Milia Laufer

Israeli Large Surrealist Butterfly Oil Painting

c.1950s

A beast metamorphosing into a fish. Genre: Surrealism Subject: Animals Medium: Oil Surface: Canvas Country: Israel Dimensions: 23.5" x 28.5" Dimensions w/Frame: 24.75" x 30" Simon ...

J. James Akston Surrealism, Bird with Fish, marine scene Acrylic on Board Frame: 9.75 X 8 Image: 4.5 X 3.25 Joseph James Akston was a Polish American sculptor, painter, known for surrealist abstract painting and Aubusson (for Les Ateliers Pinton Frères, tapisserie, Aubusson) tapestry artist. Born in Warsaw, Poland in 1898 he died in Palm Beach Florida in 1983. During the 1960s and '70s the entrepreneur-artist James Joseph Akston adopted a unique Surreal Expressionist style in order to present his private primordial universe and lampoon its denizens, a ribald cast of animal creatures with human foibles. A successful industrialist, he began his career with General Motors foreign operations and then started his own business. Intermittently he studied painting, first with Jerry Farnsworth in North Truro (Mass.) and then with Jose Clemente Orozco in Mexico. In the early 1960s Akston became publisher-editor of a group of art publications which included The Magazine Arts. Initially an abstract expressionist, Akston had one-man exhibitions at the New York Convention Center and the Corcoran Museum in Washington. Since 2015 the record price for this artist at auction is $12,575 USD for Spheres Aux Triangles Aubusson Tapestry, sold at Bonhams New York in 2019. He was a Graduate of Georgetown University. He sat on the board of the Norton Museum. Exhibitions 1976 Hokin Gallery 1966 Gallery 63 NYC 1960 Gallery 63 Rome , Italy Select Public Collections National Museum, Wshington DC Boca Museum of Art Whitney Museum of Art, NYC Museum of Modern Art, NYC Museum of African Art Washington DC (Now part of Smithsonian Museum) Bibliography: 1962 Art...

DAVID JAMES GILHOOLY (American, 1943-2013), Mixed media collage 6 x 4 inches, Hand signed and dated verso titled: "Many frivolous titles come to mind" A man on horseback, man and horse. cut and pasted cardstock assemblage, collaged art. David Gilhooly RCA (1943 – 2013), was an American ceramicist, sculptor, painter, printmaker, and professor. He is best known for pioneering the Funk art movement. He made a series of ceramic frogs called FrogWorld, as well as ceramic food, planets, and other creatures. David James Gilhooly III was born on April 15, 1943, in Auburn, California. He was raised in Los Altos, California; Saint Croix in the Virgin Islands; and Humacao, Puerto Rico. He enrolled in University of California, Davis (UC Davis) initially studying biology, followed by anthropology, and ending with a focus on fine art. While attending UC Davis, Gilhooly served as artist Robert Arneson assistant starting in 1963. He graduated from UC Davis with a BA degree in 1965, and an MA degree in 1967. Gilhooly, together with Robert Arneson, Peter Vandenberge...

