Late 20th Century Abstract Paintings

Reference number A7 Not framed but could be with a natural oak floated frame (add 100 euros) 36 x 36 cm This work is painted with oil on a board. Pierre was very sensitive to abstra...

Joachim Czichon Untitled Gestural Abstract Composition Medium: Gouache Year: 1984 Signed and dated by hand Edition: Unique Size: 16.4 × 11.5 inches C...

Antique American modernist abstract oil painting. Oil on canvas, circa 1970. Signed. Displayed in a period frame.

Bold and modern abstract geometric piece in gouache on paper, exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Gallery, by California artist Tony Ligamari (American, b.1952). Attr...

Beryl Barr-Sharrar Untitled (Park Avenue Series), 1979 Signed and dated on the reverse Acrylic on canvas 44 x 73 1/2 inches As an undergraduate at Mount Holyoke College (Beryl McLe...

This original abstract watercolor by Lynn R. Wolfe (1917-2019) features a striking composition of bright orange, pink, and red tones against a soft white background, creating a visua...

David Shapiro Twice told tale (23), 1984 Signed and dated on verso Oil on canvas 44 x 22 inches David Shapiro was born in 1944 in Brooklyn, New York. His artwork, as described by a...

Vibrant abstract composition by an unknown artist. Presented in a wood slat frame with aluminum accents. Canvas size: 18"H x 24"W

Green and Orange Abstract Composition in Acrylic on Paper A bold abstract painting by California-based artist Ricardo de Silva (American/Brazil, 20th C). Bright orange and green are...

Untitled oil on canvas, signed and dated 1988 by American artist Giorgio Cavallon (1904-1989) on the reverse. Cavallon was a founding member of the American Abstract Artists and a ...

Bold, bright, and colorful, this large-scale abstract expressionist piece by D.S. Silver, a San Francisco, California bay area abstract expressionist, explores abstracted modern liberty. A high voltage color palette combined with bold and energetic abstract brushstrokes splashed across the huge canvas...

Pierre Andre Obando creates process oriented abstract paintings. He was born in Belize City, Belize and grew up in the Caribbean, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Miami, Fl and Jackson, MS. Pierre Obando completed his MFA at Hunter College and completed his undergraduate studies at New World School of the Arts, Miami, Fl. His work was featured in the Queens International Biennial in 2004, and 2006 at the Queens Museum of Art. His work has been in group exhibitions at Angela Hanley Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Rockland Center for the Arts, West Nyack, NY; Rush Arts Gallery, New York, NY; MACO Mexico Art Fair in Mexico City; Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Royale Projects, Indian Wells, CA; The Painting Center, New York, NY; and Dean Project, New York, NY. In 2008, he had a solo exhibition at Heskin Contemporary, New York, NY and in 2009, at project space show at Rush Arts Gallery, New York, NY. He has participated in the Atlantic Center for the Arts Artists-in-Residence Program. In the fall of 2012, he participated in the group show Caribe Now, at the Nathan Cumming Foundation, which was organized by El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY. Contemporary Pattern and Decoration piece, The original movement was championed by the gallery owner Holly Solomon. The P&D movement wanted to revive an interest in minor forms such as patterning which at that point was equated with triviality. The prevailing negative view of decoration was one not generally shared by non-Western cultures, The Pattern and Decoration movement was influenced by sources outside of what was considered to be fine art. Blurring the line between art and design, many P&D works mimic patterns like those on wallpapers, printed fabrics, and quilts. There is a close connection between the Pattern and Decoration movement and the Feminist art movement. The P&D movement arose in opposition to the Minimalist and Conceptualist movements. Mary Grigoriadis, Valerie Jaudon, Joyce Kozloff, Miriam Schapiro, Robert Zakanitch were early proponents of this style. The artist lives and works in New York City. Education: 2001 MFA, Painting, Hunter College, New York, NY 2000 Study Abroad, Slade School, UCL, London, United Kingdom 1997 BFA, Painting, New World School of The Arts, Miami, FL Solo Exhibitions: 2015 ‘Like New’, Thierry Goldberg Gallery, New York, NY 2009 ‘Nowhere’, Rush Arts, New York, NY 2008 ‘Noise’, Heskin Contemporary, New York, NY Group Exhibitions: 2018 ‘Revival: Contemporary Pattern and Decoration’, El Museo at Hostos, Bronx, NY Including artists: Abelardo Cruz Santiago Pierre Obando Antonio Pulgarín Keisha Scarville Mickalene Thomas and others. 2017 Locust Projects Contemporary in Miami benefit auction including artists Dara Friedman, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Larry Bell, and more 2017 ‘Browsing Chamber’, Torch Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands 2015 ‘#BemisPainters, 1982-2015’, Bemis Center, Omaha, NE 2015 ‘Spat Spell’, Thierry Goldberg Gallery, New York, NY 2013 ‘Un-Natural Constellations’, Newman Popiashvili Gallery, New York, NY 2012 ‘Caribe Now’, Nathan Cummings Foundation/El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY 2012 ‘Lucid Fence’, Dean Project, New York, NY 2012 ‘Abstract Gambol’, Heskin Contemporary, New York, NY 2012 ‘Reenacting Sense’, Yace Gallery, Long Island City, NY 2010 ‘Continuing Color Abstraction’, The Painting Center, New York, NY 2009 ‘West/East’, Royale Projects, Indian Wells, CA 2009 ‘Alternative Abstraction’, Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, NY Including works by Stephen Antonakos, Warren Isensee, Gary Lang, Melissa Meyer and Katherine Sehr...

