Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 9

Leon Bibel
"Shattered" WPA Mid 20th Century Modernism American Scene Surrealism Figurative

1937

About the Item

"Shattered" WPA Mid 20th Century Modernism American Scene Surrealism Figurative Estate stamp on the stretcher, verso. Provenance: Estate of the artist. 20 x 24 inches. BIO Leon Bibel continued painting through 1941 and resumed work in both painting and especially wood sculpture by 1960. He worked until his very last day in 1995. His last series of large wood sculptures were modeled on spice boxes, which were miniature buildings, with towers, gates, flags, etc. He also produced a very large series of shadow boxes and produced an extensive altar and ark to hold the Torah scrolls of a synagogue. Painter, printmaker and sculptor, Leon Bibel was born in San Francisco in 1913. He trained at the California School of Fine Arts and received a scholarship to study under the German Impressionist Maria Riedelstein. He worked in collaboration with Bernard Zackheim, a student of Diego Rivera, to create frescoes for the San Francisco Jewish Community Center and the University of California Medical School. In 1936 Bibel moved from California to join the Federal Art Project at Harlem Art Center in New York. He also taught at both P.S. 94 and Bronx House. Bibel's program in the WPA ended in 1941, and he moved with his wife to South Brunswick, New Jersey. In 1942, Bibel ceased his artistic pursuits and, in order to support his family, worked as a chicken farmer for twenty years. Resuming his artistic work in the early 1960s, he continued to explore the mediums of painting and sculpture until his death. Bibel's numerous exhibitions include: Newark Museum (1966, one-man); Jersey City Museum (1967); Hunterdon County Art Center, Clinton, NJ (1978); Monmouth College Art Festival (1978); Rutgers State University (1978); New Jersey State Museum (1978, one-man); Rider College, Lawrenceville, NJ (1983, one-man); Hillel Foundation of Rutgers (1985-86, one-man); Trenton State College (1985); Noyes Museum (1986); National Academy of Design (1987); Rutgers Labor Education Center (1988, one-man); Ellarslie Museum, Trenton, NJ (1990); Mercer County Community College, Trenton, NJ (1990); South Brunswick Public Library (1990-91, one-man); Hillel Foundation of Rutgers (1991); Trenton City Museum (1991); Noyes Museum (1991); Klutznick Museum, Washington, DC (1992); Joseph Gallery, Hebrew Union College (1992, one-man); National Jewish Museum (1992); and Hunterdon Art Center (1993, one-man). His work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Newark Museum, the Zimmerli Art Museum of Rutgers, the Amon Carter Museum, the Dade County Museum, the Klutznick Museum, the Art Collection of the Federal Reserve Board, Rutgers State University, Rider College, Ohio University, George University, and the New Brunswick State Theater as well as many corporate and private collections.
  • Creator:
    Leon Bibel (1913 - 1995)
  • Creation Year:
    1937
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 28 in (71.12 cm)Width: 24 in (60.96 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    New York, NY
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU115629674372
More From This SellerView All
  • UN Poster Design American Scene Mid 20th Century Modernism WPA World Peace
    By Jo Cain
    Located in New York, NY
    UN Poster Design American Scene Mid 20th Century Modernism WPA World Peace Jo Cain (1904 – 2003) We Are All Members of the Human Race: UN Poster Proposal 21 x...
    Category

    1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Egg Tempera, Board

  • "Two Seas and a Moon" Surrealism American Scene WWII Modern WWI Denver WPA Era
    By Arnold Rönnebeck
    Located in New York, NY
    "Two Seas and a Moon" Surrealism American Scene WWII Modern WWI Denver WPA Era Arnold Ronnebeck (1885 - 1947) Two Seas and a Moon 30 x 22 1/2 inches Oil on Canvas, c. 1943 Signed u...
    Category

    1940s Surrealist Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Industrial Mid-20th Century WPA Modern Men Working American Scene Social Realism
    Located in New York, NY
    Industrial Mid-20th Century WPA Modern Men Working American Scene Social Realism George Pearse Ennis (American, 1884-1936) "Forging a Gun Tube #1...
    Category

