Nancy Graves

NANCY GRAVES “RBY” 1980 Large Colorful Abstract oil/canvas yellow red blue green

1980

A wonderful, museum caliber painting by Craig Kauffman. Initialed "CK" and dated "82" in the lower right corner. PROVENANCE: Asher Faure Gallery Luther Vandross Luther Vandross Estate Private Collection, New York Private Collection, San Diego, CA EXHIBITED: Asher Faure Gallery, Los Angeles, California, CRAIG KAUFFMAN: NEW PAINTINGS April 23 through May 21,1983 CATALOGUE: Craig Kauffman Estate Archive Number CR No: P.1982.2 The following is from The New York Times, May 15, 2010, By Douglas Martin Craig Kauffman, who in the 1960s helped put Los Angeles on the art map with audacious experiments in molding industrial plastic to create ethereal wall-mounted sculptures — some resembling giant pieces of jelly candy — died Sunday in Angeles City in the Philippines. He was 78. The cause was complications of pneumonia following a recent stroke, said Frank Lloyd, his friend and dealer. Mr. Kauffman was eminent in an eclectic group of artists who reveled in the light, space and energy of postwar Southern California to forge new Minimalist, often glossy artistic approaches. Richard Armstrong, director of the Guggenheim Museum said that these Californians, sometimes called the Cool School — along with Chicago Imagists and Washington, D.C., painters called the Color School — were counterpoints to the Abstract Expressionists who ruled New York. "California was never ashamed of being a new society," Mr. Armstrong said in an interview on Thursday, "it all fit together nicely." Los Angeles was then ascending to the status of a metropolis, with a growing number of major-league sports teams, fresh industries and a surging population. There were new quarters for public galleries and the burgeoning of commercial ones. At the center of the action was the Ferus Gallery, which staged the first solo exhibition of Andy's Warhol's pop art and the first American retrospective of Marcel Duchamp. Mr. Kauffman was a featured artist at the gallery's inaugural exhibition in 1957, "Objects on the New Landscape Demanding of the Eye." Peter Plagens, in his book Sunshine Muse: Art on the West Coast, 1945-1970, (1974, 1999), wrote, "'Culture' meant 'art' and 'art' implied 'new,' and 'new,' as everybody was informed, meant California — particularly Los Angeles." The artists who seized this historic opportunity included Billy Al Bengston, Ken Price and Robert Irwin, among others. In an interview on Wednesday, Arne Glimcher, founder and chairman of Pace Gallery, which had Mr. Kauffman's first New York show in 1967, called the California scene in the late '50s and early '60s "a pressure cooker of ideas." Referring to artistic styles, he said, "It was California perfection against New York messiness." Mr. Kauffman's early paintings were critical in defining this new style. Mr. Plagens called them "the first evidence of a Los Angeles sensibility." Mr. Kauffman's later work blazed splashier trails, as he experimented with the effects of light on works that were painterly yet three-dimensional. "The true power of what he did was his incorporation and then redirection of light inside sculpture," said Mr. Armstrong, who was the curator of a show of Mr. Kauffman's work at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1987. "Many of them glowed," he said. "Others were translucent. Even the supposedly opaque had a noteworthy shimmering quality to them." What Mr. Kauffman made reflected a wide range of inspirations. In a 2008 video interview in conjunction with a show at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena California, he said that the famed lingerie store Frederick's of Hollywood provided artistic nurture. With a smile, he confessed to a "shoe fetish" that had influenced some of his art. Robert Craig Kauffman was born on March 31, 1932, in Los Angeles. He started painting regularly at age 7 and went to theUniversity of Southern California to study architecture in 1950. But art soon won out over architecture, and he transferred to the University of California Los Angeles, to study painting. He earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees there. A breakthrough came in the early 1960s when he experimented with painting on glass, but found it too fragile. He then painted on flat acrylic plastic. His next inspiration came from the plastic packaging increasingly used to wrap merchandise. He sought out craftsmen at commercial factories to learn the technique, Time magazine reported in 1968. The results were several series of three-dimensional wall hangings. Some were inspired by large plastic fruit clusters on the wall of a doughnut shop he frequented in Los Angeles. These lozenge-shaped reliefs were sometimes called "bubbles." Barbara Rose, in a catalog essay for an exhibition at the Washington Gallery of Modern Art in 1967, wrote, "Shaping the brittle sheet plastic into a series of voluptuous curves, Kauffman achieves a kind of abstract eroticism that is purely visual." Mr. Kauffman's work was shown in countless exhibitions and many one-man shows. It has been acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Modern in London, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others. In 2006, one of Mr. Kauffman's reliefs fell from a wall of the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris, where it was part of an exhibition titled "Los Angeles: Birth of an Art Capital, 1955-1985." It shattered. After storms of publicity, the Pompidou provided technical help and money to make a new version. Mr. Kauffman was married several times. He is survived by his daughters from his marriage to Dana Kauffman, from whom he was separated: Wilhelmina, Vida Rose and Georgia Kauffman. When they started in the 1960s, Mr. Kauffman and his artistic compatriots did not foresee a legacy, much less earning an income, Larry Bell, a prominent artist in the group, said in an interview on Wednesday. "The troops sort of banded together to be our own audience," he said. "Every once in a while, we'd sell...