Bold, large scale geometric abstract landscape with brilliant blue toned trees in an abstracted urban color-field setting by Erle Loran (American, 1905-1999). Unsigned. Estate stamp ...

acrylic on paper

Andreas Nottebohm is a German painter known as a key innovator in metal painting. The painting measures 48 x 40 inches and is signed and dated verso. Provenance: Private Collection, NYC

Textured oil on canvas Hand signed verso 20 x 16 inches Jae Hahn is a Korean-born artist living in Los Angeles. Known for abstraction and minimalism. She graduated with a Bachelors of Arts degree majoring in painting at UCLA in 1977. She spent her first 20 formative years in Korea, and the following 30 years in Los Angeles. Hahn’s search to find her own identity and cultural heritage resulted in studying Oriental philosophy, but more specifically, Taoism and Zen Buddhism. She later focused on figure painting, consolidating what she learned from all schools of masters. The first was about structure from cubism. Next were the dynamic color studies of Henri Matisse, and third, the freedom of spontaneous gestural strokes found in Abstract Expressionism. During the late 1990’s, Hahn experienced her own Renaissance. Her paintings took on a new life, with more activity and interlocking positive and negative space, and varying textures (“folding”) and irregular shapes. This resulted in the Unfoldings series, which encompasses Hahn’s artistic attributes of color and form, surface layered depth of field, sculpture, geometry and structure. Jae's paintings are painted in varied tones of a single colour, and usually appear in the form of diptych, triptych or polyptych. The contents are patterns formed by lines such as a triangle, a diagonal, a cross or simply a horizontal line. Simplicity is indeed a quality that the artist intends to convey through her art. Following in the tradition of Donald Judd, John McCracken, Agnes Martin, Dan Flavin and Robert Morris, Her work tends towards a luminous minimalist style. She has showed at Kelley Roy gallery alongside John Henry, Dolly Moreno and Sebastian Spreng. She has also shown at Seth Jason Beitler Gallery in Miami. Selected Individual Exhibitions Millenia Fine Arts, Orlando, FL Lois Neiter Fine Arts, Sherman Oaks, CA Gallery Seohwa, Seoul, Korea Rule Modern and Contemporary Gallery, Denver, CO Lois Neiter Fine Arts, Malibu Beach, CA Grey McGear Modern, Santa Monica, CA T. Curtsnoc Fine Arts, Miami, FL Rule Modern and Contemporary Gallery, Denver, CO University of Wyoming Art Museum, Laramie, Wyoming T. Curtsnoc Fine Arts, Miami, FL Boritzer/Gray/Hamano Gallery, Santa Monica, CA The Seoul Club Exhibition, Seoul, Korea Claremont Graduate School - West Gallery, Claremont, CA Byucksan Museum, Seoul, Korea Boritzer/Gray Gallery, Santa Monica, CA Indeco Gallery, Seoul, Korea Brand Library Art Galleries, Glendale, CA Selected Group Exhibitions "Zen Summer”, Thomas Lavin, West Hollywood, CA The Fall Show, Susan Street Fine Art, Solana Beach, CA "Faces and Figures", Lois Neiter Fine Arts, Malibu, CA Jae Hahn, Kathleen Keifer, Caroyl