Modern Figurative Paintings

Carlos J. Tirado (born on April 3, 1964 in Caracas, Venezuela) is an artist, painter and sculptor who has developed a very personal and precise line of work linked to Neo-Pop art. Wi...

Helene and Eric Bess are a team who have been collaborating for over 20 years. Both are professional artists with extensive experience in both the commercial and fine art fields. They presently work out of their studio in Florida, creating original art for gallery display, fine art crafts and taking commissions for murals & embellishments. Helene was born in Canada in 1949. She studied art in Europe as a young adult and attended Phoenix Pratt School of Design in New York and St. Petersburg Community College in Florida. She worked for advertising agencies and freelance art projects such as theater design and t-shirt designs for several companies. She owned and operated an art studio (“Artistic Endeavors”) in Melbourne, Fl. for five years. She started doing murals and embellishments (residential and commercial) from 1992 till present. She considers her early life in Europe the major source of her artistic influence as well as the works of Modigliani. Eric was born in Missouri in 1950. He started drawing literally as an infant and has never stopped. He was taking commissions for book covers & wall designs in his teens and studied art at Auburn University and The University of Alabama. He taught art in public schools in Alabama in the ‘70s. He worked as art director at Huntsville Educational Television for 6 years, as art director at Southern Sportswear in Daytona for 9 years, at Creative Signs & Designs in Flagler, Fl. for 6 years, and as a freelance artist and co-owner (with his wife Helene) of “BessStudio” (formerly “Artistic Innovations Inc.”) since 1998. His artistic influences include Michelangelo, Vermeer, Blake, Maxfield Parish...

Graciela Genovés was born on October 24th, 1962. She graduated from the University of La Plata (Argentina) as a Professor and Licentiate in Fine Arts and subsequently worked at the U...

James Lechay was a painter of figures, landscapes, cityscapes and still lifes who played a notable role in the tradition of avant-garde painting in New York and in the Midwest. An ar...

Robert Alexander Darrah “R.A.D.” Miller (1905 - 1966) Robert Alexander Darrah Miller, called “RAD” by his friends, was born in Philadelphia. He enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1923 to 1927 under the tutelage of Daniel Garber. In 1928, Miller moved to Bucks County where he would meet and marry Celia Belden Marshall, daughter of Dr. George M. Marshall, who at that time owned the Phillips Mill property. Nearly a year later, in 1929, a committee headed by artist, William Lathrop, negotiated to purchase the Mill property from Dr. Marshall for the purpose of holding art exhibitions. Thus, the Phillips Mill Art Association was formed. RAD Miller was a regular exhibitor at the Phillips Mill with the traditional New Hope Impressionists. Many of the original founders of the New Hope Art Colony, set in their ways, frowned upon the concept of modernist painting. A decision was made by the Association to not include the growing group of modernist painters in the area to exhibit with them at Phillips Mill. Although clearly not a traditional impressionist, Miller was not being excluded with the others, largely because his father-in-law formerly owned the mill and was one of the Association’s board of directors. RAD was sympathetic to his fellow modernists. In 1933, he was one of the original members of the Independents, a group formed for modernist artists who chose to embark on a more non-traditional creative path. They would exhibit in tandem with the Impressionists but at different locations. Around the time of his arrival to New Hope in 1928, Miller struck up a friendship with Thomas Hart Benton, and in 1932 he worked under Benton on a mural project. RAD’s paintings...

Thin edged metal frame Philip Castle is an Irish Painter and husband to artist Barry Castle He is rarely exhibited and Prince Rainier of Monaco once pu...

Exhibitions: It's a Man's World, Illustration Art by and for Men: November 14-17 2012, Illustration House NYC

Lisa Matrundola was born the youngest of five children in Montreal, Quebec. Her parents immigrated to Canada from Italy and England in the mid 1950’s. Self-sufficiency, hard work and...

Anthony Palliser was born in 1949 of an English father and a Belgian mother. He studied at Downside school and graduated from New College Oxford. In 1...

