Mt. Sopris (Near Aspen and Carbondale, Colorado) semi-abstract painting
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Ethel MagafanMt. Sopris (Near Aspen and Carbondale, Colorado) semi-abstract paintingcirca 1945-1965
circa 1945-1965
About the Item
- Creator:Ethel Magafan (1916-1993, American)
- Creation Year:circa 1945-1965
- Dimensions:Height: 48.75 in (123.83 cm)Width: 36.25 in (92.08 cm)Depth: 1.75 in (4.45 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:very good to excellent vintage condition.
- Gallery Location:Denver, CO
- Reference Number:Seller: DCG-248511stDibs: LU2735473102
Ethel Magafan
Ethel Magafan Born Illinois, 1916
Died New York, 1993 Jenne and Ethel Magafan were identical twins, born in Chicago to a Greek immigrant father and a Polish mother. Due to health concerns about their father, the family moved to Colorado, living first in Colorado Springs and then in Denver. He was a proud supporter of their artistic ambitions but died suddenly 1932, a heavy blow to both of them. They attended East High School in Denver, where they found a mentor in their art teacher Helen Perry. She had studied at the Art Institute of Chicago but had later abandoned a career as an artist, making her all the more determined to help the Magafan twins succeed artistically. While still in high school, the twins impressed artist Frank Mechau, and Helen Perry paid for their lessons with him. He subsequently invited them to apprentice with him at his Redstone studio. In 1936, Jenne won the Carter Memorial Art Scholarship and shared it with her sister so that they both could attend the Broadmoor Art Academy in Colorado Springs. Once they ran out of money, Mechau, now teaching there, hired them as assistants. Through their involvement at the Academy, the twins entered into careers as muralists, working at first with Mechau and then with Peppino Mangravite. From 1937 to 1943, Ethel was commissioned to paint her first of seven government sponsored murals. Located in the US Post Office in Auburn, Nebraska, this commission made Ethel (at age 26) the youngest artist in America to receive such an honor. Denver Art Museum director Donald J. Bear once commented that “[Ethel and Jenne's] study of local detail makes them appear as little Bruegels of ranch genre – natural and unforced.” As mural painting commissions diminished, Ethel began to do more easel painting for which she used a palette knife and tempera paints to great effect. After settling in California for five years, the twins permanently relocated to Woodstock, New York in 1945, where the sisters lived apart for the first time. Ethel developed an increasing focus within her work, particularly for horses and abstract landscapes. She met fellow artist Bruce Currie at an artist’s party, and the two were married in 1946. The twins and their husbands went to Greece and Italy for a year when Jenne’s husband and Ethel were granted Fulbright Scholarships. Upon their return, Jenne died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage — a loss that Ethel would mourn deeply. With her sister gone, her landscapes became much more abstract, as she sought out the feeling of the scene rather than an exact representation. During the mid-fifties, she began to make annual trips to Colorado. Her stature within the art world was solidified in 1971 when the United States ©David Cook Galleries, LLC
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- Springtime, 1960s Semi Abstract Modernist Mountain Landscape Tempera PaintingBy Ethel MagafanLocated in Denver, CO"Springtime" is an original tempera on board painting of a Colorado mountain landscape painting by Ethel Magafan circa 1960. Abstracted mountain landscape with trees, painted in colors of green, purple, golden yellow, red, orange, blue, black and white. Presented in a custom hardwood frame, outer dimensions measure 23 ¼ x 50 x 2 inches. Image size is 30 x 48 inches. Provenance: Private collection, Maine Acquired in the early 1960s, by descent through the family to the present owner About the Artist: Jenne and Ethel Magafan were identical twins, born in Chicago to a Greek immigrant father and a Polish mother. Due to health concerns about their father, the family moved to Colorado, living first in Colorado Springs and then in Denver. He was a proud supporter of their artistic ambitions but died suddenly 1932, a heavy blow to both of them. They attended East High School in Denver, where they found a mentor in their art teacher Helen Perry. She had studied at the Art Institute of Chicago but had later abandoned a career as an artist, making her all the more determined to help the Magafan twins succeed artistically. While still in high school, the twins impressed artist Frank Mechau, and Helen Perry paid for their lessons with him. He subsequently invited them to apprentice with him at his Redstone studio. In 1936, Jenne won the Carter Memorial Art Scholarship and shared it with her sister so that they both could attend the Broadmoor Art Academy in Colorado Springs. Once they ran out of money, Mechau, now teaching there, hired them as assistants. Through their involvement at the Academy, the twins entered into careers as muralists, working at first with Mechau and then with Peppino Mangravite. From 1937 to 1943, Ethel was commissioned to paint her first of seven government sponsored murals. Located in the US Post Office in Auburn, Nebraska, this commission made Ethel (at age 26) the youngest artist in America to receive such an honor. Denver Art Museum director Donald J. Bear once commented that “[Ethel and Jenne's] study of local detail makes them appear as little Bruegels of ranch genre – natural and unforced.” As mural painting commissions diminished, Ethel began to do more easel painting for which she used a palette knife and tempera paints to great effect. After settling in California for five years, the twins permanently relocated to Woodstock, New York in 1945, where the sisters lived apart for the first time. Ethel developed an increasing focus within her work, particularly for horses and abstract landscapes. She met fellow artist Bruce Currie...Category
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Although her father died when she was eleven, he imparted to her reverence for nature and a true love of the earth, values later reflected in her western oil and watercolor landscapes. She attended the University of Iowa at Iowa City on scholarship, receiving her B.A. degree in graphic and plastic arts in 1923. After graduation and against the advice of her art professor, Charles Atherton Cumming who believed that matrimony ended a woman’s painting career, she married fellow student Jacob Van Ek. While he pursued his doctorate in political science, she enrolled in graduate school at the University of Iowa for her M.A. degree in painting and the history of art. At that time her alma mater was one of the few universities in the United States offering an advanced fine arts degree, and she was its first graduate, receiving her degree in 1924. That year the Van Eks moved to Boulder, Colorado, where Jacob had obtained a position as an assistant professor at the University of Colorado. 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