Labarge, Maggie Lowe Tennessen Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Las Angeles, CA "Surface, Color, Light", Lois Neiter Fine Arts, Sherman Oaks, CA Miami Art Fair, T. Curtsnoc Fine Arts, Miami, FL London Art Fair 2002, Mark Jason Gallery, London, England "Abstractly", Rio Hondo College, Whittier, CA "Spring", LewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM "Contemporary Art Without A Mouse", LewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM "California Asian Women In Art", Fresh Paint Art, Culver City, CA "Summer Exhibition", Gallery Seohwa, Seoul, Korea "Update 2000", Fresh Paint Art, Culver City, CA Pasadena Historical Architecture Showcase, Pasadena, CA "Korean Contemporary Art," University of Wyoming Art Museum, Laramie, Wyoming Five Persons' Show, Cline LewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM "Korean Contemporary Art," Edwin Ulrich Art Museum, Wichita, Kan "Fall Exhibit" Lois Neiter Fine Arts, Sherman Oaks, CA "Paradise Lost-Abstraction after Modernism" Grey McGear Modern, Santa Monica, CA "Summer Exhibit" J.J. Brookings Gallery, San Francisco, CA "Korean Contemporary Art" The Cerrillos Cultural Center, Cerrillos, NM. "Essence in Purity" The Luckman Fine Arts Gallery, California State University, Los Angeles, CA. "Collector's Choice" Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, FL "Of Paint and Metal", Ken Elias Gallery, West Palm Beach, FL "Boom," T. Curtsnoc Fine Arts, Miami, FL "New Beginnings Old Friends," Fresh Paint Fine Arts, Culver City, CA Triton Contemporary Art Fair, San Francisco, CA Cerrillos Cultural Center, Cerrillos, NM "Inauguration Opening Exhibition", View gallery, New York, NY "Abstraction and Essence", Susan Street Fine Art Gallery, Solana Beach "Simply Small", Susan Street Fine Art Gallery, Solana Beach, CA "Idea House" Project, Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles, CA Works on Paper L.A. 1995 Art Fair, Santa Monica, CA USART, Ft. Mason, San Francisco, CA The 9th International Contemporary Art Fair, Los Angeles, CA "Big Littles", Boritzer/Gray/Hamano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Jae H. Hahn and Julia N. Chu, Pierce College Art Gallery, Woodland Hills, CA The 7th International Contemporary Art Fair, Los Angeles, CA Neo-Modernism by Five American Artists, Markant Gallery, Langelo, Holland Summer Group Show, Janus Gallery...

Fragments is an original contemporary artwork / artist book realized by Jannis Kounellis and Giorgio De Dominicis in 1992. Edition n.16 of 40. The book has been printed in 40 copie...

Andy Miller (American, b. 1950), Abstract Composition, Oil on Canvas, impasto details, dark reddish brown with blue and yellow undertones, unsigned, artist's studio stamp to verso, u...

“The Three Fates Confused” is a vibrant and imaginative 1970s figural abstraction by celebrated Denver modernist Edward Marecak (1919–1993). This large-sca...

pastel on paper, signed lower right. Henri Bernard Goetz (September 29, 1909 – August 12, 1989) was a French American Surrealist painter and engraver. He is known for his artwork, a...

