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John Little
"Untitled"
1974

Name: "Untitled"
Brand: John Little
Rating: 5 (54 reviews)

$1,760List Price

About the Item

Woodblock by the American artist John Little. Signed and dated in pencil lower right, 1974. Number 11/15. Inscribed "Merry Christmas to Alfred and Harold" in pencil lower right. Condition: excellent. In thin metal frame 29.25 by 33.25 inches. John Little was born in Sanford, Alabama. He left home at the age of fourteen to become an artist, and moved to Buffalo, New York, in 1923. After spending a year working as a stevedore on the docks to save money, he enrolled at the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy and developed an interest in singing. In 1927 he moved to New York City where he continued his vocal work and studied operatic literature. He also became involved in textile design, opening his own store in 1920, called John Little Studios: Fabric and Wallpaper Design. He ran the store until 1950. In 1933 John Little resumed his painting studies at the Art Students League in New York under the guidance of George Grosz (1893-1959). The following year he made his first visit to East Hampton, Long Island, which he would eventually call home. Later in the decade, he traveled to Paris where he became familiar with European modernism. On his return to America, he taught textile design at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. He hired Josephine Watkins to work for him; she later became his wife. Little’s textile store and teaching job gave him a financial security that was rare during the Depression, and he never found it necessary to find employment with the Works Progress Administration. At the end of the decade, John Little studied with Hans Hofmann (1880-1966) in New York and Provincetown. Little was greatly influenced by Hofmann, particularly by his views on color theory. In 1942 John Little joined the Navy as an aerial photographer. In the late 1940s he purchased a rundown house on Three Mile Harbor Road in East Hampton, near where he had been frequently visiting Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner. In 1948 he had his first one-man show in New York at the Betty Parsons Gallery, where he would continue to exhibit frequently in the years ahead. He closed his textile business in 1950 and become a permanent resident of East Hampton, although he still maintained a studio in the city. In 1957 Little made an important contribution to the East Hampton scene when he opened the first commercial art gallery—Signa Gallery—with his artist friends Alfonso Ossorio (1916-1990) and Elizabeth Parker (1893-1975). John Little continued to exhibit widely and travel and paint until his death in 1984. Examples of his work can be found in many important private and public collections including the Ball State University Museum of Art, Muncie, Indiana; Bruce Museum, Greenwich, Connecticut; Dillard University, New Orleans; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California; Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the University Art Museum, Berkeley, California.

Creator:
John Little (1907-1984, American)
Creation Year:
1974
Dimensions:
Height: 24 in (60.96 cm)Width: 29 in (73.66 cm)Depth: 0.75 in (1.91 cm)
Medium:
Woodcut
Movement & Style:
Abstract Expressionist
Period:
1970-1979
Condition:
Good condition.
Gallery Location:
Southampton, NY
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU1411782113

Shop All John Little

John Little

Born in Alabama, John Little attended the Buffalo (NY) Fine Arts Academy as a teenager, until 1927. Soon after, he moved to New York where he began operatic vocal training and opened what would become a very successful textile business designing fabric and wallpaper. In 1933, he enrolled at the Art Students League under the tutelage of George Grosz. Little’s early work consisted predominantly of landscapes, until 1937, when he began studying under Hans Hofmann and his work naturally shifted toward abstraction. During his time with Hofmann, he with artists such as Lee Krasner, George McNeil, Gerome Kamrowski, Giorgio Cavallon, and Perle Fine. Little entered the the service in 1942 as an aerial photographer for the Navy. Returning to New York after the war and with nowhere to stay, he reconnected with Hofmann and moved into his 8th Street studio, alongside his friend Lee Krasner and her husband Jackson Pollock. In 1946, Little earned his first solo exhibition at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, with a subsequent solo exhibition at Betty Parsons Gallery in New York two years later. In the early 1950s, Little abandoned the flat, linear style in favor of a new aesthetic consisting of the thick, gestural buildup of paint. This stylistic change was concurrent with his move to East Hampton In 1951. This enabled him to continue a close friendship with Krasner and Pollock, who had already left the city in favor of the more rural area around East Hampton. Little and Pollock had a joint exhibition in 1955 at Guild Hall, one year before Pollock’s tragic death. John Little exhibited extensively during his career, with solo shows at Betty Parsons Gallery (1948), Bertha Schaefer Gallery (1957, 1958), Worth Ryder Gallery (1963), A.M. Sachs Gallery (1971), and a retrospective at the Guild Hall Museum (1982). His work can be found in many private, institutional, and corporate collections around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Guild Hall Museum, Ball State University Museum of Art, and Galerie Beyeler.

Jack RothUntitled (Abstraction), 20th Century

$5,500

H 24 in W 18 in D 0.75 in

Untitled (Abstraction)

By Jack Roth

Located in Astoria, NY

Jack Roth (American, 1927-2004), Untitled, Acrylic on Canvas, in green and orange, estate stamp verso, unsigned, unframed. 24" H x 18" W x 0.75" D. Provenance: The Estate of the Ar...

Category

20th Century Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

H 20 in W 14 in

Untitled

By Ray H. French

Located in Fairlawn, OH

Signed and dated lower left Created in 1964 while the artist was living in Florence, Italy Collage with tissue paper and printed images and text From the Estate of the Artist

Category

1960s Abstract Expressionist Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Materials

Oil, Archival Paper, Gouache

John Little"Untitled"1974

About the Item

John Little

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John Little
"Untitled"
1974