    1910s American Modern Interior Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • "Audience" Mid 20th Century American Figurative Theatre Performance Contemporary
    By Leon Bibel
    Located in New York, NY
    "Audience" Mid 20th Century American Figurative Theatre Performance Contemporary Leon Bibel (1912 - 1995) "The Audience," 52 ½ x 41 ¼ inches. Oil on canvas, c. 1963. Signed lower right. Framed. BIO Painter, printmaker and sculptor, Leon Bibel was born in San Francisco in 1913. He trained at the California School of Fine Arts and received a scholarship to study under the German Impressionist Maria Riedelstein. He worked in collaboration with Bernard Zackheim, a student of Diego Rivera, to create frescoes for the San Francisco Jewish Community Center and the University of California Medical School. In 1936 Bibel moved from California to join the Federal Art Project at Harlem Art...
    Category

    1960s American Modern Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • "Concert" Early 20th Century WPA Modernism American City Landscape Scene Ashcan
    By Michael Loew
    Located in New York, NY
    "Concert" Early 20th Century WPA Modernism American City Landscape Scene Ashcan The size of the canvas 28 3/4 x 43 1/4 inches. The painting comes directly from the artist's estate. It is signed lower right as well as signed, titled and dated verso. We have available more than two dozen paintings and works on paper from the 1930s - 80s that come directly from the Loew estate. BIO Michael Loew (1907 – 1985) was the son of a New York City baker. After high school, he was an apprentice to a stained-glass maker, and from 1926-1929, he studied at the Art Students League. In 1929, he traveled to Paris, North Africa, Germany, and Italy with a group of artists. When he returned to New York City in 1931, the Great Depression hit Loew unexpectedly, and for the next two years he paid his apartment rent with his paintings. In 1935, he found work with the WPA where he painted murals and partnered up with longtime friend Willem de Kooning in 1939 on a mural for the Hall of Pharmacy at the New York World’s Fair. Their friendship lasted for the rest of their lives. In the mid-30’s he painted in Mexico and the Yucatán documenting the construction of a U.S. Naval airbase on Tinian Island. It was from this airbase that the Enola...
    Category

    1920s American Modern Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • NYC 1939 World's Fair Mural Study American Scene WPA Modern Mid 20th Century
    Located in New York, NY
    NYC 1939 World's Fair Mural Study American Scene WPA Modern Mid 20th Century Eugene Savage (1883 – 1978) 1939 World’s Fair Mural Study 45 x 30 inches Oil on Canvas Signed lower right The painting is part of a 1,000 piece collection of art and objects from the 1939 World’s Fair. The collection as a whole is available. Savage created the mural for the facade of the Communications Building. An image of the completed mural, along with a published postcard, is part of the listing. Note the center top female figure, she resembles the figure in the offered painting. BIO Eugene Francis Savage was born in Covington, Indiana 1883. He underwent various forms of art training in the early years. He was a pupil of The Corcoran Gallery and The Art Institute of Chicago, and was later awarded a fellowship to study in Rome at The American Academy. While under the spell of that ancient city the young artist began to render historic figures that were suitable for the classic style needed for mural painting in the traditional manor. During this period he was able to study and observe Roman and Greek sculpture, although much of the academic training was accomplished by using plaster casts along with the incorporation of live models. This method survived and was used efficiently throughout Europe and the United States. After leaving the Academy, Savage was commissioned to paint numerous murals throughout the United States and Europe. This artist received acclaim for the works he produced while under commissions from various sources. This young master was a contemporary of Mexican muralists David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896-1974), Jose Clemente Orozco (1883-1949) and Diego Rivera (1886-1957). In this period he was to show the influence of his contemporaries in formulating a modern style. Savage also played a vital role in the WPA Federal Art program, and he was a member of The Mural Art Guild.. Savage was elected an associate member of The National Academy of Design in 1924 and a full member in 1926. From 1947, he held a professorship at Yale University where he taught mural painting, and some of his students went on to significant positions. By this time the artist had painted large-scale murals at Columbia, Yale University, Buffalo N.Y., Dallas, Texas, Chicago, Indiana, along with other commissioned works. He also achieved recognition for a series of murals commissioned by the Matson Shipping Line and completed around 1940. For this commission, Savage made many exacting studies of customs and folkways of the Hawaiian natives. However, the award-winning murals were not installed as planned but were put in storage during the war years when the ships were used for troop transportation and were in danger of attack. However the mural images were reproduced and distributed by the shipping company including nine of the mural scenes that were made into lithographed menu covers in 1948. The American Institute of Graphic Arts awarded certificates of excellence for their graphic production, and the Smithsonian Institute exhibited the works in 1949. Today Savages' Hawaiian Art production is held in high regard by collectors of Hawaiian nostalgia. In later years the artist focused his attention on a theme that dealt with the customs and tribal traditions of the Seminole Indians of Florida. He produced many variations of this theme throughout his lifetime, and the pictures were usually modest scale easel paintings, precise and carefully delineated. Many of these pictures incorporate Surrealistic elements and show some minor stylistic influences of the painters Kay Sage...
    Category

