Art by Medium: Monotype

Gelatin monotype with acrylic paint on white BFK Rives Printmaking Paper. Approx. image size: 3" x 9" Paper size: 10" x 14" At the core of the dialogue between the artist and the ...

In this contemporary encaustic monotype, layers of pigmented beeswax on lightweight kozo paper create an undulating composition suggesting layers of the earth's crust and geological ...

"India" is a woodcut and monotype signed by Carol Summers. Here, Summer's abstract language for landscape imagery is taken to its most extreme: The image offers a view of a highly stylized waterfall, with red water falling down behind green foliage below. A hint of light blue at the lower left suggests a continuation of the water's flow. Above, purples and yellows mist upward from the power of the water. The playfulness of the image is enhanced by Summers' signature printmaking technique, which allows the ink from the woodblock to seep through the paper, blurring the edges of each form. Summers' signature can be found in pencil at the bottom of the rightmost blue form, with the title and edition at the bottom of the leftmost blue form. A copy of this print can be found in the collection of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. 37.25 x 24.88 inches, artwork 48.5 x 35.5 inches, frame Numbered 44 from the edition of 75 Carol Summers (1925-2016) has worked as an artist throughout the second half of the 20th century and into the first years of the next, outliving most of his mid-century modernist peers. Initially trained as a painter, Summers was drawn to color woodcuts around 1950 and it became his specialty thereafter. Over the years he has developed a process and style that is both innovative and readily recognizable. His art is known for it’s large scale, saturated fields of bold color, semi-abstract treatment of landscapes from around the world and a luminescent quality achieved through a printmaking process he invented. In a career that has extended over half a century, Summers has hand-pulled approximately 245 woodcuts in editions that have typically run from 25 to 100 in number. His talent was both inherited and learned. Born in 1925 in Kingston, a small town in upstate New York, Summers was raised in nearby Woodstock with his older sister, Mary. His parents were both artists who had met in art school in St. Louis. During the Great Depression, when Carol was growing up, his father supported the family as a medical illustrator until he could return to painting. His mother was a watercolorist and also quite knowledgeable about the different kinds of papers used for various kinds of painting. Many years later, Summers would paint or print on thinly textured paper originally collected by his mother. From 1948 to 1951, Carol Summers trained in the classical fine and studio arts at Bard College and at the Art Students League of New York. He studied painting with Steven Hirsh and printmaking with Louis Schanker. He admired the shapes and colors favored by early modernists Paul Klee (Sw: 1879-1940) and Matt Phillips (Am: b.1927- ). After graduating, Summers quit working as a part-time carpenter and cabinetmaker (which had supported his schooling and living expenses) to focus fulltime on art. That same year, an early abstract, Bridge No. 1 was selected for a Purchase Prize in a competition sponsored by the Brooklyn Museum. In 1952, his work (Cathedral, Construction and Icarus) was shown the first time at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in an exhibition of American woodcuts. In 1954, Summers received a grant from the Italian government to study for a year in Italy. Woodcuts completed soon after his arrival there were almost all editions of only 8 to 25 prints, small in size, architectural in content and black and white in color. The most well-known are Siennese Landscape and Little Landscape, which depicted the area near where he resided. Summers extended this trip three more years, a decision which would have significant impact on choices of subject matter and color in the coming decade. After returning from Europe, Summers’ images continued to feature historical landmarks and events from Italy as well as from France, Spain and Greece. However, as evidenced in Aetna’s Dream, Worldwind and Arch of Triumph, a new look prevailed. These woodcuts were larger in size and in color. Some incorporated metal leaf in the creation of a collage and Summers even experimented with silkscreening. Editions were now between 20 and 50 prints in number. Most importantly, Summers employed his rubbing technique for the first time in the creation of Fantastic Garden in late 1957. Dark Vision of Xerxes, a benchmark for Summers, was the first woodcut where Summers experimented using mineral spirits as part of his printmaking process. A Fulbright Grant as well as Fellowships from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation and the Guggenheim Foundation followed soon thereafter, as did faculty positions at colleges and universities primarily in New York and Pennsylvania. During this period he married a dancer named Elaine Smithers with whom he had one son, Kyle. Around this same time, along with fellow artist Leonard Baskin, Summers pioneered what is now referred to as the “monumental” woodcut. This term was coined in the early 1960s to denote woodcuts that were dramatically bigger than those previously created in earlier years, ones that were limited in size mostly by the size of small hand-presses. While Baskin chose figurative subject matter, serious in nature and rendered with thick, striated lines, Summers rendered much less somber images preferring to emphasize shape and color; his subject matter approached abstraction but was always firmly rooted in the landscape. In addition to working in this new, larger scale, Summers simultaneously refined a printmaking process which would eventually be called the “Carol Summers Method” or the “ Carol Summers Technique”. Summers produces his woodcuts by hand, usually from one or more blocks of quarter-inch