layers of wet paint are applied to previously administered layers of wet paint. With this style of painting the work is to be completed while the paint is still wet, so once started his works are finished in one session. He is a member of the East End Arts Council and his paintings are a part of the Ken Ratner Collection and the Southold Historical Society in New York. His works were a part of the Islip Art Museum IAM Pocket sized open Call Exhibition in 2015. He is mostly known for his flag and local Hampton beach paintings...

Carl Robert Holty (American 1900-1973) Abstract Expressionism Oil on Masonite board. Abstract with greens blues and red, Dimensions 12 x 9-1/2 inches. Framed 17 X 14 inches Hand...

Paul Riba (American, 1912-1977) The Sun Oil on masonite Signed lower right, titled verso 14 x 21.5 inches 20.75 x 28.25 inches, framed Paul Riba was a painter of Magic Realism. He ...

Dimensions are 18.25" x 22.25" and framed 29.5" x 34" x 2". The painting is signed "philip Reisman" on the lower right recto, and signed and titled verso. Provenance: acquired dire...

An oil study of a man shown vigorously drying his hair with a towel. Signed lower left, 'Termeh' for Termeh Yeghiazarian (Iranian-American, 1959-2022) and dated 1994. Additionally signed, verso, 'Ms. Termeh Yeghiazarian'. Termeh Yeghiazarian was born in Tehran and moved to the US in 1978. From 1991, she made San Francisco her home, becoming an active member of the Bay Area art scene as artist, teacher and activist. Yeghiazarian received her BA from the Academy of Art and her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. She was involved in the creation of the San Francisco Art and Culture Committee and in the establishment of community gatherings and cultural events that included First Fridays, Salons and the production of plays by Golden Thread Productions of which she was a co-founder. As an artist, Yeghiazarian explored the social impact and politics of cultural representation. She exhibited widely and with success including throughout the San Francisco Bay Area...