    1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

You May Also Like
  • "Pink Triangle" "Pink Triangle" 1950s Bay Area Figurative Movement Female Artist
    Located in Arp, TX
    Frann Spencer Reynolds (1926-2008) "Pink Triangle" c 1950s Oil on canvas 24"x32" float mount white distressed wood frame 26"x34.25" Signed on reverse Go...
    Category

    Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Hug
    By Louisa Chase
    Located in New York, NY
    Louisa Lizbeth Chase was born in 1951 to Benjamin and Wilda Stengel Chase in Panama City, Panama, where her father, a West Point graduate, was stationed. The family moved to Pennsylv...
    Category

    20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Mid Century Modern Portrait of a Woman
    By Tarmo Pasto
    Located in Soquel, CA
    Substantial and period painting, a Mid Century Modern portrait of a woman in an abstracted landscape by listed California artist Tarmo Pasto...
    Category

    1960s American Modern Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • 1950s Abstract Figurative Composition with Brown, White, and Black, Oil Painting
    Located in Denver, CO
    1950s abstract oil on canvas painting by Henriette "Yetti" Stolz from 1956. Completed in shades of brown, white, black, and gray. Signed by the artist in the lower right corner. Presented in a vintage frame measuring 42 ¾ x 16 ¾ inches. Image size measures 42 ¼ x 16 ¼ inches. Provenance: Estate of the Artist, Henriette "Yetti" Stolz Painting is in good condition - please contact us for a detailed condition report. About the Artist: Henriette “Yetti” Stolz was born in Serbia in 1935 ( and is still living ). Her family emigrated to Denver, Colorado, in the early 1950s after WWII and she attended East High School before studying art at Colorado College, in Colorado Springs in the mid to late 50s. While there studying she would have been exposed to modernist artists working both at the college ( ie. Mary...
    Category

    1950s American Modern Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Figurative Abstract
    By Ernest Tino Trova
    Located in Missouri, MO
    Ernest Tino Trova "Figurative Abstract" 1965 Oil on Canvas approx 17 x 12.5 inches Signed and Dated Lower Right Known for his Falling Man series in abstract figural sculpture, he cr...
    Category

    1960s American Modern Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • 1988 "Utopia" Abstract Oil Painting on Canvas Illustrator Bill Shields
    Located in Arp, TX
    William Stephens Shields, Jr., 1925 - 2010 "Utopia" 1988 Oil on canvas 60"x48" artist framed Signed lower right William Stephens Shields, Jr., 1925 - 2010 He was born in san Francisco, in 1931, Bill moved to Texas, where he grew up. Moved to New York in 1940 and later joined the Naval Air Corps at the age of 18. He served as an Aviation Cadet in the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1945. At the end of WWII, Bill returned to Texas. At 21, Bill re-focused his energy and enrolled in the Chicago Academy of Fine Art as an Illustration major. What followed was a whirlwind of success, great friendships and a sense of belonging he had never before experienced. Art was his calling and the art-world could not have been less prepared for the likes of Bill Shields...
    Category

    Late 20th Century American Modern Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

Recently Viewed

View All