pine, using oil-based printing inks and porous mulberry papers. His woodcuts reveal a sensitivity to wood especially its absorptive qualities and the subtleties of the grain. In several of his woodcuts throughout his career he has used the undulating, grainy patterns of a large wood plank to portray a flowing river or tumbling waterfall. The best examples of this are Dream, done in 1965 and the later Flash Flood Escalante, in 2003. In the majority of his woodcuts, Summers makes the blocks slightly larger than the paper so the image and color will bleed off the edge. Before printing, he centers a dry sheet of paper over the top of the cut wood block or blocks, securing it with giant clips. Then he rolls the ink directly on the front of the sheet of paper and pressing down onto the dry wood block or reassembled group of blocks. Summers is technically very proficient; the inks are thoroughly saturated onto the surface of the paper but they do not run into each other. The precision of the color inking in Constantine’s Dream in 1969 and Rainbow Glacier in 1970 has been referred to in various studio handbooks. Summers refers to his own printing technique as “rubbing”. In traditional woodcut printing, including the Japanese method, the ink is applied directly onto the block. However, by following his own method, Summers has avoided the mirror-reversed image of a conventional print and it has given him the control over the precise amount of ink that he wants on the paper. After the ink is applied to the front of the paper, Summers sprays it with mineral spirits, which act as a thinning agent. The absorptive fibers of the paper draw the thinned ink away from the surface softening the shapes and diffusing and muting the colors. This produces a unique glow that is a hallmark of the Summers printmaking technique. Unlike the works of other color field artists or modernists of the time, this new technique made Summers’ extreme simplification and flat color areas anything but hard-edged or coldly impersonal. By the 1960s, Summers had developed a personal way of coloring and printing and was not afraid of hard work, doing the cutting, inking and pulling himself. In 1964, at the age of 38, Summers’ work was exhibited for a second time at the Museum of Modern Art. This time his work was featured in a one-man show and then as one of MoMA’s two-year traveling exhibitions which toured throughout the United States. In subsequent years, Summers’ works would be exhibited and acquired for the permanent collections of multiple museums throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. Summers’ familiarity with landscapes throughout the world is firsthand. As a navigator-bombardier in the Marines in World War II, he toured the South Pacific and Asia. Following college, travel in Europe and subsequent teaching positions, in 1972, after 47 years on the East Coast, Carol Summers moved permanently to Bonny Doon in the Santa Cruz Mountains in Northern California. There met his second wife, Joan Ward Toth, a textile artist who died in 1998; and it was here his second son, Ethan was born. During the years that followed this relocation, Summers’ choice of subject matter became more diverse although it retained the positive, mostly life-affirming quality that had existed from the beginning. Images now included moons, comets, both sunny and starry skies, hearts and flowers, all of which, in one way or another, remained tied to the landscape. In the 1980s, from his home and studio in the Santa Cruz mountains, Summers continued to work as an artist supplementing his income by conducting classes and workshops at universities in California and Oregon as well as throughout the Mid and Southwest. He also traveled extensively during this period hiking and camping, often for weeks at a time, throughout the western United States and Canada. Throughout the decade it was not unusual for Summers to backpack alone or with a fellow artist into mountains or back country for six weeks or more at a time. Not surprisingly, the artwork created during this period rarely departed from images of the land, sea and sky. Summers rendered these landscapes in a more representational style than before, however he always kept them somewhat abstract by mixing geometric shapes with organic shapes, irregular in outline. Some of his most critically acknowledged work was created during this period including First Rain, 1985 and The Rolling Sea, 1989. Summers received an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, Bard College in 1979 and was selected by the United States Information Agency to spend a year conducting painting and printmaking workshops at universities throughout India. Since that original sabbatical, he has returned every year, spending four to eight weeks traveling throughout that country. In the 1990s, interspersed with these journeys to India have been additional treks to the back roads and high country areas of Mexico, Central America, Nepal, China and Japan. Travel to these exotic and faraway places had a profound influence on Summers’ art. Subject matter became more worldly and nonwestern as with From Humla to Dolpo, 1991 or A Former Life of Budha, 1996, for example. Architectural images, such as The Pillars of Hercules, 1990 or The Raja’s Aviary, 1992 became more common. Still life images made a reappearance with Jungle Bouquet in 1997. This was also a period when Summers began using odd-sized paper to further the impact of an image. The 1996 Night, a view of the earth and horizon as it might be seen by an astronaut, is over six feet long and only slightly more than a foot-and-a-half high. From 1999, Revuelta A Vida (Spanish for “Return to Life”) is pie-shaped and covers nearly 18 cubic feet. It was also at this juncture that Summers began to experiment with a somewhat different palette although he retained his love of saturated colors. The 2003 Far Side of Time is a superb example of the new direction taken by this colorist. At the turn of the millennium in 1999, “Carol Summers Woodcuts...

