Rafael de Rivera Garcia

La Paz (Puerto Rican mid-century muralist artist)

1966

Nura Ulreich (1899-1950). June Comes, ca. 1935. Oil on sized panel. 24 x 30 inches; 26 x 32 inches framed. Metal leaf over wormy chestnut custom frame. Ex...

Oskar D'Amico (1923-2003). Fisherman at Dusk, c.1960. Oil on linen canvas, 16 x 30 inches; 18 x 32 inches (frame). Signed lower right. Excellent condition with no damage or conservation. Biography: Oskar Maria D'Amico (February 22, 1923 – May 3, 2003) was an active Italian artist in Rome, Naples, Lanciano, Cisterna, Milan, Gallarate, Torino, Zagabria, Paris, Toulouse, Melun, Carenac, Maubeuge, Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza, Budapest, Győr, Mexico City, Cuernavaca, Morelia, Toronto, New York City, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Denver, Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Socorro, between 1943 and 2003. He is considered a Nomad artist because of his ability to work in various styles. He had three major periods in his artistic life: Figurative, Materic and Geometric. [1]He also was an outstanding art director for more than 75 epic movies. D'Amico had a very outgoing personality. He was a non-conformist, which was reflected in his work throughout his life. D'Amico was born in CastelFrentano, Italy, a small village in Abruzzo. At a young age, he felt he had to leave and dive into the big world. After being a seminarist with the Salesiani during World War II, he left Naples, where he studied architecture, and began a great adventure in Rome. He specialized at the time in decorating nightclubs and bars, and invented a special type of double ceiling to hide the lights. D'Amico, who was self-taught as a teenager in drawing and painting, burst onto the filmmaking scene in Rome when an art director asked him to do a perspective of a set design. Soon other moviemakers were calling him.[2] D'Amico was an art director on 75 films including two by Orson Welles. D’Amico was able to create a real marble floor in the set of the palace of the King Saul, in "David and Goliath" directed by Orson Welles. Art directors previously painted a simulated marble on top of concrete due to the cost of the real thing. D'Amico became an associate of Jadran Films in ex-Yugoslavia, which specialized in Roman and Egyptian constructions. While an art director, he never stopped painting. His faceless clowns, reflecting the people who had no identity after World War II, were a big success. In the early 1960s, D'Amico moved with his family to Toronto, Canada, another place he felt was too small. He left for Philadelphia and New York City, which affected his work. He turned his focus to abstract, and for more than a decade created abstract Expressionist paintings "on the plane of all matter" that he called "Materic". The Materic style, which he invented, was done in several media and could not be changed once on the canvas. The paintings were very well received. D’Amico sold more than 400 in Philadelphia and New York City. Unfortunately he had to stop doing the Materics because the colors he used were harmful to his liver. In the mid 1970s, he returned to his architectural roots and developed a new vision for Abstract Constructivism using just acrylic colors. Presented in Paris by his French Art dealer, Francoise Tournier, at the Grand Palais de Paris, and in Mexico City, D'Amico's interpretation of the "New Geometry" was widely admired. In 1983, when he presented the work at the Bodley Gallery, people whispered that he had the potential to be the new Picasso because of his eclecticism and the Nomad nature of his styles. In 1987, D'Amico abandoned the gypsy life and settled in New Mexico. Albuquerque was the perfect place to dedicate himself 100 percent to his work.[3] There were no distractions and a good climate that reminded him of his beloved Cuernavaca in Mexico. Staying in close contact with his French art dealer Tournier, D’Amico had several shows in Denver at the Helen Karsh Gallery and in Albuquerque at the Black Swan and Café Galleries. At least once a year, D’Amico went to Europe to immerse himself in the antique world and visit museums and galleries. In 1992, visiting Tournier at the Castle of Saint Cirq Lapopie, he met the man who founded the MADI movement in 1940, Carmelo Arden Quin...

Harry Sefarbi (1917-2009) Ikon, ca. 1980. Oil on panel, 5.25 x 16 inches. Framed measurement: 8.25 x 19 inches. Signed lower right. Accompanied by 3 pieces of paperwork. The A...