An oil on board painting by Belgian Modernist painter Emiel Creado. Framed - 60 x 38 Inches Unframed - 53 x 31 Inches

Walkowitz creates a powerful composition with the tightly cropped nude figure pushed up-close to the viewer and occupying half of the picture plane. Smaller figures lead the eye back...

This painting is in excellent condition and has only been shown in a gallery setting. The painting is 31" x 25, and approximately 39" x 32" with frame. A hardbound book is included ...

Antonio Segui 38 x 46 cm Distraido Oil on Canvas Signed and Dated on the back Antonio Segui Biography Born in Córdoba, Argentina in 1934, Antonio Seguí currently lives and works in Paris. He studied at the San Fernando Academy in Madrid, Spain as well as the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. His first solo exhibition was in Argentina at age 23. Antonio Seguí is one of the most internationally renowned Argentinian artists. He began his artistic endeavors at a young age after leaving Argentina to travel the world and study art. His journeys through Latin America, Europe and Africa exposed him to new ideas and encouraged his culturally diverse approach to art. Influenced by artists like Fernand Leger and Diego Rivera, Seguí’s work is generally satirical, critiquing society and human nature. In a pre-computer age, the artist created a vocabulary that is now being explored by a new generation of artists through comics and Manga, yet his visual language and social commentaries remain poignant, both symbolically and literally. Throughout his career, Seguí has developed a fascination for urban life, creating in his work the idea of the “everyman.” The city movement, the fast pace at which life happens and the people who live in these urban spaces are some of the elements that constitute the world depicted in his paintings. It is a prototypical realm inhabited by speedy automatons that take immutable routes leading nowhere. Up close, each figure is an individual, walking down dark alleys, pointing, waving and emerging from potholes. But from a distance, the individuals morph into complex patterns swallowed up in a labyrinth of buildings and cookie-cutter trees. Utilizing cubist techniques, Seguí’s repeated elements give shape to the cities causing planes to vibrate between line and color. Numerous perspectives unfold with each vibration and reflect the many angles of life of the urban man. Always in action, the little figures trample, tip-toe, dodge and advance through Seguí’s imaginary metropolis of life. His work is representated on a series of narratives and criticisms reflected on paintings that show many little men, dressed in 20's style clothes. He uses his own recourse based on comic strip characters, texts, arrows and various signs, juxtaposed onto the figures that resemble comic strip style language. Seguí’s work is collected and exhibited worldwide in places such as the MoMA, New York; Art Museum of the Americas, Washington, D.C.; Frissiras Museum, Athens, Greece; Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Argentina; Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Austria; Museum of Modern Art Dubrovnik, Croatia; and Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico. The Musée National d´Art Moderne, Paris organized a retrospective of his works on paper in 2005. A monograph on the artist by Daniel Abadie was published in 2010 by Hazan. Antonio Segui Resumé 1995 Art Miami '95, USA. S. Zannettacci, Geneva, Switzerland Marwan Hoss, Paris, France Gallerie du Cirque Divers, Belgium Le Moulin du Roc, France Fundacao C. Gulbenkaian, Portugal Gallerie J. Rubeiz, Beirut, Liban 1994 F. Santos, Portugal E. Franck Gallery, Belgium 1993 Galleria San Carlo, Milan, Italy Galería I. Vega, Puerto Rico Winance-Sabbe, Belgium FIAC, Paris, France 1992 Casa Rosada, Buenos Aires, Argentina Espace Julio Gonzales...