This is an exclusive handprinted unique cyanotype that takes its inspiration from the mid-century modern shapes. It's made by layering paper cutouts and different exposures using uv-...

Bold portrait monotype with striped blue background by American artist Kismine Varner, 1990. Signed in pencil lower right. Original artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with ...

This is an exclusive handprinted unique cyanotype that takes its inspiration from the mid-century modern shapes. It's made by layering paper cutouts and different exposures using uv-...

Larry Brown Long-time established New York painter as well as faculty member the The Cooper Union, Brown works in oil on canvas and tempera paints on paper. He deals with themes of science and universality. EDUCATION: 1970 M.F.A. in Painting, University of Arizona 1967 BA in Painting, Washington State University SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS: Mixed Company: Women Choose Men, AIR Gallery, New York, NY Easy Breezy, Sears-Peyton Gallery, New York, NY From Stone and Plate: Contemporary Prints from Tamarind Institute, California State University Change of View Tamarind Institute Gallery, Albuquerque, NM Animal As Muse, The Norton Museum of Art, W. Palm Beach, FL Painting--Larry Brown, Joseph Haske, David Schoffman, Helander Gallery, New York, NY Paper Houses, David Beitzel Gallery, New York, NY Curators Choice, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY Current Trends in Abstraction-- Larry Brown, Bill Drew...

Artist: Kazuhide Yamazaki (Japanese-American, 1951-2023) Title: "Pitcher III" *Signed and dated by Yamazaki in pencil lower right Year: 1981 Medium: Original Monotype on Arches paper...

"Gates of Summer" is a lithographic monotype on Rives BFK paper featuring hues of orange and yellow. This work is framed in a gold frame measuring 21.25 by 18.5 inches. Claire Whitehurst is inspired by the works of Ruth Asawa, Louise Bourgeois, Agnes Pelton, Hilma af Klimt, Alma Thomas...

This elegant original monotype by American artist Wilma Fiori (1929–2019) is a refined example of Mid-Century Modern geometric abstraction. Composed in a sophisticated palette of dee...

Artist: Kazuhide Yamazaki (Japanese-American, 1951-2023) Title: "Yellow Alarm Clock Radio" *Signed and dated by Yamazaki in pencil lower right Year: 1981 Medium: Original Monotype on...

Black and white minimal monotype print of an abstracted female torso. The work is signed and titled by the artist in pencil along the front lower margin. Currently hung in a black fr...

Albert Goltyakov (1924-2016) Born in a family of workers. Studied at the Krasnoselsk Technical School of Artistic Metal Processing (1948-52), graduated from the LVMA Department of ...

Color monotype Completed after a recent trip to Morocco, this print continues Grooms’ series of tributes to modern masters. Grooms imagined this scene as he followed the footsteps...

Rare original 1949 monotype print by acclaimed American Modernist artist Edgar Britton (1901–1982), titled Bird #2. This striking black-and-white composition depicts a luminous white...

Inscribed "Tiepolo Clouds" at lower left, "A. P." at lower center and signed "Zolita Sverdlove '85" at lower right This monotype is printed on BFK Rives paper

Though these pale mint green botanical monotypes resemble woodcuts or linocuts they are actually cyanotypes, a form of kind of photography dating back to the 1800s, but the artist al...