Nancy Genn, American (b. 1929) Marshfield 25 (1977) Handmade paper collage Hand signed verso Dimensions: 20 1/8 x 22 inches Utilizing what is now known as the 'Genn Method,' Nancy Genn created three-dimensional abstract works of handmade paper, gaining international recognition in the 1970s Nancy Genn is an American artist living and working in Berkeley, California known for works in a variety of media, including paintings, bronze sculpture, printmaking, and handmade paper rooted in the Japanese washi paper making tradition. Her work explores geometric abstraction, non-objective form, and calligraphic mark making, and features light, landscape, water, and architecture motifs. She is influenced by her extensive travels, and Asian craft, aesthetics and spiritual traditions. Nancy Genn was born in 1929 in San Francisco, California. She recognized early that she would pursue a career as an artist. Her mother, Ruth Wetmore Thompson Whitehouse, was a painter and UC Berkeley alumna who played a leadership role in the San Francisco Women Artists organization. Genn studied at San Francisco Art Institute (then California School of Fine Arts) with painter Hassel Smith, and at the Art Department at the University of California, Berkeley (1948–49) with Professors Margaret Peterson and John Haley, and fellow students Sam Francis and Sonya Rapoport. In 1949 she married Vernon “Tom” Genn, an engineer raised in Japan, with whom she had three children. Career Genn's first noted solo exhibition was in 1955 at Gump's Gallery in San Francisco. She received international recognition through her inclusion in French art critic Michel Tapié’s seminal text Morphologie Autre (1960), which cited her as one of the most important exponents of post-war informal art. In 1961, Genn began creating bronze sculptures using the lost-wax casting method. Influenced by noted sculptor and family friend Claire Falkenstein, who used open-formed structures in her work, Genn cast forms woven from long grape vine cuttings, and produced vessels, fountains, fire screens, a menorah, a lectern, and, notably, the Cowell Fountain (1966) at UC Santa Cruz. In 1963 her sculptural work was exhibited with Berkeley artists Peter Voulkos and Harold Paris in the influential exhibition Creative Casting curated by Paul J. Smith at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts, New York. Genn was one of the first American artists to express herself through handmade paper, first receiving wide recognition via exhibitions at Susan Caldwell Gallery, New York, beginning in 1977, and in traveling exhibitions with Robert Rauschenberg and Sam Francis. In 1978-1979, supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and Japan Creative Arts Fellowship, she studied papermaking in Japan, visiting local paper craftspeople, working in Shikenjo studio in Saitama Prefecture, and exhibiting her work in Tokyo. She also learned techniques from Donald Farnsworth...

Dynamic, expressive rendition of a jazz trio by San Francisco artist Michael William Eggleston (American, 20th century). There are three abstracted figures in this piece - a guitar p...

Here you will find another Pinajian abstract exprssion, the parallel colors are the goals of the Abstract Expressionists. Signed lower right. Pinajian Estate certificate is included...

Show Poster Monoprint (Works on Paper) - Vintage Latin American School Bold show poster by Latin American California-based artist, Ricardo de Silva (American/Brazil, 20th C). This p...

Winter landscape is an original artwork, realized by Sergio Barletta in the 1970s. Watercolor and tempera. Includes frame: 38 x 3.5 x 48 cm Hand-signed on the lower margin Sergio Barletta (1934) is an Italian cartoonist and illustrator, who has also published some humorous and political satire books. From the age of 22 is active in Rome, where he worked as an illustrator and art director in some monthly magazines like “Costume”, Diners Club house organ, BP Review, IBM, and others. In 1965 started the joint-working with Marino Gallery in Rome, and in 1966 in Milan with Humour Graphic’s group, at Levi Gallery and others in the following years. In these years graphic work and illustration are mixed with painting and photography, also with satirical drawings...

Magenta and Yellow Abstract Expressionist Composition in Acrylic on Paper Abstract in bright colors on heavy grey paper by California-based artist Ricardo de Silva (Brazilian, 20th ...

*Card pictured after painting not included. Dongkuk Ahn (1937-2013), better known as Don Ahn, was a South Korean artist and t'ai chi master who resided in New York City. Don Ahn (A...

Conversation. Oil on canvas, 144x125 cm

Vertigo is a colorful artwork realized by the Italian artist Franco Giuli during the 1989-1990. Acrylic on canvas. Artwork exhibited on the occasion of ...

Cerj Lalonde, born in 1954 in Canada, is a multi-talented artist known for his diverse creative expressions. With an adaptable spirit, Lalonde seamlessly ...

James Rosati Untitled Geometric Abstraction, 1982 Two-sided Acrylic and Colored Pencil on Paper drawing Hand signed and dated on lower right front 14 1/2 × 13 1/2 inches This is a un...

Artist: Jay Rosenblum, American (1933 - 1989) Title: Untitled VIII Year: circa 1977 Medium: Acrylic on Paper Paper Size: 26 in. x 40 in. (66.04 cm x 101.6 cm)

Oil on canvas. Signed lower right Tschacbasov. Original painting by Nahum Tschacbasov. Condition is excellent. Presently unframed. Provenance: Estate of the artist Nahum Tschac...

