Michael Frary

"THE CLOWN" MICHAEL FRARY MID CENTURY MODERN TEXAS ARTIST

Circa 1960

Dorothy J. Krueger (1926-2011) mm Austin Artist Image Size: 18 x 16 Frame Size: 19 x 17 Medium: Acrylic Mid Century Modern Genesis...

Michael Frary (1918 - 2005) Austin Artist Image Size: 51 x 35 Frame Size: 59 x 43 Medium: Oil Dated 1970 "New Horizon" Biography Michael Frary (1918 - 2005) Michael Frary was born in...

Lou Tong Image Size: 30 x 30 Frame Size: 32.75 x 32.75 Medium: Oil "Girl Setting" Biography Tong Luo was born in Huai Yang, County of Henan Province, China, in 1969. He learned hi...

Ernesto Pacheco Image Size: 48 x 36 Frame: 55.5 x 43 Medium: Oil "Deer Horns" Exquisite. Explosion of brilliant colors to include pink, blue, green, purple, lavender, etc.

Henri Gadbois (Born 1930) Houston Artist Image Size: 29 x 13 Frame Size: 34 x 18 Medium: Oil 1953 Mid Century Modern Juggler Biography Henri Gadbois (1930 - present) 1930 Born Houston, Texas St. Joseph’s Hospital 1947 Ceramic Bowl accepted in the Texas General 1948 Graduated Lamar High School, Houston, Texas Houston Artists Exhibit 1948 to 1960 1952 Bachelor of Fine Arts, University of Houston Instructor Museum of Fine Arts, Houston School (Now the Glassel School) 1952 to 1965: “16 Texas Painters” Valley House Gallery, Dallas Texas 1953 Master of Letters, University of Houston Registrar, Business Manager, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston One-man Exhibit, James Bute Gallery, Houston, Texas 1954 U.S. Army, Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas, Camp Gordon, Augusta, Georgia Archives of American Art, Personal Papers 1954 to 1970 “Red Tights” Allied Art Purchase Prize, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston “Clump of Trees, Hermann Park” Western Artists Exhibit, Denver, Colorado Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Art Rental Exhibit 1955 One-Man Exhibit, Herbert Institute, Augusta Georgia 793 MP Battalion, Nurnberg, Germany Studio space at University of Georgia, Furth, Germany 1956 Married Leila McConnell August 18, 1956 Art Teacher, Houston Public Schools Chaired Exhibit “Contemporary German Graphics” Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas Exhibit, Men of Art Guild, San Antonio, Texas “Landscape-Stuttgart” Flaxman Purchase prize, Houston Artists Exhibit, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston 1957 “Three Tiered Formation”, American Federation of Arts Survey of Texas Painting “Illogical Organism” Bute Gallery 1958 “Budding Stump”, Feldman Collection Exhibit, Little Studio, New York, New York “Espaliered Burlap” Autumn Show, Delgado Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana One-Man Exhibit, Rudi’s Club, Houston, Texas Texas Fine Art Association Exhibit, Austin, Texas TFAA Circulating Exhibit 1958-1959, San Marcos, Seguin, Corpus Christi, Edinburg, Brownsville, and Kingsville “Night Crossing”, Four-man Exhibit Petroleum Club, Houston, Texas “Gold Flow” Texas ’58 Circulating Exhibit “White Out” Honorable Mention, Houston Artists Exhibit, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston “Spring”, Terrace Show, Handmakers, Houston, Texas “Winter”, “Start With Art” Exhibit, Junior League, Houston, Texas 1959 One-man Exhibit, Driscoll Gallery, Austin, Texas One-man Exhibit, Houston Geophysical Club, Houston, Texas Faculty-Student Exhibit, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas Dallas Art Rental, Dallas, Texas “Winter”, Western Artists Exhibit, Denver, Colorado “Portrait of a Dress” Junior League, Houston, Texas 1960 “Field Patterns, Europe” One-man exhibit James Bute Gallery, Houston, Texas 1961 Instructor Hill Country Arts Foundation 1961 to 197? “ Katy Road”, Texas Annual Exhibit, San Antonio Art league Purchase Prize, Witte Museum, San Antonio, Texas 1962 “Field Pattern, Wurzburg” Western Arts Exhibit, Denver Colorado One-man Exhibit, St. Luke’s Church, Houston, Texas “Mystic Road, Germany” Azalea Trail Exhibit, River Oaks Garden Forum, Houston, Texas Art Teacher, Robert E. Lee High School, Houston 1963 One-man Exhibit, James Bute Gallery, Houston, Texas “Landscape at Nysa”, Longview Invitational, Longview, Texas 1964 Chaired...