Faith Bayless Title: Ma + Pa Medium: Woodcut on Monotype Date: 2018 Dimensions: 6"x4"x0.25" COA provided

David Collins was raised in Dallas, received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and currently lives and works in New York City. Collins has had numerous solo exhibitions i...

Blue Sky, Beetle Kill

Sarah Amos(Contemporary Australian/American) Untitled Monotype, 1995 Monotype or painting on paper 12 x 9 inches on a 22.25 x 15 inches sheet size, Hand signed and dated lower right Provenance: Garner Tullis Workshop This appears as a abstract expressionist landscape or seacape. A lovely, moody, piece Sarah Amos, originally from Australia, lives in Vermont, and maintains an active International and National exhibition schedule. Sarah left Australia, after receiving a BFA in Printmaking from RMIT, to attend the Tamarind Institute of Lithography in New Mexico. In 1992 she became a certified Tamarind Master Printer in Lithography working with Joyce Kozloff and Barton Lidice Benes . In 1998 Sarah became the Master Printer for the Vermont Studio Center Press until 2008 and during this time she also received an MFA from the University of Northern Vermont. Sarah has been an Adjunct Professor at Dartmouth, Williams and Bennington Colleges teaching Printmaking and Drawing since 2007. She has led workshops on monoprint collagraph printing techniques with Joel Janowitz...

Color monotype.

Monotype 32 x 25 inches framed

Trees (Trees in Circle) Etching & drypoint with monotype inking, 1953-1955 Signed in pencil An unrecorded trial proof, printed on heavy wove proofing paper at Atelier 17, before the ...

monotype EV —edition variée 1/4 with heavy hand coloring in mixed media. Plate/image is 10 x 10 inches. Paper dimension is 18 x 18 inches. Pink, blue and white candy still life of Bi...

Monotype Dramatic imagery from Tom Bennett’s series of black and white monotypes, blending surrealistic mindscapes with stark realism About Tom Bennett: With quick brushstrokes, Tom...

Monotype Dramatic imagery from Tom Bennett’s series of monotypes, blending surrealistic mindscapes with stark realism About Tom Bennett: With quick brushstrokes, Tom Bennett creates representational images of human figures and animals, emphasizing movement in a manner reminiscent of Lucien Freud, Edgar Degas and the photographer Eadweard Muybridge. Elongated and blurry, the horse racing up a hill (Canter Fritz, 2002) and the sinister cat landing a leap (Chien Blanc, 1998) elicit a sense of foreboding enhanced by Bennett’s somber palette; his female figures too reflect a grim sense of humor with their distorted nude bodies. The face of Untitled Figure (1997), for example, is obscured by layers of dark paint. Classically trained as a painter, he initially worked in oil on canvas but discovered that monotype printing enabled him to “literally push the image around,” creating an essential element of motion. To overcome the limited scale of monotypes, however, he switched to painting on slick-surfaced plastic. Tom Bennett’s practice is rooted in the classical tradition where painting and drawing from life is highly regarded. Bennett’s work is heavily influenced by Francis Bacon, Frank Auberbauch and foremost his father, Harry Bennett, who was also an artist. Tom’s time living abroad in Spain and traveling through Eastern Europe and Africa provided the artistic freedom to explore many of the techniques and subject matter that continue to define his practice. Bennett was born and raised in Connecticut. His mediums include monotypes, oil on paper, canvas or styrene board. In a technique that Tom started over 4 years ago, several of his monotypes have been painted over with oil paint using a palette knife, brush, or his fingers to re-purpose the underlying image. These works are a testament to Bennett’s ability to quickly and concisely compose an image with expressive brush strokes, foreshortened figures and expertly rendered light. Tom’s work has been featured in group and solo exhibitions worldwide. Bennett lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He is currently represented by Tabla Rasa...

Oil Monotype Chine Collé on white BFK Rives Printmaking Paper Hand pulled By Artist on Etching Press 13.5 x 21 inches framed This piece is featured in Bruckner’s 2024 solo exhibiti...

City 14. 1964, monotype, 47x62 cm Soikans Nikolay, pseudonym Niklo de Martell (till 1953.) 1926. 9 IX Ludza – 1980. 21 II Lester, Great Britain – graphic artist. He was born at ...