Richard Pettibone The Appropriation Print Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein, 1970 Silkscreen in colors on masonite board (unique variant on sculpted board) Hand-signed by artist, Signed and dated on the front (see close up image) Bespoke frame Included This is a rare example of Pettibone's iconic Appropriation Print, as it's silkscreened and sculpted on masonite board rather than paper, giving it a different background hue, and enabling it work to be framed so uniquely. The Appropriation print is one of the most coveted prints Pettibone ever created ; the regular edition is on a full sheet with white background; the present example was silkscreened on board, allowing it to be framed in 3-D. While we do not know how many examples of this graphic work Pettibone created, so far the present work is the only one example we have ever seen on the public market since 1970. (Other editions of The Appropriation Print have been printed on vellum, wove paper and pink and yellow paper.) This 1970 homage to Andy Warhol, Frank Stella and Roy Lichtenstein exemplifies the type of artistic appropriation he was engaging in early on during the height of the Pop Art movement - long before more contemporary artists like Deborah Kass, Louise Lawler, etc. followed suit. This silkscreen was in its original 1970 vintage period frame; a bespoke custom hand cut black wood outer frame was subsequently created especially to house the work, giving it a distinctive sculptural aesthetic. Measurements: Framed 14.5 inches vertical by 18 inches horizontal by 2 inches Work 13 inches vertical by 16.5 inches horizontal Richard Pettibone biography: Richard Pettibone (American, b.1938) is one of the pioneering artists to use appropriation techniques. Pettibone was born in Los Angeles, and first worked with shadow boxes and assemblages, illustrating his interest in craft, construction, and working in miniature scales. In 1964, he created the first of his appropriated pieces, two tiny painted “replicas” of the iconic Campbell’s soup cans by Andy Warhol (American, 1928–1987). By 1965, he had created several “replicas” of paintings by American artists, such as Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein (1923–1997), Ed Ruscha (b.1937), and others, among them some of the biggest names in Pop Art. Pettibone chose to recreate the work of leading avant-garde artists whose careers were often centered on themes of replication themselves, further lending irony to his work. Pettibone also created both miniature and life-sized sculptural works, including an exact copy of Bicycle Wheel by Marcel Duchamp (French, 1887–1968), and in the 1980s, an entire series of sculptures of varying sizes replicating the most famous works of Constantin Brancusi (Romanian, 1876–1957). In more recent years, Pettibone has created paintings based on the covers of poetry books by Ezra Pound, as well as sculptures drawn from the grid compositions of Piet Mondrian (Dutch, 1872–1944). Pettibone straddles the lines of appropriation, Pop, and Conceptual Art, and has received critical attention for decades for the important questions his work raises about authorship, craftsmanship, and the original in art. His work has been exhibited at the Institute for Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami, and the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach, CA. Pettibone is currently based in New York. "I wished I had stuck with the idea of just painting the same painting like the soup can and never painting another painting. When someone wanted one, you would just do another one. Does anybody do that now?" Andy Warhol, 1981 Since the mid-1960s, Richard Pettibone has been making hand-painted, small-scale copies of works by other artists — a practice due to which he is best known as a precursor of appropriation art — and for a decade now, he has been revisiting subjects from across his career. In his latest exhibitions at Castelli Gallery, Pettibone has been showing more of the “same” paintings that had already been part of his 2005–6 museum retrospective,1 and also including “new” subject matter drawn from his usual roster of European modernists and American postwar artists. Art critic Kim Levin laid out some phases of the intricate spectrum from copies to repetitions in her review of the Warhol-de Chirico showdown, a joint exhibition at the heyday of appropriation art in the mid-1980s when Warhol’s appropriations of de Chirico’s work effectively revaluated “the grand old auto-appropriator”. Upon having counted well over a dozen Disquieting Muses by de Chirico, Levin speculated: “Maybe he kept doing them because no one got the point. Maybe he needed the money. Maybe he meant it when he said his technique had improved, and traditional skills were what mattered.” On the other side, Warhol, in her eyes, was the “latter-day exemplar of museless creativity”. To Pettibone, traditional skills certainly still matter, as he practices his contemporary version of museless creativity. He paints the same painting again and again, no matter whether anybody shows an interest in it or not. His work, of course, takes place well outside the historical framework of what Levin aptly referred to as the “modern/postmodern wrestling match”, but neither was this exactly his match to begin with. Pettibone is one of appropriation art’s trailblazers, but his diverse selection of sources removes from his work the critique of the modernist myth of originality most commonly associated with appropriation art in a narrow sense, as we see, for example, in Sherrie Levine’s practice of re-photographing the work of Walker Evans and Edward Weston. In particular, during his photorealist phase of the 1970s, Pettibone’s sources ranged widely across several art-historical periods. His appropriations of the 1980s and 1990s spanned from Picasso etchings and Brancusi sculptures to Shaker furniture and even included Ezra Pound’s poetry. Pettibone has professed outright admiration for his source artists, whose work he shrinks and tweaks to comic effect but, nevertheless, always treats with reverence and care. His response to these artists is primarily on an aesthetic level, owing much to the fact that his process relies on photographs. By the same token, the aesthetic that attracts him is a graphic one that lends itself to reproduction. Painstakingly copying other artists’ work by hand has been a way of making it his own, yet each source is acknowledged in his titles and, occasionally, in captions on white margins that he leaves around the image as an indication that the actual source is a photographic image. The enjoyment he receives in copying is part of the motivation behind doing it, as is the pleasure he receives from actually being with the finished painting — a considerable private dimension of his work. His copies are “handmade readymades” that he meticulously paints in great quantities in his studio upstate in New York; the commitment to manual labor and the time spent at material production has become an increasingly important dimension of his recent work. Pettibone operates at some remove from the contemporary art scene, not only by staying put geographically, but also by refusing to recoup the simulated lack of originality through the creation of a public persona. In so doing, Pettibone takes a real risk. He places himself in opposition to conceptualism, and he is apprehensive of an understanding of art as the mere illustration of an idea. His reading of Marcel Duchamp’s works as beautiful is revealing about Pettibone’s priorities in this respect. When Pettibone, for aesthetic pleasure, paints Duchamp’s Poster...

Signed 'Seidel' for Richard Seidel (American, born 1949) and painted circa 1975. Born in Ohio, Richard Seidel has exhibited widely and with success inc...

Very beautiful oil on masonite painting by the American mid century modern artist Roy M. Steinberg. Signed lower left. Circa 1955. Condition is very good; no issues. A jester blowi...

oil on masonite

This modern abstract painting by Peter Keil is on a smooth masonite board with a painted Tiffany Blue background, black abstract portrait. Here you ...

Purple Clouds Above the Farm - Landscape in Oil on Masonite Serene landscape by an unknown artist (20th Century). A detailed, textured field stretches out into the distance, meeting...

This modern abstract painting by Peter Keil is on a smooth masonite board with a painted grey background, black abstract portrait with many colors. Here you certainly see the Picasso...