Chester Snowden (1900 - 1984) Houston Artist Image Size: 16 x 12 Frame Size: 23 x 19 Medium: Oil 1951 Biography Chester Snowden (1900 - 1984) Chester Snowden was born in Elgin, Texas. He attended The University of Texas in Austin and the Cooper Union in New York as well as studying at the Art Students League of New York, Grand Central Galleries Art School, also in New York and the Richard Art School in Los Angeles. His teachers included Harry Sternberg, Boardman Robinson and Walter Jack Duncan. Snowden worked as a painter and an illustrator, for decades providing art for the publications of naturalist author, Royal Dixon...

Julio De Diego’s Atomic Series paintings made an extraordinary statement regarding the shock and fear that accompanied the dawn of the nuclear age. In the artist’s own words, “Scientists were working secretly to develop formidable powers taken from the mysterious depths of the earth - with the power to make the earth useless! Then, the EXPLOSION! . . . we entered the Atomic Age, and from there the neo-Atomic war begins. Explosions fell everywhere and man kept on fighting, discovering he could fight without flesh.” To execute these works, De Diego developed a technique of using tempera underpainting before applying layer upon layer of pigmented oil glazes. The result is paintings with surfaces which were described as “bonelike” in quality. The forms seem to float freely, creating a three-dimensional visual effect. In the 1954 book The Modern Renaissance in American Art, author Ralph Pearson summarizes the series as “a fantastic interpretation of a weighty theme. Perhaps it is well to let fantasy and irony appear to lighten the devastating impact. By inverse action, they may in fact increase its weight.” Exhibited 1964 Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute, San Antonio, Texas This work retains its original frame which measures 54" x 42" x 2" About this artist: Julio De Diego crafted a formidable persona within the artistic developments and political struggles of his time. The artist characterized his own work as “lyrical,” explaining, “through the years, the surrealists, the social-conscious painters and the others tried to adopt me, but I went my own way, good, bad or indifferent.” [1] His independence manifested early in life when de Diego left his parent’s home in Madrid, Spain, in adolescence following his father’s attempts to curtail his artistic aspirations. At the age of fifteen he held his first exhibition, set up within a gambling casino. He managed to acquire an apprenticeship in a studio producing scenery for Madrid’s operas, but moved from behind the curtains to the stage, trying his hand at acting and performing as an extra in the Ballet Russes’ Petrouchka with Nijinsky. He spent several years in the Spanish army, including a six-month stretch in the Rif War of 1920 in Northern Africa. His artistic career pushed ahead as he set off for Paris and became familiar with modernism’s forays into abstraction, surrealism, and cubism. The artist arrived in the U.S. in 1924 and settled in Chicago two years later. He established himself with a commission for the decoration of two chapels in St. Gregory’s Church. He also worked in fashion illustration, designed magazine covers and developed a popular laundry bag for the Hotel Sherman. De Diego began exhibiting through the Art Institute of Chicago in 1929, and participated in the annual Chicago Artists Exhibitions, Annual American Exhibitions, and International Water Color Exhibitions. He held a solo exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago in the summer of 1935. Though the artist’s career was advancing, his family life had deteriorated. In 1932 his first marriage dissolved, and the couple’s young daughter Kiriki was sent to live with friend Paul Hoffman. De Diego continued to develop his artistic vocabulary with a growing interest in Mexican art. He traveled throughout the country acquainting himself with the works of muralists such as Carlos Merida, and also began a collection of small native artifacts...

Julio De Diego’s Atomic Series paintings made an extraordinary statement regarding the shock and fear that accompanied the dawn of the nuclear age. In the artist’s own words, “Scientists were working secretly to develop formidable powers taken from the mysterious depths of the earth - with the power to make the earth useless! Then, the EXPLOSION! . . . we entered the Atomic Age, and from there the neo-Atomic war begins. Explosions fell everywhere and man kept on fighting, discovering he could fight without flesh.” To execute these works, De Diego developed a technique of using tempera underpainting before applying layer upon layer of pigmented oil glazes. The result is paintings with surfaces which were described as “bonelike” in quality. The forms seem to float freely, creating a three-dimensional visual effect. In the 1954 book The Modern Renaissance in American Art, author Ralph Pearson summarizes the series as “a fantastic interpretation of a weighty theme. Perhaps it is well to let fantasy and irony appear to lighten the devastating impact. By inverse action, they may in fact increase its weight.” Exhibited 1950 University of Illinois at Urbana "Contemporary American Painting" 1964 Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute, San Antonio, Texas This work retains its original frame which measures 54" x 36" x 2". About this artist: Julio De Diego crafted a formidable persona within the artistic developments and political struggles of his time. The artist characterized his own work as “lyrical,” explaining, “through the years, the surrealists, the social-conscious painters and the others tried to adopt me, but I went my own way, good, bad or indifferent.” [1] His independence manifested early in life when de Diego left his parent’s home in Madrid, Spain, in adolescence following his father’s attempts to curtail his artistic aspirations. At the age of fifteen he held his first exhibition, set up within a gambling casino. He managed to acquire an apprenticeship in a studio producing scenery for Madrid’s operas, but moved from behind the curtains to the stage, trying his hand at acting and performing as an extra in the Ballet Russes’ Petrouchka with Nijinsky. He spent several years in the Spanish army, including a six-month stretch in the Rif War of 1920 in Northern Africa. His artistic career pushed ahead as he set off for Paris and became familiar with modernism’s forays into abstraction, surrealism, and cubism. The artist arrived in the U.S. in 1924 and settled in Chicago two years later. He established himself with a commission for the decoration of two chapels in St. Gregory’s Church. He also worked in fashion illustration, designed magazine covers and developed a popular laundry bag for the Hotel Sherman. De Diego began exhibiting through the Art Institute of Chicago in 1929, and participated in the annual Chicago Artists Exhibitions, Annual American Exhibitions, and International Water Color Exhibitions. He held a solo exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago in the summer of 1935. Though the artist’s career was advancing, his family life had deteriorated. In 1932 his first marriage dissolved, and the couple’s young daughter Kiriki was sent to live with friend Paul Hoffman. De Diego continued to develop his artistic vocabulary with a growing interest in Mexican art. He traveled throughout the country acquainting himself with the works of muralists such as Carlos Merida, and also began a collection of small native artifacts...

