Judith Pins

Abstract Expressionist "Fire Dance" Oil Painting Israeli Artist

Abstract oil painting on stretched canvas featuring figures against a dark brown background. Signed upper left. Adolf Benca was born in Bratislava, Slovakia in 1959. He immigrated to the United States in 1969 and he studied at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, and received a Master's of Fine Art from the Columbia University College. Adolf Benca (born 1959, in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia), is an American Post war/ Contemporary painter of Slovakian origin. Benca was born on 16 May 1959, in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. He was the older of two children, the younger being his sister Lubica. His family immigrated to the United States when he was ten years old, in 1969. From 1969 to 1973 he attended the Elementary Private School in Chicago. He attended Grayslake High School in Illinois between 1973 and 1977. He became interested in art very early in his life, attending several art schools in Chicago while he was an elementary student. In 1966, while he was still living in Czechoslovakia, he was already illustrating children's books. In 1968, a year prior to his family emigrating from Czechoslovakia, because of Russian occupation of Bratislava, his family moved to Vienna, where young Benca became interested in philosophy and started painting mythological themes and subjects. He participated in a few young artist programs in 1970 and 1971. Adolf Benca studied and graduated from several universities. From 1977 to 1981 he studied at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, art school in New York, where he received his B.F.A. (Bachelor of Fine Arts) degree. For the next four years (1982–1985) he studied at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, graduating at 1987, receiving the title of Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.). From 1987 to 1988 he studied the human anatomy at the University of Bologna in Italy where he received the title "Doctor honoris causa" (Dr.h.c.) in the area of anatomy. At University Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland he received the title "Doctor honoris causa" in the area of philosophy. As he was receiving his titles and studied, Benca continued to paint and exhibit his works in many galleries around the world, many of his paintings ending up in private collections. In 1985 he became a member of the Swizzero di Roma. In 1987 he became a member of the French Academy in Rome. In 1988 he became a member of the American Academy in Rome. In 1994 he became a member of the Swedish Institute in Rome. In 2000 he became a member of the Academy of Arts in Berlin. After "the Fall of the Iron Curtain" he decided to continue his career in Central and Eastern Europe. In 2002 he started his work in Prague, and was awarded the award of the "Masaryk Academy". In 2012 Adolf Benca and the "Bratislava's ship company" a.d. (Bratislavská lodná spoločnosť a. s ) have founded the company "Adolf Benca Académia s.r.o.". He was included in Bomb Magazine Painters & Writers No. 4 Along with William Wegman, David Salle, Nancy Spero, Francesco Clemente, Julian Schnabel, Pat Steir, and more. His works can be found all over the world, in private collections, as well as exhibits at museums, such as "Metropolitan Museum" and "Museum of Modern Art" in New York. Select Museums Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY – MoMA Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY National Art Gallery, Washington, D.C. Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, The University of Oklahoma High Museum of Art Atlanta Musei Vatican, Vatican, Rome Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts Arkansas Arts Center Foundation Collection, Little Rock, Arkansas Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington, Seattle Contemporary Art Museum, Tel Aviv Art Museum, Hong Kong Floating Galleries of the Slovakia, Bratislava National Gallery of the Slovakia, Bratislava Select group exhibitions Matica Slovenska, "Cultural Revolutions", Martin, Slovakia United Nations, Artists From Slovakia Arkansas Arts Center Foundation Collection Achim Moeller Fine Art...

