Stephen Longstreet

Bessie Smith - If You Don't Like My Peaches - Don't Shake My Tree

1980

Easy Rider Blues Paper collage, post 1969 Inspired by the Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper movie of the same title Signed lower right (see photo) Titled lower left (see photo) Condition...

Thelonius Monk- Little Rootie Tootie Collage, 1989 Signed and dated lower right: "Longstreet 89" Titled by artist lower left Excellent, with usual imperfections associated with the collage medium Image/Sheet size: 17 1/8 x 23 1/16 inches Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist Joseph M. Erdelac, Cleveland Noted art collector and friend and aptron of Longstreet. Stephen Longstreet (1907-2002) At the website, the artist’s own grandchildren attempt to fathom the real life and nature of Stephen Longstreet, prolific author, artist, screenplay writer, and jazz aficionado. Born Chauncy Weiner (sometimes spelled Wiener) in New York City in 1907, Longstreet reinvented himself on a regular basis. Changing his name first to “Henry,” then “Henri,” he started his career as a commercial artist for a department store. In various public biographies he claimed to have studied in New York, London, and Paris, and said he was a student of cartoonist Ralph Barton (1891-1931). Facts that can be documented are that he was art editor for Golfer and Sportsman magazines, and was a contributor to various other magazines including The New Yorker, Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, Life, and Hooey, among others. He wrote sketches for NBC radio and the Rudy Vallee Show. In the 1930s, Longstreet worked and wrote under the names Thomas Burton, David Ormsbee, and Paul Haggard...

Miles Davis Plays Cool Jazz Collage, c. 1970 Unsigned Titled by the artist lower left margin (see photo) Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by his friend and patron Joseph...

Linocut, printed on yellow wove paper Unsigned as is usual From: XXe Siecle, Volume 13, 1959 Published by G. San Lazzaro for A. Maeght, Paris Printed by...

Roland Ayers (1932-2017). Improvisation, 2nd Series, #5. Ink on paper, measures 19 x 24 inches. Unframed and unmounted. Signed and dated lower right, titled lower left. There are a few minor areas of loss in margins as depicted in close-up photos. Additionally, there a a few minor tears in margins. 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...

Joseph Glasco (American, 1925-1996) Lanzorate, 1985 Monotype with fabric collage and mixed media on paper Signed and dated lower right, 1/1, titled lower left 31.5 x 48 inches 37 x 5...

Mary Abbott Untitled, circa 1953 Signed with initials lower right Oil and torn paper collage 17 x 14 1/2 inches Provenance: Thomas McCormick Gallery, Chicago Private Collection, New York (acquired directly from the above) Exhibited: Athens, Georgia, Georgia Museum of Art, Suitcase Paintings...

collage on canvas, signed verso (framed) Cecil Touchon Born 1956 Austin, Texas is a contemporary American collage artist, painter, published poet and theorist living in Pagosa Sprin...