Julio De Diego’s Atomic Series paintings made an extraordinary statement regarding the shock and fear that accompanied the dawn of the nuclear age. In the artist’s own words, “Scientists were working secretly to develop formidable powers taken from the mysterious depths of the earth - with the power to make the earth useless! Then, the EXPLOSION! . . . we entered the Atomic Age, and from there the neo-Atomic war begins. Explosions fell everywhere and man kept on fighting, discovering he could fight without flesh.” To execute these works, De Diego developed a technique of using tempera underpainting before applying layer upon layer of pigmented oil glazes. The result is paintings with surfaces which were described as “bonelike” in quality. The forms seem to float freely, creating a three-dimensional visual effect. In the 1954 book The Modern Renaissance in American Art, author Ralph Pearson summarizes the series as “a fantastic interpretation of a weighty theme. Perhaps it is well to let fantasy and irony appear to lighten the devastating impact. By inverse action, they may in fact increase its weight.” Bibliography Art in America, April 1951, p.78 About this artists: Julio De Diego crafted a formidable persona within the artistic developments and political struggles of his time. The artist characterized his own work as “lyrical,” explaining, “through the years, the surrealists, the social-conscious painters and the others tried to adopt me, but I went my own way, good, bad or indifferent.” [1] His independence manifested early in life when de Diego left his parent’s home in Madrid, Spain, in adolescence following his father’s attempts to curtail his artistic aspirations. At the age of fifteen he held his first exhibition, set up within a gambling casino. He managed to acquire an apprenticeship in a studio producing scenery for Madrid’s operas, but moved from behind the curtains to the stage, trying his hand at acting and performing as an extra in the Ballet Russes’ Petrouchka with Nijinsky. He spent several years in the Spanish army, including a six-month stretch in the Rif War of 1920 in Northern Africa. His artistic career pushed ahead as he set off for Paris and became familiar with modernism’s forays into abstraction, surrealism, and cubism. The artist arrived in the U.S. in 1924 and settled in Chicago two years later. He established himself with a commission for the decoration of two chapels in St. Gregory’s Church. He also worked in fashion illustration, designed magazine covers and developed a popular laundry bag for the Hotel Sherman. De Diego began exhibiting through the Art Institute of Chicago in 1929, and participated in the annual Chicago Artists Exhibitions, Annual American Exhibitions, and International Water Color Exhibitions. He held a solo exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago in the summer of 1935. Though the artist’s career was advancing, his family life had deteriorated. In 1932 his first marriage dissolved, and the couple’s young daughter Kiriki was sent to live with friend Paul Hoffman. De Diego continued to develop his artistic vocabulary with a growing interest in Mexican art. He traveled throughout the country acquainting himself with the works of muralists such as Carlos Merida, and also began a collection of small native artifacts...

Frann Spencer Reynolds (1926-2008) "Pink Triangle" c 1950s Oil on canvas 24"x32" float mount white distressed wood frame 26"x34.25" Signed on reverse Go...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Dichotomy, 1962 Oil on paper Signed and dated upper left 20 x 25 inches Mid-century figural abstract green painting of woman swimming ...

Beni E. Kosh/Charles Elmer Harris (American, 1917-1993) Untitled Oil on canvas board Estate stamped #611 verso 24 x 18 inches Charles Elmer Harris was born in 1917 in Cleveland, Oh...