Marc Chagall

Esquisse Pour Tableau L'Opéra By Marc Chagall

1953

Auguste Herbin 1882-1960 French Aoum II Signed and dated 'herbin 1944' (lower right); titled "aoum" 2 (lower left) Oil on canvas This bold and vivid abstract oil on canvas was painted by French painter Auguste Herbin, a pioneer in popularizing Modernist abstraction. Over his expansive nearly 60-year career, Herbin rubbed shoulders with art history greats from Pablo Picasso to Georges Braque before honing his personal and innovative style. Entitled Aoum II, the painting stands apart for its daring color palette and crisp composition. Painted in 1944, Aoum II embodies Herbin’s fully-formed artistic aesthetic and stylistic tenets. Only two years prior to its creation, Herbin developed his “alphabet plastique,” a synergistic visual language of color and form that he described in detail in his published book L’art non-figuratif non-objectif. Though the artist was highly cerebral in his process of creating art, one does not need to perfectly understand his principles to feel Aoum II's magnetism. The geometric shapes visible in the composition — primarily fragmented triangles and circles — are rendered in bold pinks, blues and yellows on a deep black background. His tiered application of color creates a natural three-register visual effect as if to tell a story from the apex of the form to its denouement. Auguste Herbin began his artistic training at the École des Beaux-Arts de Lille before moving to Paris in 1901. In the early years of his career, he experimented with a variety of styles, exhibiting Post-Impressionistic works at the Salon des Indépendants in 1906 and Fauvist paintings at the Salon d'Automne in 1907. After a brief Cubist period following his introduction to Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Otto...

Yvonne Canu 1921-2008 French Saint-Tropez, le port Signed "CANU" (lower right) Oil on canvas The peaceful port of Saint-Tropez is captured in serene detail in this extraordinary...

Nordfeldt's misty and moody monochromatic modernist landscape is reminiscent of Marsden Hartley. Signed lower right. The plaque reads B.J.O Nordfeldt "Moon in Mist - The painting l...

RALPH DELLA-VOLPE (1923-2017) Fine Art Painter, American Contemporary Sunset Sail Oil on canvas Hand signed lower right and verso 22 x 20 inches Provenance: The Estate of the artist Ralph Della Volpe TRAINING: National Academy of Design The Art Students League, NYC Ralph Eugene Della-Volpe's semi-abstract paintings of often simplified, minimalist, beach scenes and anonymous portraits "convey profound awareness of mood and character", and his paintings are hardly as literal as they may first appear (Arts Magazine. "New York Exhibitions". 1965). His brightly-colored, light-infused, ornamental compositions bring together aspects of many modernist art movements including Fauvism, Impressionism, Symbolism, and abstraction. Della-Volpe first studied painting at the prestigious National Academy of Design before joining the Army during World War II. As a soldier, the artist saw action on Utah Beach, winning a Purple Heart, and his experiences undoubtedly affected his later artistic style. The Fauvist "coloristic exuberance" found in the works beginning in the mid 1960's, with their vibrant fuschias and yellows, seem to offset what could be an otherwise solemn tone to many of his works at the time. Upon his return from military service, Della-Volpe’s style evolved significantly. In the years following the second world war, his work was solemn, imbued with a quiet darkness. Over time, this darkness faded: by the 1950s, influenced by his time at the Art Students League, his oeuvre was overtaken by the tenants of Abstract Expressionism. Paintings from this period boast bold brushwork, energetic compositions, and strong color. Although the next decade saw Della-Volpe trade expressionist abstraction for figuration, his love of color continued to shine through his work.Della-Volpe took a teaching position as the first artist-in-residence at Bennett College in Millbrook, New York where he remained for 28 years, serving as chairman of the Art Department for most of that time. Obviously influenced by impressionism 's preoccupation with the treatment of light, Della-Volpe's own works have a "faultless tonal quality, with its sense of failing light—the areas of silvery gray deepening into rosy tans" (Arts Magazine. "In the Galleries". 1960). Della-Volpe has exhibited widely throughout his career and has lectured on art at colleges, universities, and galleries across the country. SOLO SHOWS: Hotchkiss Library, Sharon, Conn Millbrook Library, Millbrook,NY Gregory James Gallery...