Bruno Lucchesi (b.1926). Mother and Child, ca. 1960. Oil and charcoal on sized paper mounted to masonite, measuring 11 x 21 inches; 15.5 x 25.5 inches in original gold leaf frame. Si...

This modern abstract painting by Peter Keil is on a smooth masonite board with a painted grey background, black abstract portrait with many colors. Here you certainly see the Picasso...

American school, Signed indistinctly lower right and dated 1988. A bravura, psychologically-penetrating oil study of a man, shown wearing a turban and contrasted against a scumbled ...

Aaron Bohrod, 1907-1992 Lobster Shack, 1938 Oil on masonite 16 x 20 inches Signed and dated ower left: Aaron Bohrod 1938 Bohrod-3 Provenance: Private estate, Rhode Island, 2004 Am...

Signed lower right, 'C. Sideman' for Carol Joy Sideman (1925-2021) and painted circa 1975; titled, verso, on old artist's tape, 'Surf and Rocks'. Carol Sideman received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California at Berkeley and, subsequently, attended the Oaklands College of Arts and Crafts. Sideman specialized in architectural illustration...

This modern abstract painting by Peter Keil is on a smooth masonite board with a painted Tiffany Blue background, black abstract portrait with many ...

A colorful impressionist Cape Cod landscape by American artist Malcolm Humphreys (1892-1963). Humphreys was born in Morristown, New Jersey, graduated from Princeton University, and p...

Richard Anuszkiewicz Annual Edition, 1987-1988 Limited edition silkscreen on masonite Signed and dated by the artist lower right in pencil Frame Included (floated within a box frame)...

Hilding Werner, A Värmland artist, was a distinguished Swedish painter and draftsman. Born to landowner Anders Andersson and Inga Maria Johannesdotter, ...

Overlooking the Bay - Coastal Landscape in Oil on Masonite Serene coastal landscape by unknown artist "Lydia" (American, 20th century). The viewer stands at a vantage point above a small coastal town in possibly Maine. The town is nestled in lush landscape, full of vibrant foliage. Beyond the town, there is a bay with prominent cliffs surrounding it. Signed and dated "Lydia 57" in the lower right corner. Board size: 15.5"H x 19.5"W We are researching Lydia Cooley Freeman (American, 1906-1998) as a possible artist for this painting. Born in Tacoma, Washington on January 13, 1906, Lydia Cooley, by the 1930s, had settled in New York City where she studied at the Art Students League under John Sloan. Her portraits of women, children and the working class are of the Ash Can school...

Victor Thall "Abstract #6" c. 1950s Oil on Masonite 40"x48" unframed Signed in paint lower left Victor Thall was born in New York in 1902. At the age of eleven, he studied under Art...

Original oil on masonite painting of Fleet Week with sailors flirting with young women on the dock by the American artist, Sarah Pace Carothers Rhode. ...

A spectacular mid-century modern Manhattan figurative landscape oil painting, after the renowned artist Adolf Arthur Dehn's 1941 watercolor "Spring in Central Park", by an unknown artist (American, 20th Century). In this vibrant and expressive circa 1960 rendition of Dehn's famed painting, New Yorkers are depicted as tiny figures milling about the park in springtime, dwarfed by fluffy pink trees in bloom and the towering New York City skyline in the distance. Unsigned. Presented in a wood frame. Image size: , 29"H x 36"L. Framed: 32"H x 39"W. This painting is after the prestigious watercolor of the same title, painted in 1941 by Adolf Arthur Dehn (American, 1895 - 1968). The original piece is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It was exhibited at the Met's "26th Annual National Exhibition of Advertising and Editorial Art" in 1947, and then again at the 1950 exhibition titled "20th Century Painters: A Special Exhibition of Oils, Water Colors and Drawings Selected from the Collections of American Art in the Metropolitan Museum". More recently, "Spring in Central Park" was exhibited at Fairfield University Art Museum for the 2017 exhibition "Adolf Dehn: Midcentury Manhattan". Visiting, and then living in New York City, Dehn captured the essence of the city in his paintings, prints and drawings of the landscapes of Central Park, and of the city's burlesque and night club scenes...

"Touring Monument Valley" - Desert Plein Aire Landscape in Acrylic on Masonite Dramatic desert landscape by California Plein Aire artist Nick White (American, 1943-2009). The viewer...

"Evening at Vasona" - Plein Aire Landscape in Acrylic on Board Vibrant river landscape by California Plein Aire artist Nick White (American, 1943-2009). A glassy river runs down the...