By Joe Funk
Located in Soquel, CA
Abstract Nude on Venice Beach by California artist Joe Funk (American, 1917-1981). Signed and dated lower right: "Joe Funk '69." Presented in a rustic mottled finish frame. Image, 15.25"H x 12"W.
Joe Funk was an American painter and print maker born in Los Angeles, California, to Polish and German immigrant parents. He died in 1981 in Santa Cruz, California.
As a young person in Los Angeles, Joe Funk showed an interest in art. He studied at the Otis and Chouinard Art Institutes and worked on several murals throughout Los Angeles in the Works Progress Administration. He served in the United States Army, from 1943 to 1946, in Koreand Okinawa a s a heavy anti-aircraft artillery mechanic and instructor, warehouseman, and artist/publicist/graphic designer for special events at Headquarters Company, Asiatic Command. At the ASCOM University in Korea, he was an instructor in pencil sketching. It was during his time in Korea that he developed a lifelong interest in Asian art. Using the G.I. Bill, after the Korean War, he earned a Master’s Degree in fine art from the University of Southern California.
In the 1950s, Joe met Lynton Kistler and worked at Kistler’s facility in Los Angeles, the only lithographic press open for business on the west coast at that time. During his time as an apprentice, Joe printed for many well-known artists, such as Jean Charlot, man Ray, Max Ernst, Emerson Woelffer and June Wayne.
When June Wayne opened the Tamarind Lighography Workshop in Los Angeles in 1960, she offered the status of “fellow printer” to Joe Funk. At Tamarind, he began work printing lithographs for guest artists and training future printmakers.
Joe established a non-profit corporation in Venice, California in the late 1960s, called Joseph Graphics. Here, he trained apprentice printmakers and printed for numerous artists including Joyce Treiman...
Category
1960s Abstract Expressionist Egg Tempera Abstract Paintings
MaterialsMasonite, India Ink, Egg Tempera