Skip to main content

Untitled, ca.1939 Important Racial Painting by 1930s Radical American Surrealist

Untitled, ca.1939 Important Racial Painting by 1930s Radical American Surrealist

View Similar Items

Vadim Kurov - "Card Illusion" - Surreal Portrait

"Card Illusion" - Surreal Portrait

Antoni Pitxot - Antoni Pitxot Battle of Constantine oil on board painting surrealist art

Antoni Pitxot Battle of Constantine oil on board painting surrealist art

Irving Norman - How Come

How Come

Zeus - "La Soledad / Robinson Crusoe" Contemporary Red Surrealistic Triangle Painting

"La Soledad / Robinson Crusoe" Contemporary Red Surrealistic Triangle Painting

Elena Militaru - The Garden Behind

The Garden Behind

Elena Militaru - Flying Shapes

Flying Shapes

Elena Militaru - We are all playing theater

We are all playing theater

Henry David Potwin - "The Divided Electorate" Contemporary Figurative Painting

"The Divided Electorate" Contemporary Figurative Painting

Leonardo Aguirre - Color Shot

Color Shot

Michael William Eggleston - Walking Creature, Contemporary Surreal Figurative Abstract

Walking Creature, Contemporary Surreal Figurative Abstract

Yuri Martinez Ramos - "SYMPHONY IN D-MINOR"

"SYMPHONY IN D-MINOR"

Yuri Martinez Ramos - "REGGAETON ON 47TH STREET"

"REGGAETON ON 47TH STREET"

Video Loading

1 of 8

Walter Quirt
Untitled, ca.1939 Important Racial Painting by 1930s Radical American Surrealist
ca. 1939

About the Item

NOTES: Exceptionally rare painting circa late 1930s when Quirt begins to transition from “social surrealism” to an exploration of more explicitly surreal figuration and landscape that we later see in the larger, bolder canvases of the early/mid 1940s. Most of his Surrealist paintings from this earlier period are either in public collections or lost to time. Purchased by private collector, date and origin unknown. Consigned by the private collectors estate to Frederick Holmes And Company. While not originating from the artist’s estate, it has been confirmed as authentic by the Walter Quirt Family Estate. The painting had been professionally re-lined likely decades ago by its original owner. It’s been inspected by a professional conservator (details on request) in Seattle, cleaned and lightly revarnished, and is in excellent condition for its age. THE RADICAL PAINTER Decades before Black artists were exhibited in today's reform-minded American galleries and museums, before the term "civil rights" was a familiar cry for racial justice, before miscegenation laws were repealed, when Jim Crow segregation and lynching were still common in America, Walter Quirt used his voice and Social Surrealism to advocate for racial equality. As the secretary of the John Reed Club, an organization of leftist writers and artists calling for social change, Walter Quirt was outspoken in his work about social, economic, and racial disparities in 1930s depression-era America. It was this pioneering genre that drew the attention of avant-garde gallery owner, Julien Levy, who gave Quirt his first solo show in New York in 1936, describing the artist at that time as “a radical painter.” Quirt continued to be represented and was a prominently exhibited artist with the Julien Levy Gallery for over four years, 1936-1940. It was during this time that Quirt became known for his pioneering “Social Surrealism” and became identified by arts writers, critics, and curators as one of the first American Surrealists. Levy was renowned in New York and critical art circles as the one of only a few galleries in NYC known for their nearly exclusive representation of European Surrealism and avant-garde artists, like Dali, Duchamp, Magritte, Matta, Ernst, and others. (Quirt was, along with Man Ray, Sandy Calder, and Joseph Cornell, among the minority of American artists represented by Levy.) So while the artist often dismissed the influence of the Europeans, instead crediting his American contemporaries and the Mexican muralists as influences, it’s nevertheless fair to assume that some – if not much – of this (then) “radical” aesthetic was absorbed by Quirt. Walter Quirt became a celebrated artist for the first time in the 1930s as one of a small handful of painters who'd embraced the tenets of European Surrealism as a means of expressing their concerns about social and economic inequities, labor rights, and specifically (in the case of this painting) racism in America. This new movement, primarily led by Quirt, also included Louis Guglielmi and James Guy as the influential contributors. By the late 1930s, Quirt's bone fides as an intellectual and critically acclaimed artist were already well established in New York. When the founding Director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Alfred Barr, began to assemble what would become the groundbreaking exhibition on Surrealism "Fantastic Art, Dada, and Surrealism" (1937-1938), the museum also sponsored a speakers symposium, in cooperation with the American Artists Congress. The chosen speakers included various academics, critics, and writers. The artists selected to represent and speak on behalf of Surrealism, were Salvador Dali and Walter Quirt. In UNTITLED, c.1939 (SURREALIST WHITE FIGURES W/BLACK MAN), the scale is in keeping with much of Quirt’s earlier work. Canvas and oil paints were expensive and hard to come by during the depression, and its 12" x 15" dimensions reflect the artist's frugality. The standing and walking figures in the composition border on the grotesquely Dali-esque. They hold sticks which could reference crutches, a detail seen in several of Dali's paintings or could perhaps be sticks meant to oppress the central figure they surround. It's relevant to this entire narrative to note the male figure in the center of this painting; contrasted in prisms of deep and light blue from the others in pastels, and with short wavy hair, is clearly a Black man. He stands upright and without the cartoonishly grotesque features of the others, his arm draped around the Picasso-like cubist female; something likely intended as a provocatively, defiant gesture at the time by Quirt. While the style of the painting differs from BURIAL and other earlier examples of Social Surrealism, which were more “on-the-nose”, it is clearly a Surrealist image, with its subject and ideological narrative of racial justice, subtly front and center. By the late 1930s, Quirt had become somewhat disillusioned with the Marxist-influenced Surrealism. So while still retaining his empathy for the marginalized in the larger context of American society as we see in UNTITLED, c.1939 (Surrealist White Figures w/Black Man), only now the style is more overtly surreal and free of the dogmatically ideological. In spite of his abandonment of explicit “social surrealism”, the artist still maintained his support of marginalized communities and defiance of racism and bigotry. Walter Quirt, constantly experimenting and exploring the myriad genres of Modern which were evolving in mid-century America, continued to integrate surrealism into many of his paintings throughout the 1940s and early 1950s (see UNTITLED,1951 (Surrealist Woman As Landscape) also featured on this platform.) After his death in 1968, his widow, Eleanor, in an act of profound grief, kept all his paintings close to her and in climate-controlled storage; unseen by anyone but a few; the artist's legacy ultimately falling into obscurity. In 2015, the first exhibition of Quirt's paintings was produced by Frederick Holmes And Company, Seattle, and the gallery has remained the exclusive representative of the artist's estate. Quirt's work is found in over thirty permanent American public collections, including MoMA, NY; the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; Smithsonian American Art Museum, DC; the deYoung Museum, San Francisco; San Francisco MoMA, and others. The exhibition catalogue from the 2017 retrospective, "Walter Quirt: A Science of Life" is included with the purchase of any Quirt painting or work on paper, while supplies last..