Pierre Andre Obando creates process oriented abstract paintings. He was born in Belize City, Belize and grew up in the Caribbean, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Miami, Fl and Jackson, MS. Pierre Obando completed his MFA at Hunter College and completed his undergraduate studies at New World School of the Arts, Miami, Fl. His work was featured in the Queens International Biennial in 2004, and 2006 at the Queens Museum of Art. His work has been in group exhibitions at Angela Hanley Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Rockland Center for the Arts, West Nyack, NY; Rush Arts Gallery, New York, NY; MACO Mexico Art Fair in Mexico City; Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Royale Projects, Indian Wells, CA; The Painting Center, New York, NY; and Dean Project, New York, NY. In 2008, he had a solo exhibition at Heskin Contemporary, New York, NY and in 2009, at project space show at Rush Arts Gallery, New York, NY. He has participated in the Atlantic Center for the Arts Artists-in-Residence Program. In the fall of 2012, he participated in the group show Caribe Now, at the Nathan Cumming Foundation, which was organized by El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY. Contemporary Pattern and Decoration piece, The original movement was championed by the gallery owner Holly Solomon. The P&D movement wanted to revive an interest in minor forms such as patterning which at that point was equated with triviality. The prevailing negative view of decoration was one not generally shared by non-Western cultures, The Pattern and Decoration movement was influenced by sources outside of what was considered to be fine art. Blurring the line between art and design, many P&D works mimic patterns like those on wallpapers, printed fabrics, and quilts. There is a close connection between the Pattern and Decoration movement and the Feminist art movement. The P&D movement arose in opposition to the Minimalist and Conceptualist movements. Mary Grigoriadis, Valerie Jaudon, Joyce Kozloff, Miriam Schapiro, Robert Zakanitch were early proponents of this style. The artist lives and works in New York City. Education: 2001 MFA, Painting, Hunter College, New York, NY 2000 Study Abroad, Slade School, UCL, London, United Kingdom 1997 BFA, Painting, New World School of The Arts, Miami, FL Solo Exhibitions: 2015 ‘Like New’, Thierry Goldberg Gallery, New York, NY 2009 ‘Nowhere’, Rush Arts, New York, NY 2008 ‘Noise’, Heskin Contemporary, New York, NY Group Exhibitions: 2018 ‘Revival: Contemporary Pattern and Decoration’, El Museo at Hostos, Bronx, NY Including artists: Abelardo Cruz Santiago Pierre Obando Antonio Pulgarín Keisha Scarville Mickalene Thomas and others. 2017 Locust Projects Contemporary in Miami benefit auction including artists Dara Friedman, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Larry Bell, and more 2017 ‘Browsing Chamber’, Torch Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands 2015 ‘#BemisPainters, 1982-2015’, Bemis Center, Omaha, NE 2015 ‘Spat Spell’, Thierry Goldberg Gallery, New York, NY 2013 ‘Un-Natural Constellations’, Newman Popiashvili Gallery, New York, NY 2012 ‘Caribe Now’, Nathan Cummings Foundation/El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY 2012 ‘Lucid Fence’, Dean Project, New York, NY 2012 ‘Abstract Gambol’, Heskin Contemporary, New York, NY 2012 ‘Reenacting Sense’, Yace Gallery, Long Island City, NY 2010 ‘Continuing Color Abstraction’, The Painting Center, New York, NY 2009 ‘West/East’, Royale Projects, Indian Wells, CA 2009 ‘Alternative Abstraction’, Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, NY Including works by Stephen Antonakos, Warren Isensee, Gary Lang, Melissa Meyer and Katherine Sehr...

Color monotype. Barbara Takenaga's latest prints are a series of Untitled hand colored monotypes, which she describes as follows: Making these monotypes was a wonderful new experience for me. They combine a painterly, abstract background with a graphic structure of hard edged, flat forms. Those dark shapes can be read as either positive/foreground space (body silhouettes or curtains) or as negative space that frames a central image (landscapes, columns, creatures). Similarly, the white lines and dots...

This is a monotype print, a unique print with no other editions. This geometric abstract monotype on paper layers shapes on a blue background that transitions from bright mint blue o...

This artwork titled "Concentration" c.1970 is an original color monotype on paper by American artist Georges Hugh De Groat, 1917-1995. It is hand signed and titled in pencil by the artist.. The image size is 17 x 9.5 inches, framed size is 26.25 x 19.5 inches. Custom framed in a wooden grey frame, with light grey matting. It is in excellent condition. About the artist: George De Groat...

