Claire Burch

Vibrant Modernist Abstraction by Claire Burch

20th Century

Syril Frank (American, 1929-2021) Untitled, c. 1970s/80s Oil on canvas Framed: 21 3/4 x 25 2/3 x 1 in. This fantastic painting in the abstract expressionist style loosely depicts a ...

Syril Frank (American, 1929-2021) Untitled, c. 1963 Oil on canvas 48 x 50 in. Provenance: Estate of the Artist Syril Harriet Frank was born in Brooklyn to Israel and Mina Kaplan. S...

Bertha G. Davis (1911-1997) Untitled, ca. 1960's Oil on cradled masonite panel. 16 x 20 inches; 24 x 28 inches framed. Signed lower left. Artist estate stamp on verso. Vintage custom wormy chestnut frame. A painter of cityscapes, landscapes, and abstracts in Texas, Bertha G Davis was primarily a self-taught artist whose style was influenced by her early life experiences in pre-World War II Lithuania and later Mexico. Her style is expressionistic*, relying on color to denote her profound feelings. She works primarily in watercolor and acrylic with some mixed media*. She is the daughter of Abraham and Dvora Germaize of Vilna, Lithuania and grew up in Jewish ghettos in Vilna, Alita, and Kovno. Davis was influenced by her father who was a decorative wood-worker and carpenter in Lithuania. The family of five daughters and a son escaped to Mexico City in the late 1920’s because of Jewish oppression. The images and emotions she experienced had no outlet. She was known as a beauty, and at age 17 was named Jewish Miss Mexico, barely able to speak Spanish having just emigrated from Eastern Europe. Irving Davis, a merchant from Texas who had also come from Eastern Europe via Cuba, saw her at this event where she was crowned Jewish Miss Mexico, and three days later asked for her hand in marriage. They moved to a small town in Texas, raising a family. Her daughter, Sylvia, was born when Davis was 20 and they were inseparable. As Sylvia became an actress, painter, and sculptor, Davis was amazed at the capacity for creativity. Davis didn’t begin her own artistic journey until she was 47, when her daughter Sylvia Caplan encouraged her to try. She was inspired by this daughter who gave her a drugstore palette of watercolors, paper and brushes and told her to “just try.” Davis did not put down her palette and brushes until her death in 1997. Bertha G Davis was primarily self-taught but maintained a style oriented toward color and texture that reflected her strong feelings. Most of her early work was done while she lived in McAllen, Texas where she was known for her contribution to art and showed her work and the work of other artists at the Bertha Davis Gallery. She studied with Stewart Van Orden, at Pan American College in 1960-61; and was a student at the Art Institute San Miguel Allende, Mexico, 1965. She was also a student of Harold Phenix...

Unorthodox; yet effective, Suki treats us to a series of works that tantalizes the imagination with bold strokes of dark and light, hinting at shapes both human and ethereal and pull...