Creator:
Walter Quirt (1902 - 1968, American)
Creation Year:
ca. 1939
Dimensions:
Height: 12 in (30.48 cm)Width: 15 in (38.1 cm)Depth: 1.5 in (3.81 cm)
Medium:
Oil
Movement & Style:
Surrealist
Period:
1930-1939
Condition:
The painting is in remarkably good condition for its age. It's a brilliant example of Quirt's transition from Social Surrealism in late 1930s to more explicit Surrealism, with it's now subdued narrative nonetheless still front and center.
Gallery Location:
Seattle, WA
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU2410211815872

You May Also Like

"Card Illusion" - Surreal Portrait

By Vadim Kurov

Located in Soquel, CA

Modern abstract interpretation of a traditional European aristocratic portrait complete with crown, elongated neck, bustier neckline and a hint of a cinched waist titled "Card Illusion" "Иллюзия карты" by Vadim Kurov (Russian Federation, b-1947). Signed by the artist lower right corner Вадим Куров (Bagum Kypot) (Vadim Kurov); signed and dated "99" on verso. Presented in a rustic giltwood frame. Image, 37.13"H x 26.13"W. Vadim Kurov graduated Art Industrial School. VM Mukhina. Member of the Russian Union of Artists and the International Association of Artists. Lives and works in St. Petersburg. Born in the city of Kazan, USSR, in 1947, graduate of the Kazan School of Art, graduate of the St. Petersburg Academy of Art and Design. The main topics of work: theatrical compositions, ballet world, a fantastic portrait, literary - philosophical still-life and landscape. His paintings are in the collections of European countries, as well as in the collections of the Museum of Theatre Arts of St. Petersburg, the Ministry of Culture, the State Museum of Fine Arts in Kazan, the Georges Pompidou Museum, the Cultural Center of Los Angeles, State Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami Museum, Prague Modern Art, the Museum of the Soviet and Russian Art Shanghai. EXHIBITIONS (partial list): 1989/90 – participation in the exhibitions/auctions of Drouot-Richelieu, Paris 1991 – 10-10 Gallery, St. Petersburg1991 – Nurland, Norway 1991 – Hamilton, Canada 1992/1993/1994/1995 – “New Romantics of St. Petersburg” (Zerkalo/ATUS Galleries) 1994 – MALAUKSIA Gallery, Helsinki, Finland1996 – Bremen, Germany 1997 – personal exhibition at the Zerkalo Gallery, St. Petersburg 1998 – Vincent Louis Gallery...