John Beerman, American (1958 - ) - Light and Darkness, Year: 1990, Medium: Monotype, signed and numbered in pencil, Edition: 1/1, Image Size: 6 x 9.5 inches, Size: 13.5 x 22 in....

Monica DeSalvo’s “The End of Sums" is a mixed-media collage on paper with three abstract acrylic monotypes in green, purple, magenta, and yellow. The triptych-like composition has a ...

Born in 1937 in Breckenridge, Minnesota, Fritz Scholder knew what he must do at an early age. As a high school student at Pierre, South Dakota, his teacher was Oscar Howe...

Color monotype with collaged antique paper. Robert Kushner is a painter and a sculptor. He gained attention in the early seventies as a performance ar...

Monotype Dramatic imagery from Tom Bennett’s series of black and white monotypes, blending surrealistic mindscapes with stark realism About Tom Bennett: With quick brushstrokes, Tom...

Funny Business Monotype print Natasha Karpinskaia's paintings are characterized by their vibrant colors, bold shapes, and dynamic compositions. She uses a variety of media, includin...

Monotype Dramatic imagery from Tom Bennett’s series of black and white monotypes, blending surrealistic mindscapes with stark realism About Tom Bennett: With quick brushstrokes, Tom...

Winter Dawn, 2020 18" x 24" (HxW) Original Abstract Monoprint A unique print by artist Oi Fortin. A field of undulating blue is speckled with brown dots and...

Albert Goltyakov (1924-2016) Born in a family of workers. Studied at the Krasnoselsk Technical School of Artistic Metal Processing (1948-52), graduated from the LVMA Department of ...

With ethereal layering and rich tonal contrast, Cloud Ocean 2 continues Warinner’s exploration of water and air. Swirls of cerulean, charcoal, and silvery white create depth and moti...

Historical Description Bright with shooting streak of intense yellows and oranges, Sam Francis Monotype Untitled, 1983 is filled with stunning emotion. Francis creates a beautiful sy...

Unique monotype, signed and numbered 1/1. Artist Robert Roach lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His one-of-a-kind, abstract monoprints are inspired by the landscape, climate...

Abstract monotype in tones of blue and yellow, 2005. Dated lower right. Original artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with a gold border. Mat fits a standard-size frame. Arc...

Details: + Title: Modernist Breezeblocks + Year: 2026 + Stamped and Certificate of Authenticity provided + Measurements : 70x200 cm (28x 80 in.), each panel measures 70x100cm (28x40...

Monotype on paper, collage Federica Frati is an Italian artist born in 1977 who lives lives and works in Brecia, Italy. She is graduated from art school Foppa where she learned the ...

Darren Vigil Gray (b. 1959, American) Title: "Glimpse of a Horse" Medium: Monotype Print on Paper Dimensions: 27" x 39" framed Markings: Signed in Pencil LR "Darren Vigil Gray" ...

In this contemporary encaustic monotype, layers of pigmented beeswax on a scroll of lightweight mulberry paper create an undulating composition suggesting layers of the earth's crust...

In this contemporary encaustic monotype, layers of pigmented beeswax on lightweight kozo paper create an undulating composition suggesting layers of the earth's crust and geological ...

Five huge pale blue agapanthus flowers against a deep midnight blue sky. Every botanical cyanotype the artist makes is a unique monotype. There is no way to reproduce exactly the sam...

