Carol Summers

"Sun and Heart" brass belt buckle signed by Carol Summers

1978

This is a reproduction giclée print. It is based after the original 2003 photograph. From David Barnett's Self Portrait Shadow Series "Take My Hand, I'm a Stranger in Paradise". Gic...

"Arroyo" is a woodcut and monotype signed by Carol Summers. The print is a break from the usual bright coloring of Summers' images, though is rendered in his typical style and fields of unmodeled color. A pair of trees stand front and center before an arroyo, a Spanish term for an intermittently dry creek, running out to the ocean. A white sunrise glows in the distance beyond the sea. 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. 14.25 x 14 inches, artwork Numbered from the edition of 120 This print was commissioned by the Madison Print Club, Madison, WI Carol Summers (1925-2016) 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 its 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 for 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 that would have a 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...

"The Bighorn at Night" is an original woodcut signed and titled by the artist, Carol Summers. It is edition 48/50. Catalogue raisonné listing: cat. 105...

‘Venus & Shooting Stars Over the Mountain’ is a reproduction giclée print on canvas, signed by the artist in the lower center. It is based after the original Mixed Media piece. Alte...

An etching/aquatint by American artist James Rosenquist. This is #69 from the edition of 78. Signed lower right. Titled and numbered lower right. 17 3/4" x 35 3/4" art 29" x 46 1/4"...

"Man With Horses" is a signed relief print in red and black on rag paper. It is signed lower right and from an edition of 120. 28 1/4" x 18 3/8" image...

The Pattern of Denial print is an examination of image versus reality. The image is inspired by the sleek and idealized mid-century architecture of both deluxe homes and deluxe facto...

El Anatsui uses typically discarded resources such as liquor bottle caps, cassava graters and newspaper printing plates, to create both floor-based sculptures and shimmering wall pie...

Into the Space is an original screen print and embossing on paper and metal realized by Carlo Scarpa. The artwork is in good condition, on a grey cardboard. Limited edition of 90 s...

Edition of 125 40 colour screenprint with hand applied 24-carat gold leaf on Somerset Tub Sized Satin White 410gsm. 76 x 60 cm (29.9 x 23.6 in) Signed and dated by the artist Chris...

Print on metal. Limited edition, hand signed and numbered. Atop an Indonesian mountain, a woman, three times the scale of her surroundings, reclines under the benevolent gaze of the...

Poetics Country, a collaborative work by Mike Kelley and Tony Oursler, was published on the occasion of Documenta X in 1997. Mike Kelley (1954-2012) and Tony Oursler (b. 1957) Poeti...