Oil Painting on canvas Hand signed to lower right Lauro. Provenance: Eleonore Austerer Gallery, San Francisco, CA Work Size: 39.5 x 39.5 in. framed 44 X 44 inches. Roberto Lauro is a British-Swiss Post War & Contemporary artist who was born in 1932. Roberto Lauro was born in 1932 in Gorey Harbor on the island of Jersey (Great Britain) the son of a Swiss mother, Rosa Ramseier, from Oberdiessbach / Emmental, Switzerland, and and Italian father Innocenzo Roberto Lauro, born in Mondovi, Italy. In 1941 he moved to Switzerland with his mother. 1949-1953 he lived in Gunten (Switzerland) where he did an Apprenticeship as a lithograph and offset printer and graphic designer in Thun. There he was introduced to the color theory of Johannes Itten by Hermann Oberli at the Bern School of Applied Arts. From 1953 to 1955 he worked as a fine art printer in Norway where he was influenced by the color theory of Edvard Munch. These works bears the influence of Russian artist Andre Lanskoy, Tachisme and the Cobra artists Karel Appel, Constant, Corneille, Christian Dotremont, Asger Jorn, and Joseph Noiret. In 1955-1956 he worked as an offset printer in Amsterdam (Netherlands). Visit to the Instituut voor Kunstnijverheidsonderwijs. In 1957 he returned to Gunten, Switzerland. Where he started working in printmaking and and oil painting. He resumed his studies at the Bern School of Applied Arts. He was greatly impacted and influenced by abstract art on the occasion of a large Paul KIee exhibition. In 1958 he moved to Zurich where he worked part-time work as an offset copyist; fulfilling graphic orders for advertising agencies. In 1962 he took his final examination as graphic designer at the Zurich School of Applied Arts. In 1980 he begins his development of three-dimensional picture objects, Sculpture, detachment from the canvas, using metal as a support and play space for light and color. By 1981 he has turned full time to fine art. He spends the next years growing and developing his considerable talent. Inspired by classical music, the rhythm, mood and lightness of which form the basis for the large swings and loops of his colorfully lacquered metal and blown glass sculptures. These are "pensieri", thought sketches that capture the emotions in countless versions. There is something dance-like about his rotating sculptures. Everything becomes music and the rhythm of colors. In 1988, after exhibitions in Europe, he has his first exhibitions in Atlanta and San Francisco (USA), In 1989 he does his first glass and metal sculptures at the Roberto Niederer glassworks, Hergiswil (Switzerland). In 1992 has a retrospective exhibition in the Tan Gallery, Zurich, and the Eleonore Austerer Gallery, San Francisco. They Publish a catalogue raisonne, Eine Retrospektive, covering a 45 year career. In 1993 he creates A Retrospective, a unique sculpture in a table top form that contains his catalogue raisonne and an original lithograph. 1993–1995 he begins work on a number of large scale public outdoor commissions, including Light Columns for a Bank building, and a commission of a sculpture-fountain in Oetwil am See. In 2001 he creates a wall sculpture entitled "Color Poems of the Yearly Cycle. A linen bound book enclosed in a unique plexi display with a one - of a - kind metal and glass sculpture,containing 12 linocuts each printed in colors and signed. Roberto Lauro's sculptural work work is spontaneous and loaded with energy. The furrows, rifts, cracks and scars in the metal allow light to enter; it is then reflected back by the glass. His work is a clear statement of our times, uniting the intellect and the heart in search of the spiritual. Like the interplay of light and shadow, his sculpture combines fragile, transparent glass with solid, heavy iron. These colorful and luminous sculptures convey a powerful presence and emit vibrant positive energy. With their jagged exteriors and translucent cores, the spectacular sculptures created by the synergy of metal and glass are powerful - yet fragile. Lauro has created and mastered his own idiom and proven that through the artist sheer will and vision, seemingly incompatible materials such as iron and glass can indeed be combined. In 2004 he has an anniversary exhibition Light and Color, Love of Life on the island of birth, Jersey. Ceramic works (raku with glass inclusions). Roberto Lauro's works have been shown in numerous exhibitions in Europe and the USA around the world, and he has also realized projects such as "KUNST AM BAU" in public spaces and for industry. He lives and works in Switzerland. Select Exhibitions Eleonore Austerer Gallery, Palm Desert ART IN THE FRAME FOUNDATION: The Harbour Gallery, Isle of Jersey Galerie fur Gegenwartskunst,, Bonstetten, Switzerland Galerie Annamarie Anderson, Zurich, Switzerland “Color and Light,” Austerer-Crider Gallery, Palm Springs, CA, USA “Color and Light: the art of Roberto Lauro,” Eleonore Austerer Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA “Flower Power,” with Ed Baynard, Roberto Azank, Siegward Sprotte, and Daniel Phil...

American modern abstract painting of multicolored flame like shapes on a dark background in a rust colored frame. (signed: John Del Guidice)

Wonderful vintage colorful (colorful) abstract modernist oil painting on canvas signed with the monogram 'O.H.' by Otto Herter (1924-2000) painted in 1993. Otto Herter was born i...