Gerald Johnson

For Wally

1974

Artist: David Fox (American, 1920-2011) Title: Geometric Figure #25 Year: 2002 Medium: Acrylic on paper Paper: Watercolor paper Image size: 8 x 12...

This artwork "Untitled I" 1979 is a mixed media collage by American artist Margie Hughto, b.1944. It is hand signed and dated in pencil by the artist. Th...

This artwork "Untitled" 1987 is an original offset lithograph, with pastel addition on wove paper, by Canadian artist Terry Leftrook, born 1948. It is unsigned. The size is 24.85 x ...

Artist: Joseph Zirker (American, born 1924) Title: Untitled Year: 1988 Medium: Color monotype Paper: Arche 88 Size: 42 x 30 inches Signature: Signed and dated in pencil by the artist Printer: The artist Condition: Very good Frame: Unframed About the artist. Joseph Zirker is a noted American modern artist, educator, lecturer that was born on August 13, 1924 in Los Angeles, California, United States. As a young man he Served with United States Navy, from 1944 to 1946. He attended the University of California in Los Angeles 1946—1947. He got a bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Denver in 1949 and a master of Fine Arts, University Southern California, 1951. He was a printer and research fellow at Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles, 1961—1963. Lecturer University Southern California, 1963. Instructor Los Angeles County Art Institute, 1964, San Jose City College, California, 1966—1980. Lecturer Stanford University, 1981—1983, 1986—1990. All along his carer, he had numerous acclaimed shows in the U.S and abroad. He is known worldwide as an innovator in monotype and printmaking. His works are represented in private and public collections, both in the USA and worldwide, including: Grunwald Collection, U.C.L.A., Los Angeles, California, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York Free Library of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania June Wayne, Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Los Angeles, California Tamarind Archives, Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Los Angeles, California, Charles White, Los Angeles, California Stanley Freeman Collection, Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles, California Ben Smith...

In 2021, Edmiston developed a visual language concluding with sixteen irregular shapes which would later serve as the foundation of the exhibit. The varying forms are repeated, resiz...

Mixed media work of art by Gerald Wolfe. Concrete, plaster, wood lath, wood filler, and found objects are the materials of choice for New York artist Gerald Wolfe. He cuts, scrapes,...

Abstract composition with subtle color variation by Laura Bowman (American, 20th Century). Signed "Laura Bowman" on verso. This piece has been re-lined and laid down on canvas, with ...

Roland Ayers (1932-2017). Untitled, 1983. Ink on paper, measures 17 x 23 inches. Unframed and unmounted. Signed and dated lower left. Ayers holds the distinction of having participated in the first important survey of African-Americans, Contemporary Black Artists in America, a 1971 show at The Whitney. Biography: Artist and art educator, Roland Ayers was born on July 2, 1932, the only child of Alice and Lorenzo Ayers, and grew up in the Germantown district of Philadelphia. Ayers served in the US Army (stationed in Germany) before studying at the Philadelphia College of Art (currently University of the Arts). He graduated with a BFA in Art Education, 1954. He traveled Europe 1966-67, spending time in Amsterdam and Greece in particular. During this period, he drifted away from painting to focus on linear figurative drawings of a surreal nature. His return home inaugurated the artist’s most prolific and inspired period (1968-1975). Shorty before his second major trip abroad in 1971-72 to West Africa, Ayers began to focus on African themes, and African American figures populated his work almost exclusively. In spite of Ayers’ travel and exploration of the world, he gravitated back to his beloved Germantown, a place he endowed with mythological qualities in his work and literature. His auto-biographical writing focuses on the importance of place during his childhood. Ayers’ journals meticulously document the ethnic and cultural make-up of Germantown, and tell a compelling story of class marginalization that brought together poor families despite racial differences. The distinctive look and design of Germantown inform Ayers’ visual vocabulary. It is a setting with distinctive Gothic Revival architecture and haunting natural beauty. These characteristics are translated and recur in the artist’s imagery. During his childhood, one of the only books in the Ayers household was an illustrated Bible. The images within had a profound effect on the themes and subjects that would appear in his adult work. Figures in an Ayers’ drawing often seem trapped in a narrative of loss and redemption. Powerful women loom large in the drawings: they suggest the female role models his journals record in early life. The drawings can sometimes convey a strong sense of conflict, and at other times, harmony. Nature and architecture seem to have an antagonistic relationship that is, ironically, symbiotic. A critical turning point in the artist’s career came in 1971 when he was included in the extremely controversial Whitney Museum show, Contemporary Black Artists in America. The exhibition gave Ayers an international audience and served as a calling card for introductions he would soon make in Europe. Ayers is a particularly compelling figure in a period when black artists struggled with the idea of authenticity. A questioned often asked was “Is your work too black, or not black enough?” Abstractionists were considered by some peers to be sell-outs, frauds or worse. Figurative* work was accused of being either sentimental or politically radical depending on the critical source. Ayers made the choice early on to be a figurative artist, but considered his work devoid of political content. Organizations such as Chicago’ s Afri-Cobra in the late 1960‘s asserted that the only true black art of any relevance must depict the black man and woman...