A diamond shaped canvas by abstract expressionist artist, Darryl Leo Hughto. Framed. In very fine, age appropriate condition. PROVENANCE: Private Collection, Miami, FL since 1980 Co...

For many years Susan Squires goal has been to create encaustic paintings as meaningful, evocative experiences for herself and for the viewer. She wa...

Suzanne Bloomfield’s 1969 painting, After the Storm, is a striking blend of oil and encaustic that immerses viewers in a world of renewal and transformation. Deep reds, earthy brown...

Artist: Bety Kohlberg, American (1936 - ) Title: No. 42 Year: 1977 Medium: Acrylic on Canvas, signed and dated l.r. Size: 70 x 56.5 in. (177.8 x 143.51 cm)

This painting was created by Olympic discus thrower Al Oerter for charity for the 1980 Olympics. This and other paintings he made would spark his love for painting, he would continue making art for the rest of his life. He later founded the organization Art of the Olympians, which showcased artwork by Olympians old and new. The charity produced this video about Al Oerter's painting and we can see possibly this very painting...

This is a large colorful, bold, vibrant original oil painting on canvas, hand signed and dated 1989. It is titled Crete. Joan Thorne (1943-) is a New York artist nationally and internationally recognized. A third generation Abstract Expressionist woman artist who has exhibited works over the past 30 years. Her art has been shown in the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, the Whitney Museum’s Annual Exhibition, the Grand Palais in Paris, and Barbara Rose’s seminal exhibition American Painting: The Eighties at New York University’s Grey Gallery. Her recent shows in New York City have been reviewed by the New York Times, Art in America, ArtNews and The New Criterion among others. Her work has been compared to Elizabeth Murray work. It is colorful and has a 1980's, Memphis Milano feel to it. Thorne grew up in Greenwich Village. Her mother was a Ukrainian immigrant from a musical family, who became an English teacher; her father, a surgeon. Recognizing their daughter’s artistic talents early, they enrolled her at age six in the Little Red Schoolhouse on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village. Founded in 1921 by Elisabeth Irwin, a pioneer in educational reform, the school has continued to maintain its reputation as a progressive and nurturing catalyst for creative children. Pete Seeger, the folk singer, performed there so frequently that Thorne remembered him as if he were one of the teachers. In 1971, Thorne met Faith Ringgold (b. 1930) and joined her as a teacher at the Women’s House of Detention on Rikers Island in a new program called “Art without Walls–Free Space.” The program, which had been born from the civil rights movement, was aimed at enriching the lives of the inmates. Thorne and her peers came of age struggling against sexism in the art establishment and its attendant lack of exhibition opportunities for women. Since 1985, this issue had been loudly exposed by the public protests of the Guerrilla Girls, whose members remain a well-kept secret. Her painting has been included in two Whitney Museum Biennials and various other museum group exhibitions both in the United States, Europe and Latin America. She has had numerous one person shows in galleries such as: Sideshow Gallery New York, Fischbach Gallery, New York City, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., Willard Gallery, New York, Graham & Sons Gallery, New York, The Clocktower, New York City, and the National Arts Club among others. Thorne has been awarded the Prix de Rome Fellowship to paint at the American Academy in Rome. She also received two National Endowment grants for painting and two Pollock Krasner Grants among others. "Since 1973, while myriad styles, movements and