Harry Bertoia, Untitled Abstraction, monotype, c. 1960, a unique impression. Signed 'HB' in pencil, lower right sheet corner, verso. Inscribed '1852' (the artist’s inventory number) in pencil, lower right sheet corner, recto. A superb, painterly impression, on cream wove Japan paper, the full sheet, in excellent condition. Unmatted, unframed. Sheet size 12 x 39 inches (30 x 99 cm). Provenance: Val Bertoia; Private Collection; Rago Auctions, Lambertville, NJ. Literature: 'Harry Bertoia: Monoprints,' Nancy N. Schiffer, Schiffer Publishing LTD, 2011; pg. 253. This work is included in the Harry Bertoia Foundation digital resource, Harry Bertoia Catalogue Raisonné, number TD.MO.1584. ABOUT THE ARTIST Harry Bertoia (1915-1978) was a visionary Italian-American artist, sculptor, and designer. Born in San Lorenzo, Italy, Bertoia immigrated to the United States with his family at age fifteen, settling in Detroit, Michigan. From an early age, Bertoia demonstrated a keen interest in art and design, studying painting and drawing at the Cass Technical High School in Detroit. Later, he attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where he studied under renowned designers Eliel Saarinen and Charles Eames. At Cranbrook, Bertoia first began to explore the possibilities of working with metal, a medium that would come to define his artistic career. In the 1940s, Bertoia moved to California to work for Charles and Ray Eames, contributing to the development of innovative molded plywood furniture. However, his experimentation with metal wire sculpture would ultimately catapult him to international acclaim. Bertoia's iconic "Sonambient" sculptures, consisting of delicate metal rods arranged in various configurations, created ethereal sounds when touched or moved, transforming the act of sculpture into a multisensory experience. Bertoia's talent and innovation caught the attention of Florence Knoll, the founder of Knoll Associates, a leading furniture design company. In 1950, Bertoia began collaborating with Knoll, producing a series of iconic wire chairs that became emblematic of mid-century modern design. His "Diamond Chair," with its geometric form and airy construction, remains a classic of modern furniture design. Bertoia continued to explore sculpture as a means of artistic expression, experimenting with new forms and materials. His work was characterized by organicism and fluidity, with forms that evoked natural phenomena such as waves, leaves, and clouds. A decade before Harry Bertoia began creating three-dimensional sculpture, he dedicated his creative efforts to producing experimental prints at the Cranbrook Academy in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, pursuing a passion that would continue for the rest of his life. With these spontaneous works, he worked intuitively, testing different tools and techniques to achieve his desired effects. Rather than using a traditional mechanical pressing process, he would apply ink to a glass or smooth Masonite plate with a sheet of paper laid directly on top. Then, tools such as brayers, dog hair brushes, styluses, and different parts of his hands were employed to draw or “press” the images on the back of the sheet. Rice paper was typically used due to its semi-translucent nature, offering Bertoia limited visibility of the effects of his experimentation, but ultimately, the unpredictable nature of the process was an integral aspect of the results, which never ceased to delight him. Each work was a singular composition with abstract imagery ranging from linear, structural compositions to fantastic surrealistic forms to poetic tonal landscapes. He received little input from other artists, developing his unique vision with rare purity and a deep personal resonance. From his first year of printmaking in 1940, Bertoia quickly amassed an extensive collection of unique works. The compositions were strongly tied to the non-objective movement, which, while popular in Europe, was still in its nascent stages in the US. There were few proponents of this new art form to be found in the 1940s, and it was Hilla Rebay, then Director of the Guggenheim Museum of Non-Objective Art, who gave Bertoia the encouragement and promotion he needed. In 1943, Bertoia sent approximately 100 monotypes to Rebay for review. After receiving the prints, she responded with a surprising offer to buy them all. Rebay then began including them in the museum’s exhibitions. The Guggenheim shows succeeded in putting Bertoia’s name out into the world. He began exhibiting his works regularly at the Neierndorf Gallery in New York and was provided a stipend to ensure a steady supply of prints until Karl Neierndorf died in 1947. By the 1950s...

This monotype is a striking, expressionistic study of a female nude that balances raw, physical presence with a deep internalized psychological mood. It utilizes the fluid, singular ...

In this contemporary encaustic monotype, layers of pigmented beeswax on lightweight kozo paper create an undulating composition suggesting layers of the earth's crust and geological ...

Cloud Ocean 1 is a meditative monotype on paper by Katherine Warinner, where organic textures and flowing forms evoke sea spray, mist, and cloudlight. Cool hues of ultramarine and sl...

Color monotype Since 1985, Woodman has collaborated with Master printer Bud Shark to produce monotypes, woodcuts and lithographs with the same inventiveness and exuberance of her ...

Color monotype. The ‘okina is the Hawaiian representation of the glottal stop. It is a separation of doubles. The monotypes in the ‘Okina series are doubles; the prints are divided...

Monotype 47 x 34 inches framed

In this contemporary encaustic monotype, layers of pigmented beeswax on lightweight kozo paper create an undulating composition suggesting layers of the earth's crust and geological ...