Conté Figurative Paintings

Simka Simkhovitch (Russian/American 1893 - 1949) This came with a small grouping from the artist's family, some were hand signed some were not. These were studies for larger paintings. This is a watercolor and gouache beach scene three young men bathing...

In this vibrant oil painting, I've unleashed a wave of dynamic energy and emotion. The abstract forms blend with expressionist fervor, as the figures—a synthesis of impressionist and...

Simka Simkhovitch (Russian/American 1893 - 1949) This came with a small grouping from the artist's family, some were hand signed some were not. These were studies for larger paintings. Simka Simkhovitch (Симха Файбусович Симхович) (aka Simka Faibusovich Simkhovich) (Novozybkov, Russia May 21, 1885 O.S./June 2, 1885 N.S.—Greenwich, Connecticut February 25, 1949) was a Ukrainian-Russian Jewish artist and immigrant to the United States. He painted theater scenery in his early career and then had several showings in galleries in New York City. Winning Works Progress Administration (WPA) commissions in the 1930s, he completed murals for the post offices in Jackson, Mississippi and Beaufort, North Carolina. His works are in the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, the National Museum of American Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Born outside Kyiv (Petrograd Ukraine) into a Jewish family who owned a small department store. During a severe case of measles when he was seven, Simcha Simchovitch sketched the views outside his window and decided to become an artist, over his father's objections. Beginning in 1905, he studied at the Grekov Odessa Art School and upon completion of his studies in 1911 received a recommendation to be admitted to the Imperial Academy of Arts. Though he enrolled to begin classes in architecture, painting, and sculpture at the Imperial Academy, he was dropped from the school roster in December because of the quota on the number of Jewish students and drafted into the army. Simchovitch served as a private in the 175th Infantry Regiment Baturyn [ru] until his demobilization in 1912. Re-enrolling in the Imperial Academy, he audited classes. Simka Simkhovitch exhibited paintings and sculptures in 1918 as part of an exhibition of Jewish artists and in 1919 placed 1st in the competition "The Great Russian Revolution" with a painting called "Russian Revolution" which was hung in the State Museum of Revolution. In 1922, Simkha Simkhovitch exhibited at the International Book Fair in Florence (Italian: Fiera Internazionale del Libro di Firenze). In 1924, Simkhovitch came to the United States to make illustrations for Soviet textbooks and decided to immigrate instead. Initially he supported himself by doing commercial art and a few portrait commissions. In 1927, he was hired to paint a screen for a scene in the play "The Command to Love" by Fritz Gottwald and Rudolph Lothar which was playing at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway. Art dealers began clamoring for the screen and Simkhovitch began a career as a screen painter for the theater. Catching the attention of the screenwriter, Ernest Pascal, he worked as an illustrator for Pascal, who then introduced him to gallery owner, Marie Sterner. Simkhovitch's works appeared at the Marie Sterner Gallery beginning with a 1927 exhibit and were repeated the following year. Simkhovitch had an exhibit in 1929 at Sterner's on circus paintings. In 1931, he held a showing of works at the Helen Hackett Gallery, in New York City and later that same year he was one of the featured artists of a special exhibit in San Francisco at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park. The exhibit was coordinated by Marie Sterner and included four watercolors, including one titled "Nudes". He is of the generation of Russian Soviet artists such as Isaac Pailes, Serge Charchoune, Marc Chagall, Chana Orloff, Isaac Ilyich Levitan, and Ossip Zadkine. In 1936, Simkhovitch was selected to complete the mural for the WPA Post office project in Jackson, Mississippi. The mural was hung in the post office and courthouse in 1938 depicted a plantation theme. Painted on the wall behind the judge’s bench, “Pursuits of Life in Mississippi”, a depiction of black workers engaged in manual labor amid scenes of white professionals and socialites, was eventually covered over in later years during renovations due to its stereotypical African American imagery. Simka painted what he thought was typical of Jackson. His impression of pre-civil rights Mississippi was evidently Greek Revival column houses, weeping willow trees, working class families, and the oppression of African Americans. He painted African American men picking cotton, while a white man took account of the harvest and a white judge advised a white family, calling it Pursuits of Life in Mississippi. Though clearly endorsed by the government and initially generally well-received, the mural soon raised concerns with locals as the climate toward racial segregation began to change. The main concern was whether depictions that show African Americans in subjugated societal roles should be featured in a courtroom. The following year, his painting "Holiday" won praise at an exhibition in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1940, Simkhovitch's second WPA post office project was completed when four murals, "The Cape Lookout Lighthouse and the Orville W. Mail Boat", "The Wreck of the Crissie Wright", "Sand Ponies" and "Canada Geese" were installed in Beaufort, North Carolina. The works were commissioned in 1938 and did not generate the controversy that the Jackson mural had. The main mural is "The Wreck of the Crissie Wright" and depicts a shipwreck which had occurred in Beaufort in 1866. "The Cape Lookout Lighthouse and the Orville W. Mail Boat" depicted the lighthouse built in 1859 and the mail boat that was running mail during the time which Simkhovitch was there. The boat ran mail for the area until 1957. "Sand Ponies" shows the wild horses common to the North Carolina barrier islands and "Canada Geese" showed the importance of hunting and fishing in the area. All four murals were restored in the 1990s by Elisabeth Speight, daughter of two other WPA muralists, Francis Speight...

