Michael Kidner

Yellow, Blue and Violet No.2 - large oil painting, abstract, Op Art, linear

1963

An oil painting by Holger Bäckström from 1979. A mixed media collage and oil painting produced by the company Beck & Jung, a collaborative duo between Holger Bäckström and Bo Ljungberg in the 1960's-70's. Their emphasis on highly designed optical art-style is eminent in the objects produced from Beck & Jung. Artist: Holger Bäckström and Bo Ljungberg (aka Beck & Jung), Scandanavian (1939 - 1997 and 2007) Title: Night Nurse...

Horizon Original Op Art Painting 1978 Artist signed and dated. Marko Spalatin (American, Born 1945). An original Modern Abstract Op-Art oil painting on canvas. Titled "Horizon". Featuring colors of white, yellow, orange, green, purple, and blue. Signed and dated 1978 with title on verso. Mounted on wood stretcher. Provenance: 11/10/2007 Ivey-Selkirk Auction, LOT 775. PERMANENT COLLECTIONS Musée d'Art Moderne — Paris, France Museum of Modern Art — New York, New York Tate Gallery — London, England Bibliothèque National — Paris, France Victoria & Albert Museum — London, England Library of Congress — Washington, D.C. Museum of Contemporary Art — Chicago, Illinois Metropolitan Museum — Manila, Philippines Philadelphia Museum of Art — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania The Butler Institute of American Art — Youngstown, Ohio Museum of Modern Art — Belgrade, Yugoslavia Milwaukee Art Museum...

Josef Alan Levi (1938) is an American artist whose works range over a number of different styles, but which are unified by certain themes consistently present among them. Josef Levi began his artistic career in the 1960s and early '70s, producing highly abstract and very modernist pieces: these employing exotic materials such as light fixtures and metallic parts. By 1975, Levy had transitioned to painting and drawing still lifes. At first these were, traditionally, of mundane subjects. Later, he would depict images from art history, including figures originally created by the Old Masters. Around 1980, he made another important shift, this time toward creating highly precise, though subtly altered reproductions of pairs of female faces which were originally produced by other artists. It is perhaps this work for which he is most well known. Since around 2000, Josef Levi has changed the style of his work yet again: now he works entirely with computers, using digital techniques to abstract greatly from art history, and also from other sources. Levi's works of art in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, NYC, the National Gallery of Art, and the Albright-Knox Museum, among many others. Levi's art has been featured on the cover of Harper's Magazine twice, once in June 1987, and once in May 1997. Josef Levi received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1959 from the University of Connecticut, where he majored in fine arts and minored in literature. From 1959 to 1960, he served to a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army, and from 1960 through 1967 he was in the U.S. Army Reserves. In 1966, he received the Purchase Award from the University of Illinois in 1966, and he was featured in New Talent U.S.A. by Art in America. He was an artist in residence at Appalachian State University in 1969, taught at Farleigh Dickenson University in 1971 and was a visiting professor of art at Pennsylvania State University in 1977. From 1975 to 2007, Levi resided in New York City. He now lives in an apartment in Rome, where he is able to paint with natural light as he was unable in New York. From 1959 to 1960, Josef took some courses of Howard McParlin Davis and Meyer Schapiro at Columbia University which initiated him into the techniques of reproducing the works of the Old Masters. His first works, created in the 1960s, were wood and stone sculptures of women. His first mature works were abstract pieces, constructed of electric lights and steel. In 1970, Levi's materials included fluorescent light bulbs, Rust-Oleum and perforated metal in addition to paint and canvas. By 1980, Josef Levi's art had transformed into a very specific form: a combination of reproductions of female faces which were originally depicted by other artists. The faces which he reproduces may be derived from either portraits or from small portions of much larger works; they are taken from paintings of the Old Masters, Japanese ukiyo-e, and 20th-century art. Artists from whom he has borrowed include: Vermeer, Rembrandt, Piero della Francesca, Botero, Matisse, Utamaro, Correggio, Da Vinci, Picasso, Chuck Close, Max Beckmann, Pisanello, Lichtenstein. The creation of these works is informed by Levi's knowledge and study of art history. Josef Levi's paintings from this period are drawn, then painted on fine linen canvas on wooden stretchers. The canvas is coated with twenty-five layers of gesso in order to produce a smooth surface on which to work. The drawing phase takes at least one month. Levi seals the drawing with acrylic varnish, and then he may apply layers of transparent acrylic in order to approximate the look of old paintings. After the last paint is applied, another layer of acrylic varnish is sprayed on to protect the work. Most of the figures in his contemporary pieces are not paired with any others. SELECTED COLLECTIONS MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK, NY ALBRIGHT- KNOX GALLERY, BUFFALO, NY ALDRICH MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, RIDGEFIELD, CT NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, WASHINGTON, DC BROOKLYN MUSEUM OF ART, BROOKLYN, NY SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY, WASHINGTON, DC CORCORAN GALLERY, WASHINGTON, DC UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME ART...

An abstract painting by Tony Bechara from 2001. An abstract, optical painting representative of the artists conceptual principles of color usage, organization and randomness. Artist...