Shay Rieger

Fiddler and Dancers

1975

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...

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...

Beautiful mid-century painting of a female dancer by J. Steven. Oil on canvas measures 12 x 30 inches, 21 x 39 inches framed. Signed lower left with arti...

Bruno Lucchesi (b.1926). Mother and Child, ca. 1960. Oil and charcoal on sized paper mounted to masonite, measuring 11 x 21 inches; 15.5 x 25.5 inches in original gold leaf frame. Si...

Beautiful figural abstraction by American artist, Alan Tompkins (1907-2007). Seated Figure, 1956. Oil on Devoe academy board measures 11 x 13 inches; 15....

Marjorie Doolittle Hodges (1888-1972). Going to Market, ca. 1955. Oil on canvas, measuring 18 x 22 inche; 24 x 28 inches framed. Signed lower right. Signed and titled on verso. Excellent condition. orn in Nebraska on Jan. 15, 1888, Hodges was educated at the University of St Louis and Columbia University. Upon moving to the Monterey Peninsula in 1912, she studied at the Carmel Art Institute. From 1917 to 1932 she taught in the Los Angeles public schools. She started a greeting card company called House of K.H.S. in Los Angeles together with Vivian Stringfiled and Fannie Kerns. They made handpainted greeting cards, using wood block print methods, for all seasons of the year. Inspired by the Arts & Crafts Movement and incorporating modernist aesthetics, they used their skills to produce wonderful one-of-a-kind cards. Not only were they friends, artists, and business owners, they took part in a three woman exhibit at the Museum of History, Science, and Art, Los Angeles (now LACMA) in 1918 titled An Exhibit of Decorative Landscapes by Fannie M Kerns, Vivian F. Stringfield, and Marjorie Hodges. After her marriage to Robert Doolittle in 1932, she returned to the Monterey Peninsula where she further studied with Armin Hansen and Ralph Johonnot...

Frank Arnold is thought by many to be one of the foremost abstract figurative painters and sculptors of our time. He is a living master whose work is considered to be both personal a...

“Mentor” is 60”x 48” The impasto surface stages a bold sienna figure on a muted blue textured field. Frank Arnold’s paintings exhibit the highest quality materials for a truly archiv...

“Gone 5” is 40”x30” The impasto surface stages muted shades of greys and blue green enveloping the central figure. Frank Arnold’s paintings exhibit the highest quality materials for ...

"New Move 8" Oil on Canvas is a mix of blues and greens with chrome yellow accents. Frank Arnold is thought by many to be one of the foremost abstract figurative painters and sculpto...

"2X8" is 60” x 48”. The yellows, greens, aquas and blues are combined in the heavy hand, brush and knife strokes which characterize much of this artist’s work. Frank Arnold’s paintin...

Puglia II is an abstract oil painting with an aerial viewpoint by Artist & Musician John Illsley. It focuses on the landscape & coastal lines of the Southern Italian region which for...