Category

1990s Surrealist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Linen

"Card Illusion" - Surreal Portrait

Vadim Kurov
"Card Illusion" - Surreal Portrait, 1999

$3,500

Antoni Pitxot Battle of Constantine oil on board painting surrealist art

By Antoni Pitxot

Located in Barcelona, Barcelona

Title: Battle of Constantine Artist: Antoni Pitxot i Soler (1934–2015) Technique: Oil on board Dimensions (unframed): 9 x 12.6 in Dimensions (framed): 17.3 x 20.9 in Signature: Signed in the lower right corner Period: Second half of the 20th century Provenance: Galeria d’Art Àmbit, Barcelona Description Battle of Constantine is a symbolic and fragmented composition that showcases the dreamlike world so characteristic of Antoni Pitxot. Through an array of rock-like, anthropomorphic forms, the artist constructs a mythical and dramatic landscape that suggests an epic confrontation. The vivid pink sky and tactile textures reinforce the visual tension, evoking ruins, bodies, and reliefs that seem to emerge directly from the earth. In this piece, Pitxot applies his meticulous technique and unmistakable visual language, where ambiguity is a tool for the viewer's imagination. The boundary between figure and landscape blurs, creating a poetic vision that feels both ancient and surreal. About the Artist Antoni Pitxot i Soler (1934–2015) was a prominent Catalan painter born in Figueres, Girona, into a family with a long artistic tradition. He spent much of his life in Cadaqués, where he developed a highly personal style centered on compositions of stone-like forms that resemble human and animal figures, blending nature with mythology and memory. Pitxot was a close friend and collaborator of Salvador Dalí. Their artistic connection led to Pitxot playing a key role in the creation of the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres, where he later served as the museum's lifelong director. After Dalí’s death...

Category

1960s Surrealist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Antoni Pitxot Battle of Constantine oil on board painting surrealist art

Antoni Pitxot
Antoni Pitxot Battle of Constantine oil on board painting surrealist art, c.1965

$3,703 Sale Price

20% Off

How Come

By Irving Norman

Located in Palm Desert, CA

"How Come" is a Modern surrealist oil on canvas painting by Irving Norman in 1968. The artwork is 90 x 60 inches and 91 1/4 x 61 1/2 x 1 5/8 inches with the fram, weighing less than ...

Category

20th Century Surrealist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

How Come

Irving Norman
How Come, 1968

$200,000

"La Soledad / Robinson Crusoe" Contemporary Red Surrealistic Triangle Painting

Located in Houston, TX

Contemporary surrealistic figurative triangle painting by an artist named Zeus. The work features a realistically rendered male figure in robes reaching out towards a floating eyebal...

Category

Early 2000s Surrealist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"La Soledad / Robinson Crusoe" Contemporary Red Surrealistic Triangle Painting

Zeus
"La Soledad / Robinson Crusoe" Contemporary Red Surrealistic Triangle Painting, 2000

$1,800

The Garden Behind

Located in BARCELONA, ES

This painting represents the liberation of the self as the theater curtain begins to fade away, its grey color symbolizing the death of pretense. It reflects the beauty of true human...

Category

2010s Surrealist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

The Garden Behind

Elena Militaru
The Garden Behind, 2024

$1,736

Flying Shapes

Located in BARCELONA, ES

This painting reflects the ego and how, at our worst, we feel like the center of everything, dismissing the world around us as insignificant, like meaningless, flying shapes. It expl...

Category

2010s Surrealist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Flying Shapes

Elena Militaru
Flying Shapes, 2024

$1,736

Recently Viewed

More Ways To Browse

Man Ray Picasso

American Cubist Oil Painting 1930s

1930s Platforms

Dali San Francisco

Scale Of Justice

Scales Of Justice

Salvador Dali Original Oil

Salvador Dali Untitled

Salvador Dali Stillness Of Time

White And Blue Prism

Mexican Secretary

Vintage Art Supplies 1940s

View All Popular Abstract Paintings Searches