Ivan Chermayeff (1932-2017): Butterfly Mouth Mixed media collage, 2002, hand signed 'Ivan Chermayeff' and dated lower right, titled lower left. Bears label from David Findlay Jr. Gallery, NY. 22 1/2 x 15 in. (sheet), 25 3/4 x 18 1/4 in. (frame). Provenance: The estate of the artist. Ivan Chermayeff born London, United Kingdom, 1932 Chermayeff was one of the greatest American graphic designers, the son of the Russian born, British architect Serge Chermayeff. Ivan Chermayeff Graduated from the Phillips Academy of Andover, Massachusetts in 1950. He studied at Harvard until 1952, and the Institute of Design (New Bauhaus) until 1954. Graduated from the Yale School of Arts and Architecture in 1955 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. The same year he did a short apprenticeship with Alvin Lustig—a pioneer of American graphic design—and then moved on to CBS as Assistant Art Director in record cover design. In 1956 he co-founded Brownjohn, Chermayeff & Geismar Associate, with Robert Brownjohn and his former schoolmate Tom Geismar. In 1959 Brownjohn left and the studio changed to Chermayeff & Geismar Inc. It soon became one of the best-known design firms worldwide. The firm produced over six-hundred marks, and they were among the very first to develop an abstract trademark (Chase Bank, 1960), still in use today. In 1964 they designed the outstanding corporate identity of Mobil Oil, that is one of the most recognizable identities ever. From its foundation, the studio served major companies including Giorgio Armani, Barneys, Hearst, MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), National Geographic, NBC (National Broadcasting Company), PBS (Public Broadcasting Service), Rockefeller, and others. Recently, Serge Haviv joined as a new partner and the firm changed to Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv. Besides his design profession, Chermayeff is a talented illustrator artist and collagist. Many graphic pieces he made show a perfect balance of rational logics with imagination, featuring both abstract geometric shapes and figurative images. His collage works require a same sense of witty assemblage, where gathered information, like scraps of paper, stamps, and Polaroid photograph pictures combine as fragmented clues to a greater message. The Surrealist collages often take the shape of people, whose facial features are born of scraps and daily ephemera. They are amusing and infinitely thought-provoking; as Chermayeff has said, “Collages make it possible for everything to be something else.” Board overseers at Parsons School of Design and trustee at New School University from 1988 to 2002. Visiting professor at Cooper Union, University of California, and Kansas City Art Institute. He started making collages at the age of 17 to overcome his fear of not being able to draw. They are mostly made from day-to-day ephemera: envelopes, stamps, cigarette packs, train tickets, strips of coloured paper, found images, stones from the beach or squashed rusty cans. Inspired by Surrealism and organised by the artist’s hand and complemented with strong lines, they make faces, figures, fragmented narratives. Like all great designs, they evoke surprise and the pleasure of recognition. As he put it: “Design is all about seeing and making connections which are not so obvious.”President of AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) from 1963 to 1966. Trustee of MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) from 1965 to 1986. Member of the board of directors of IDCA (International Design Conference in Aspen) from 1968 to 1999. Board Director at Municipal Art Society of New York in 1972-76. Member of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale) since 1978. Board Director at Smithsonian Institution from 1988 to 1996. He was elected to the Hall of Fame of ADC New York (Art Directors Club) in 1982. Trustee of the Archives of America Art in 1987-90. Royal Designer for Industry since 1992. He was awarded numerous prizes including the Industrial Art Medal from AIA (American Institute of Architects) in 1967, the Philadelphia College of Art Gold Medal in 1971, AIGA Gold Medal (American Institute of Graphic Arts) in 1979, the President’s Fellow Award from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1981, the First International Design Award from Japan Design Foundation in 1983, the Yale Arts Medal in 1985, the Distinguished Service Award from New School University in 1999, the Society of Illustrators Gold Medal in 2002, the Tokyo Type Directors Club Award in 2004, and the National Design Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2014. He also received a honorary doctorate in law from the Portland School of Art in 1981, and two honorary doctorates in fine arts from the Philadelphia University of Arts and the Corcoran Museum of Art, Washington in 1991. Along with Seymour Chwast, Sid Chafetz, Saul Bass, Milton Glaser, Paul Rand, Ikko Tanaka...

This exceptional artwork is currently on display and available for sale at Signet Contemporary Art Gallery and online. Michael Abrams’ painting "Who? Why? What?" is a playful and en...

This exceptional artwork is currently on display and available for sale at Signet Contemporary Art Gallery and online. "Hound with Striped Tie" by Michael Abrams is a captivating po...

A colossal black pug, its head resting heavily on the ground, gazes outward with an expression both sorrowful and unyielding. Its vast, glossy eyes shimmer w...

keywords; surrealism, hunting dog, humour, uncanny, animals, prussian blue, emerald green, earth tones, oil painting, figurative painting, strangeness, contemporary surrealistic, uns...