Modern nude study of red-haired woman reclining seated by American painter, Patricia Gren Hayes (b. 1932), 1979. Signed and dated on verso Provenance: Purchased as part of larger collection of artist's work Unframed. Canvas size: 16"H x 20"W. Patricia Gren Hayes (American, b. 1932) is a Bay Area Figurative & Feminist Art Movement artist who studied at Winnipeg Public Art School in 1950. She received early recognition in Museum and Gallery competitions and exhibitions and was awarded a Special Education in Art recognition by the Winnipeg Museum of Fine Art, and was awarded a scholarship to the Banff College of Fine Art. Further studies were at The University of Manitoba. She was a Member of Winnipeg Free Press Sketch Club and was a Cartoonist and paste-up for a French-English bi-weekly, in Eastern Canada; She studied outdoor impressionism in New York in 1960; in 1962, attended The California College of Arts and Crafts, and in 1976 B.A., U.C. Berkeley where she studied under Elmer Bischoff, David Simpson, Joan Brown, Felix Ruvolo, Yolanda Lopez and Vincent Perez. She started a freelance commercial art business in 1963; copyrighted a National Cartoon, 1976, and served as Exhibition Director for San Francisco Woman Artists Gallery and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1976-1978. She was a workshop instructor at the San Francisco Woman Artists Gallery, 1977-1985; and was Manager/Owner Stanton Art Gallery, Alameda, CA, 1976-1982. Solo Exhibitions: Berkeley Marina, 1974; Oakland Center for The Visual Arts, "Images of Women", 1979 Group Exhibitions: Oakland's Dept of Education, 1963, Studio One; Alameda County Fair, 1975, 1976, 1978; San Francisco Art Festival, 1969, 1970, 1976, 1977, 1978; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1976, 1977, 1978; San Francisco Women Artists Gallery Exhibition, award winner - 1970, 1977, 1978; Hayward Bay Fair Art Festival, award winner - 1971; Capricorn Assunder Gallery, 1973; Oakland Art Festival, 1973, 1974; Alameda Art Association, 1978; El Cerrito...

An original oil on canvas painting from the estate of George North Morris from the artist's "Lovers" series. This piece comes in its original wood frame presentation. George North Morris - painter, writer, teacher Born May 13, 1915 in East Liberty, PA Died Oct. 1, 1996 in Hudson, NY Studio locations over the years: varied from Hyannis (MA), Providence (RI), Oglethorp (GA), Montpelier (VT), Yonkers & Westchester Co. (NY) to the later years in Germantown (NY). Subject matter consisted mainly of seascapes and landscapes but in the 60's and 70's he experienced his abstract era. The later years, in fact most of his life was spent in New England and N.Y. state. Most of his more valuable paintings where along the Hudson River and Westchester County. His most frequent methods were oils and water colors, and in the 1940' his artistic expression was through the use of clay. Most of his pottery was made from local Cape Cod (Barnstable) clay which he and his family dug, washed and prepared. He wrote a part of the foreward, called "The Tradition", for a book "A Century and a Half of American Art 1825-1975". Published in 1975 by the "National Academy of Design". He was also an art critic and reporter for the Worcester Telegram and the Provincetown New Beacon. He was a person that felt time was by far better spent talking about and hearing ideas and thoughts. The following are some of his. George Morris's life was that of art and art critic as well as educator. "It was the two summers, 1938 and 1939" recalled Morris, "that I really learned how to paint". Though much of his work showed a strong Edward Hopper influence, at the same time it took many roads. It was, over the years, much too varied to categorize. He started with collage, moved to abstraction, and then to a period during the late 1960s and '70s when he completed what he called his "Lovers Series" - erotic paintings filled with large orchestrated flat color - that show him moving away from abstraction. Upon becoming bored with the concept of abstract painting, he looked for new challenges in pastels, acrylics and water colors, painting once again what he called "the world as it is recognizable by others". George firmly believed that all the best artists are good hucksters, too. Solo exhibitions as a painter were as follows: Columbia-Greene Community College - 1985 Barrett House - 1985 Smith Gallery - 1980, '81, '82 Swansborough Gallery, Wellfleet - 1983 Hopper House, Nyack, NY - 1981 Hudson River Museum, Yonkers Shepherd Gallery...

A Muse - Figurative Study in Oil on Canvas A nude man wearing a sailor hat while he looks down at a woman sitting on sheets of red and blue by American painter, Patricia Gren Hayes ...

Vivid and dynamic painting of two male figures preparing to go on stage by Marc Foster Grant (American, b. 1947). Titled "Dancers Waiting To Go On" low...

Model with Mandolin in Ink and Charcoal on Paper Black and white painting of a woman by acclaimed bluegrass musician Katherine "Kathy" Kallick (American, b. 1952). A woman is sitting in a chair, with a mandolin in her lap. She is shown in profile, looking to the viewer's right. Next to the chair is an end table with a vase of flowers. Unsigned, but was acquired with a collection of the artist's work. Paper size: 22.5"H x 28.38"W Katherine Kallick...

Delicate and expressive depiction of a nude couple by Byron Richard Rodarmel (American, 1932-2007). A couple is intertwined on a bed, rendered in a soft palette of peach, yellow, pin...

A Large, Sensational Mid-Century Modern Painting of a Chicago Night Club Showgirl. Painted in the 1950s, this is a large, vertical, abstracted portrayal of a standing Burlesque danc...

Bay Area School figurative of a cowboy and hats by Berkeley artist Patricia Gren Hayes (American, b- 1932), circa 1983. Signed "Gren Hayes 1983" upper center and signed and titled "Cowboy Boots" on verso. Unframed. Size: 16"H x 20"W. Bay Area Figurative...

Black and White Nude Woman in Acrylic, Gouache, and Charcoal on Paper Black and white painting of a woman by acclaimed bluegrass musician Katherine ...