Falling Feathers in Yellow and White Abstract Expressionist in Acrylic on Paper A bright abstract painting by California-based artist, Ricardo de Silva (American/Brazil, 20th C). Shapes resembling feathers are created out of thick paint pressed into the paper. They are floating against a red and grey background. Signed and dated at the bottom edge: R. de Silva - 86 Paper size: 30"H x 22.25"W From a collection of Ricardo de Silva's work and memorabilia. DeSilva was born in Brazil and grew up in Los Angeles. He was a gallery owner, first in Santa Barbara in the 1960's and 70's, then in San Jose in the 1980's. He was dedicated to promoting the work of talented upcoming artists, including Kogyo and Hasui Kiyochika, Robert Frame, Jim Stuckenberg...

A bold abstract expressionist watercolor with yellow and purple, contrasted with dynamic red linear accents, by Les (Leslie Luverne) Anderson (American, 1928-2009). Signed "Les Ander...

Psychedelic Abstract in Yellow, Blue, and Orange - Oil on Paper Bright and colorful abstract by Jennie T. Rafton (American, b. 1925). Pattens and shapes spill across the paper, full of complexity and detail. The majority of the shapes are elongated, creating a sense of movement across the piece. Unsigned, but was acquired with a collection of the artist's work. Presented in a new white mat. Paper size: 20"H x 15"W Jennie T. Rafton (American, b. 1925) is a well-known California artist, primarily for her abstract compositions. She and her husband Michael were ardent supporters of the arts, especially the Oakland Symphony Guild. Exh: 1982 - Magnin Gallery (solo), Walnut Creek...

Oil on canvas.

9 - White Black and Red is a contemporary artwork realized by Genny Puccini in 1977.  Mixed colored collage on paper. Hand signed and dated on lower right margin.

Reticulum is an artwork realized by Giorgio Lo Fermo in 1999. Original colored oil on plywood. Hand-signed on the back. Reticolo is a beautiful example of contemporary abstract ar...

Portrait of a Woman with Rosy Cheeks in Acrylic on Paper A stylized portrait by California-based artist, Ricardo de Silva (American/Brazil, 20th C). In this stylized portrait, the s...

Victor Karnauh (1950-2012) Victor Karnaukh (1950, Dnepropetrovsk Oblast, Ukrainian SSR – 2012, Dnepropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine) – a painter, a monument designer, graduate of Latvian ...

Bold abstract expressionist painting with primary colors by Louis Nadalini (American, 1927-1995), 1970s Berkeley, California. Signed "L. Nadalini" in the lower right corner. Presente...

Libra is an original contemporary artwork realized in 1973 by Genny Puccini. Mixed colored acrylic on canvas. Hand signed and dated on the lower margin...

Stunning abstract Bay Area Figurative Movement piece titled "Napoleon's Ambition" by Katherine Barieu (American, 1917-2010), 1982. Signed and dated lower right corner. Presented in grey painted slat shadow box frame. Image size: 16"H x 16"W. Framed size is 17"H x 17"W x 1.50"D. Born in 1917, Katherine Barieau was among the artists associated with the University of California at Berkeley in the 1950s. She remained active in the regional art scene throughout the following decades, producing abstract and figurative work in oil, acrylic, watercolor, mixed media and collage. The daughter of Scottish immigrants, Barieau was raised in Cambridge, MA. She graduated from Wellesley College (BA 1938) and later settled in California. Her art studies culminated with her enrollment in the art department at the University California, Berkeley (MFA 1953). A quote from a 1992 artist statement reads, "I was caught up in the wave of Abstract Expressionism and influenced by the riches in the Unconscious (I had a Jungian therapist). I have never ceased to experiment with media and searching to find how best to express inner ideas. It was wonderful to be exposed to established and active painters, to have a chance to study with experienced painters, to have friends who were also exploring and involved." Her teachers included John Haley, James McCray, Glenn Wessels and Felix Ruvolo. Her friends included fellow UC students Paul Wonner, Theophilus Brown and Jerrold Davis - as well as Richard Diebenkorn after this return to Berkeley in 1953. Barieau also studied with the California watercolorist Alexander Nepote, and with the New York School Abstract Expressionists Esteban Vicente and Kyle Morris...