Helen Malta (b.1912). Tattoo Parlor, ca. 1935. Oil on canvas, 20 x 33 inches. Signed lower right. Metropolitan Museum of Art reproduction rights stamp on r...

Moody figurative abstract expressionist painting of a Victorian couple with an angel by artist David Rosen (American, 1912-2004), c. 1970. Signed "Rosen" lower right. Unframed. Image size: 30.25"H x 26.38"W. Born in 1912, Rosen grew up in Toronto, Canada before pursuing arts in the United States. Upon arriving, Rosen settled in New York City and attended the Cooper Union Art school in 1930. While participating in the Federal Arts Project, he worked for the program's mural department until 1941. He also worked with an artist collective, Siqueiros Art Workshop. There, Rosen met fellow FAP artist Jackson Pollack, and together, with artist Phillip Guston, they experimented with new painting techniques and mediums. Art movements are often reactions to the popular styles that precede them, and Abstract Expressionism applied a new and exciting method to Modern Art. Gradually, artists began to break away from an overly-studied, academic approach to painting and liberated their technique. During these workshops, Rosen was introduced to Pollack's groundbreaking "drip painting" before it changed the art world. As America became involved in World War II, the Federal Arts Project wound down, officially ending in 1942. Around this time, Rosen enlisted as a Merchant Seaman with the U.S Merchant Marines. During this time, he traveled to North Africa and Italy before concluding his service and moving to California where, in 1945, he devoted his full attention to building an art career. Within a couple of years, he landed a major exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1947, and his first one-man show, which opened to rave reviews, was held at Hollywood's Contemporary Art Gallery. The exhibition’s success led to mural commissions from Palm Springs' Hotel del Tahquitz, and he scored more solo shows at West Hollywood's Chabot Gallery. The early 1950s brought a surge of recognition for Rosen's career, and while his work was certainly still influenced by Abstract Expression, his painting style included elements of Surrealism, Figurative Art, and Cubism. Like his colleague Jackson Pollack, Rosen produced work inspired by drip painting; however, rather than splattering, his drips were the natural flow marks from painting freely without regard for "mistakes." Throughout Rosen's long career, he would acquire techniques from vastly different art styles which made for a varied, eclectic catalog of work. Rosen continued to build his California art career and settled at a Laguna Beach art colony in 1958. There, he entered his work in the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts and was the first painter to contribute Abstract Art to the event. Rosen would participate in the festival for the next fifteen years. A year after his move, in 1959, Rosen opened his first studio gallery and began a 12-year collaboration with the Laguna Playhouse. For the next two decades, Rosen participated in 17 art exhibitions and 20 solo shows, and received considerable critical praise. Rosen's themes were as varied as his evolving painting style, and one of his themes focused on classic characters like Shakespeare's Hamlet. Rosen's close-up portraits of historical and literary figures, illustrated by the piece To Be or Not to Be: Soliloquy From Hamlet, capture the essence of the characters while remaining loose with the painting and even adding a slight cartoon feel. His ongoing Hamlet series, as a complete collection, makes an impact with the diversity of technique. Unlike the loose style of some of his works, the painting Madaam... that he is mad is true is influenced by the structure of Cubism, the flat dimensions of Byzantine Art, and his utilization of mixed media. After Rosen's death in 2004, the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts sponsored an exhibition of his Hamlet paintings at the Wells Fargo Building gallery. Throughout Rosen's career, he amassed a great deal of critical, industry, and public praise for his work. His beloved town of Laguna Beach bestowed numerous awards that include the Laguna Beach Annual Art Gallery Award and Orange County's Annual Exhibit Award. Rosen's work flourished in California, and he received recognition from the San Diego County Fair, Los Angeles' Miracle Mile...

Gorgeous mid century modernist abstract combining earth-tones and subtlest metallic silver background by Corban LePell (American, b. 1933), 1955. Signed ...

A lighthearted figurative abstract by Bay Area artist Kristin Cohen (American, b.1963). Signed and dated lower left, "Cohen '95." Presented in the artist's painted wood frame. From ...

"7 Koi" is a complex work of koi fish swimming underwater filled with light and brilliant color painted in a lush and fluid style bordering on abstraction. Fish are in shades of ...