mediums have flourished briefly in turn, Joan Thorne has steadfastly developed one visual language-that of painterly surface, light, color and distilled form-which she finds best suited for her artistic project: intimating dreams. intuitions and the psychic consequences of travel. " "For there is something luxuriant and mysterious in Thorne's compositions. They have a classic modernist genealogy that encompasses Arthur Dove, Georgia O'Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, Milton Avery and Mark Tobey; yet each carries a hint of exoticism, " --Richard Vine, Art In America, Review, June 1998 Education Hunter College, New York, M.A. New York University, New York, B.S. Awards 2006 Adolf Gottlieb Foundation Grant in Painting 2003 Prize in Painting, Florence BiennaleInternazionale, Florence, Italy 2001 Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant in Painting 1986 Prix de Rome, American Academy in Rome Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant in Painting 1983 National Endowment for the Arts, Fellowship in Painting 1980 New York State Council on the Arts, Grant for Painting 1979 National Endowment for the Arts, Fellowship in Painting 1976 Grant in Painting, Rhode Island State Council on the Arts 1975 New York State Council on the Arts, Grant for Painting 1974 Grant in Painting, Rhode Island State Council on the Arts 1972 Artist of the Year, Aldrich Foundation Select Solo Exhibitions 2015 Black and White Into Color, National Arts Club, New York 2013 Sideshow Gallery, Williamsburg, NY 2005 Chris Winfield Gallery, Carmel, CA 2004 Klaus Steinmetz Arte Contemporaneo, San Rafael de Escazu, Costa Rica 2002 Feria de Arte International Arcale, Salamanca, España 2001 Andre Zarre Gallery, New York 2000 Retrospective: Museo Las Americas, San Juan, Puerto Rico 1998 A Retrospective: Museo Voluntariado De Las Casas Reales, Casa de Bastidas, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic 1990 1985 Graham Modern , New York City, NY 1989 1986 Ruth Bachofen Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 1986 William Halsey Gallery, Simon Center for the Arts, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC 1983 Lincoln Center Gallery, Lincoln Center, New York City, NY Dart Gallery, Chicago, IL Gloria Luria Gallery, Bay Harbor Island, FL 1982 Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, N 1980 Willard Gallery, New York 1979 The Clocktower: Institute for Art and Urban Resources, New York City, NY 1977 Galerie Veith Turske, Cologne Art Fair, Cologne, Germany 1974 Fischbach Gallery, New York City, NY 1973 Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC Select Group Exhibitions 2019 Art On Paper, March 2019, New York, NY 2018 Sideshow Gallery, The Greatest Show On Earth, Williamsburg, NY 2015 Outside The Lines/Modernist Drawings, National Arts Club, NY 2014 "National Arbor Day Show", National Arts Club, New York, NY ArtHamptons Fair, July 10-13, East Hampton, NY Tribal and Contemporary Art, June 12 - July 28, New York, NY 2012 Art Southampton, International and Contemporary Modern Art Fair, Hollis Taggart 2010 Janet Kurnatowsky Gallery, New York 2003 Biennale Internazionale Dell' Arte Contemporanea, Florence, Italy 2002 Gallery Uno 'Spazio Su Misura, Milan, Italy 1991 Andre Emmerich Gallery, "Abstract Painting of the 90's", curated by Barbara Rose. New York Stock Exchange, Invitational 1989 Graham Modern, "Synthesis" 1986 Graham Modern, "Diptychs, Triptychs, Polyptychs" Sidney Janis Gallery, "American Women Artists", New York City, NY Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, NY N.Y.C.W.C.A., "Abstract Painting: Painting by Women Artists...

There are many masterful abstracts out there, however, to be able to find ones on such a goliath scale is few and far between. To be able to create such massive abstracts, and not lo...