Game Oil on canvas, 63x67 cm

Artist: Dan Teis, American (1925 - 2002) Title: Abstract with Yellow Stripes Year: 1978 Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed l.r. Size: 44 x 55.5 in. (111.76 x 140.97 cm) Frame Size: 45.25 ...

Francis, Shingo (Japanese/American, born 1969), W3 , 1999 Encaustic and watercolor painting on Arches paper, 23.5 x 22.5 inches, Hand signed and dated verso Provenance: Garner T...

Artist in Gouache on Interview Magazine Back Page 1989 Modernism Portrait of a man and commemorating The Fall of the Berlin Wall on Andy Worhol's Interview Magazine back page and pai...

Folded Red and Gold Abstract Expressionist Composition in Acrylic on Paper A bold abstract painting by California-based artist, Ricardo de Silva (American/Brazil, 20th C). This piec...

Oil painting on wood panel Unique work Hand-signed lower right by the artist

Bold abstract composition by California artist Catherine Freethy (American, b. 1962). Bold, sweeping shapes flow into each other in this vertical abstract, with a primarily blue, yel...

Vintage Latin American School Original Abstract Expressionist Painting of Minimalist Face — Acrylic on Paper Gorgeous example of 1980s vintage L...

Abstract oil on wood panel depicting the beginnings of the ascendancy of the Earth by Julie R. Fudge (American, 20th Century). Signed "Julie Fudge" on verso. Unframed. Image, 42"H x ...

One of The Hampton's most popular and sort after urban Pop artists whose work is collected by Elton John, Rod Stewart, and Alice Cooper among others. He has been call the "Rock and Roll Painter" and "Painter of the Stars of Rock" by the media. This is an early abstract Illusion painting on board from 1979 by Ceravolo. He was one of the artists, along with James Havard, Michael Gallagher, George Green, Joe Doyle and Jack Lembeck that were creating the Abstract Illusion movement in the the 1970's. This painting from 1979...

Cartoccio Viola is an artwork realized by Claudio Palmieri, in 1985. Oil on Canvas, cm. 150x80. Signed, titled and dated on rear.  Good conditions!

This large contemporary African-inspired mask assemblage is an eye-catcher. The sharp contrast between the bright red and deep blue colors has a powerful visual statement and awakens your senses immediately. It will be a very personal and thrilling curiosity to have hanging. The sculptural artwork is an assemblage made of mixed media. Within it, you will find horns, fur, claws, an animal skull, hair, feathers, wooden objects, hair, etc. All of it is assembled and mounted on a wooden showcase and topped with a plexiglass box. The assemblage is made by the internationally celebrated Danish artist and sculptor Jørgen Waring...

12 - Red is a contemporary artwork realized by Genny Puccini in 1977.  Mixed colored collage on paper. Hand signed and dated on lower right margin.

Judy Rifka (American, b. 1945) "Ice Hockey" Acrylic or oil paint on Fabriano paper paintings featuring multiple hockey players executed in yellow, white, purple, and black hues. Ha...

