Charles Elmer Harris

'African Idol' — Mid-Century African-American artist

c. 1950s

Robert Vale Faro, untitled (African Idol), serigraph, c. 1940, edition 6. Signed in pencil. A fine impression, with fresh colors, on buff wove paper; the full sheet with margins(5/8 to 1 3/8 inches), in excellent condition. Very rare. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Image size 8 3/4 x 6 inches (222 x 152 mm); sheet size 11 x 7 1/2 inches (279 x 192 mm). ABOUT THE ARTIST Robert Vale Faro (1902-1988) was a well-known modernist architect and artist associated with the Chicago Bauhaus. He received his degree in architecture and design from the Armour Institute in Chicago and worked at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, from 1924-27, where he was influenced by Harry Kurt Bieg and Le Corbusier. Upon his return to Chicago, Faro worked with the important modernist Chicago architects George and William Keck under Louis Sullivan. Faro founded the avant-garde printmaking group Vanguard in 1945. The group counted Atelier 17 artists Stanley William Hayter, Sue Fuller, and Anne Ryan as New York members and Francine...

Ann Graves Tanksley, Untitled (Seated Nude), oil and marker, 1984. Signed and dated, lower right. A fine, expressionist rendering, with fresh colors, on cream wove paper, painted to the sheet edges, in excellent condition. Archivally matted to museum standards, unframed. Image size/sheet size: 24 1/16 x 18 inches (611 x 457 mm). ABOUT THE ARTIST “Her work reflects the influence of her travels, the residential colors, the simple work habits, the loneliness, and the love and devotion to one’s spiritual beliefs. There is a oneness of artist and concept. Her love of life, despite social barriers and frustrations, is promoted in her work for audiences to witness and accept... Her paintings evoke a spiritual awakening. One is drawn to the intensity of color that prevails and identifies the moods of feasts and celebrations. ...Life is full of anticipation and dedication, of acceptance and hope, of faith and survival. These are all present in the works of Ann Tanksley.” —Robert Henke, The Art of Black American Women: Works of Twenty-Four Artists of the Century, McFarland & Company, Inc., 1993. Ann Graves was born in 1934 and raised in the Homewood community in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Drawn to art at an early age, Tanksley graduated from Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in 1956 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Following graduation from college, she married fellow Homewood native John Tanksley, and the couple moved to Brooklyn, New York. He worked as a photo retoucher in the advertising industry. Tanksley devoted herself to raising her daughters while working as an art instructor before fully pursuing her artistic pursuits. She was an art instructor at Queens Youth Center for the Arts from 1959-62, the Arts Center of Northern New Jersey in 1963, and a substitute art instructor at Malvern Public Schools in 1971. She also served as an adjunct art instructor at Suffolk County Community College from 1973-1975. Tanksley continued her art education with studies at the Arts League of New York, The New School, the Paulette Singer Workshop in Great Neck, and the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, where she learned monotype printmaking. In addition to Blackburn and Singer, Tanksley studied with several renowned artists throughout her career, including Norman Lewis (artist), Balcomb Greene, and Samuel Rosenberg (artist). Tanksley was one of the first members of Where We At: Black Women Artists, Inc., a New York-based women’s art collective founded by artists Kay Brown...

Beni E. Kosh/Charles Elmer Harris (American, 1917-1993) Meditation on African Sculpture, 1957 Oil on found wood panel Signed and dated lower left 20 x 15 inches Charles Elmer Harris...

Shipping Procedure Ships in a well-protected tube from Nigeria This work is unique, not a print or other type of copy. Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity (Issued by the Gal...