Richard Marshall Merkin (American, 1938-2009) Gladys and Half-Pint Hand signed 'Merkin' (center right), Titled, inscribed, dated, and initialed 'GLADYS BENTLEY AND FRANKIE 'HALF-PINT' JAXON 1997/R.M.' verso. Oil on canvas 37 1/2 x 72 in. (95.3 x 182.9 cm) framed 39 1/4 x 74 x 2 in. Gladys Alberta Bentley (August 12, 1907 – January 18, 1960) was an American blues singer, pianist, and entertainer during the Harlem Renaissance. Her career skyrocketed when she appeared at Harry Hansberry's Clam House, a well-known gay speakeasy in New York in the 1920s, as a black, lesbian, cross-dressing performer. She headlined in the early 1930s at Harlem's Ubangi Club, where she was backed up by a chorus line of drag queens. She dressed in men's clothes (including a signature tailcoat and top hat), played piano, and sang her own raunchy lyrics to popular tunes of the day in a deep, growling voice while flirting with women in the audience. On the decline of the Harlem speakeasies with the repeal of Prohibition, she relocated to southern California, where she was billed as "America's Greatest Sepia Piano Player" and the "Brown Bomber of Sophisticated Songs". She was frequently harassed for wearing men's clothing. She tried to continue her musical career but did not achieve as much success as she had had in the past. Bentley was openly lesbian early in her career, but during the McCarthy Era she started wearing dresses and married, claiming to have been "cured" by taking female hormones. Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon, born Frank Devera Jackson was an African American vaudeville singer, stage designer and comedian, popular in the 1920s and 1930s. He was born in Montgomery, Alabama, orphaned, and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. His nickname of "Half Pint" referred to his 5'2" height. He started in show business around 1910 as a singer in Kansas City, before travelling extensively with medicine shows in Texas, and then touring the eastern seaboard. His feminine voice and outrageous manner, often as a female impersonator, established him as a crowd favorite. By 1917 he had begun working regularly in Atlantic City, New Jersey and in Chicago, often with such performers as Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters, whose staging he helped design. He served slightly less than a year in the United States Army in 1918–1919 and rose to the rank of sergeant. In the late 1920s he sang with top jazz bands when they passed through Chicago, working with Bennie Moten, King Oliver, Freddie Keppard and others. He performed and recorded with the pianists Cow Cow Davenport, Tampa Red and "Georgia Tom" Dorsey, recording with the latter pair under the name of The Black Hillbillies. He also recorded with the Harlem Hamfats. In the 1930s, he was often on radio in the Chicago area, and led his own band, titled Frankie "Half Pint" Jaxon and His Quarts of Joy. Jaxon appeared with Duke Ellington in a film short titled Black and Tan (1929), and with Bessie Smith in "St. Louis Blues" (1929). Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher" (1931) is based both musically and lyrically on Jaxon's "Willie the Weeper" (1927). Richard Merkin, Sometimes described as Rhode Island’s most famous New York artist, Richard Merkin has led a dual life for nearly 40 years - teaching at RISD while enjoying a celebrated painting career based in New York City. He has exhibited in countless gallery and museum shows in the US and abroad and is represented in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution, The Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, the RISD museum and many others. In addition to contributing drawings and paintings to The New Yorker (along with, Art Spiegelman, Saul Steinberg, Harper’s, The New York Times Sunday Magazine and several books on Erotica and Baseball, he is a contributing editor for Vanity Fair and a former style columnist for GQ. Merkin’s honors include a Tiffany Foundation Fellowship and the Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Museums and Selected Collections : The American Federation of Arts, New York, NY Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA First city Bank, Chicago, Ill Fisk University Art Gallery, Nashville, TN Hallmark Collections, Kansas City, MO Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA Maimi-Dade Junior College, Miami, FL Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI Minnesota Museum of Art, Minneapolis, MN Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, RI McClung Museum, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN Pennsylvania Acadamy of the Arts, Philadelphia PA Prudential Insurance Company, Boston, Ma Prudential Insurance Company, Newark, NJ Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA Sara Robey Foundation, New York, NY Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC State University of Brockport, Brockport, NY Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY Selected Publications : 1986-Present Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair ..1988-Present, New Yorker... 1988-Present, style column, GQ...1997, Text and Illustration for The Tijuana Bibles, published by Simon & Shuster, 1995, Illustrated book, Leagues Apart: the Men and Times of the Negro Baseball Leagues published by Morrow. 1967 Cover of the Beatles “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band” Album (Mr. Merkin appears in the back row, right of center) RISD: MFA in Painting, 1963; Professor, Department of Painting special skill: Merging his role as flaneur (connoisseur of city life) with his role as painter and social historian, Merkin retrieves lost cultural artifacts – a Turkish cigarette, a gangster, a bowler and generally “things most people don’t know about” – and reconstitutes their Jazz Age virtues on canvas in cubist, comic-laced landscapes of tropical color. (ala Robert Crumb and Ben Katchor) breaking in: Perpetually on the fly from his middle-class Brooklyn background, Merkin found the perfect escape in the mid ‘60s in George Frazier, a dapper Boston columnist who inspired the emerging New York painter’s overnight reinvention of himself. The elements of structure, stability and surprise he admired in this well-dressed dandy – a cool linen suit, a splash of suspender, a polka dot scarf and pearl-handled walking stick – soon surfaced in paintings peopled by impeccable underdogs of café society along with his personal pop heroes: William Burroughs, Bobby Short and Krazy Kat...

Artist: Dan Teis Title: Gold Squares on Black Date: 1977 Acrylic on Canvas, Signed l.r. Size: 72 x 40 in. (182.88 x 101.6 cm)