In this piece the artist choice of colors is muted, and there is a deft blending of them. Israel has had a Vibrant Folk Art, Naive art scene for a long time now, artists like Yisrael Paldi, Nahum Guttman, Reuven Rubin and even Yefim Ladizhinsky had naive periods. The most well know of the strict naive artists are Shalom of Safed, Irene Awret, Gabriel Cohen, Natan Heber, Michael Falk and Kopel Gurwin. Naïve art is any form of visual art that is created by a person who lacks the formal education and training that a professional artist undergoes (in anatomy, art history, technique, perspective, ways of seeing). Unlike folk art, naïve art does not necessarily evince a distinct cultural context or tradition. Naïve art is recognized, and often imitated, for its childlike simplicity and frankness. Paintings of this kind typically have a flat rendering style with a rudimentary expression of perspective. One particularly influential painter of "naïve art" was Henri Rousseau (1844–1910), a French Post-Impressionist who was discovered by Pablo Picasso. Naïve art is often seen as outsider art that is by someone without formal (or little) training or degree. While this was true before the twentieth century, there are now academies for naïve art. Naïve art is now a fully recognized art genre, represented in art galleries worldwide. Museums devoted to naïve art now exist in Kecskemét, Hungary; Riga, Latvia; Jaen, Spain; Rio de Janeiro, Brasil; Vicq France and Paris. "Primitive art" is another term often applied to art by those without formal training, but is historically more often applied to work from certain cultures that have been judged socially or technologically "primitive" by Western academia, such as Native American, sub saharan African or Pacific Island art (see Tribal art). This is distinguished from the self-conscious, "primitive" inspired movement primitivism. Another term related to (but not completely synonymous with) naïve art is folk art. There also exist the terms "naïvism" and "primitivism" which are usually applied to professional painters working in the style of naïve art (like Paul Gauguin, Mikhail Larionov, Paul Klee). At all events, naive art can be regarded as having occupied an "official" position in the annals of twentieth-century art since - at the very latest - the publication of the Der Blaue Reiter, an almanac in 1912. Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, who brought out the almanac, presented 6 reproductions of paintings by le Douanier' Rousseau (Henri Rousseau), comparing them with other pictorial examples. However, most experts agree that the year that naive art was "discovered" was 1885, when the painter Paul Signac became aware of the talents of Henri Rousseau and set about organizing exhibitions of his work in a number of prestigious galleries. The Earth Group (Grupa Zemlja) were Croatian artists, architects and intellectuals active in Zagreb from 1929 to 1935. The group included the painters Krsto Hegedušić, Edo Kovačević, Omer Mujadžić, Kamilo Ružička, Ivan Tabaković, and Oton Postružnik, the sculptors Antun Augustinčić, Frano Kršinić, and the architect Drago Ibler. Art brut, primitive art, primitive, art naïf, naïve art. Outsider art. A term applied to Yugoslav (Croatian) naive painters working in or around the village of Hlebine, near the Hungarian border, from about 1930. Some of the best known naive artists are Dragan Gaži, Ivan Generalić, Josip Generalić, Krsto Hegedušić, Mijo Kovačić, Ivan Lacković-Croata, Franjo Mraz, Ivan Večenaj and Mirko Virius. Camille Bombois (1883–1970) Ferdinand Cheval, known as 'le facteur Cheval' (1836–1924) Henry Darger (1892–1973) L. S. Lowry (1887–1976) Grandma Moses, Anna Mary Robertson (1860–1961) Nikifor (1895–1968) Poland, Horace Pippin (1888–1946) Jon Serl (1894-1993) United States Alfred Wallis (1855–1942) Scottie Wilson (1890–1972) Gesner Abelard (b. 1922) Jan Balet (1913–2009) Michel Delacroix (b. 1933) France Howard Finster (1916–2001) Ivan Rabuzin (1921–2008) Spontaneous Art Museum in Brussels Art en Marge Museum in Brussels MADmusée in Liege International Museum of Naive Art of Brazil in Cosme Velho, Rio de Janeiro Gallery Jacques Ardies in São Paulo Musée international d'art naïf de Magog in Magog Croatian Museum of Naïve Art in Zagreb Gallery of Croatian Naïve Art...

Sterling Strauser "Nude" 1962 Oil on board Framed 13.25 x 7.25 x 1 in Signed and dated in pencil lower right Sterling Strauser was born in Bloomsburg, PA on August 15, 1907. He rece...

A beautiful oil on canvas which has been laid on board by the English artist David William Burley depicting a group of friends playing football in a park. Signed lower right and pres...

Sounds in colors. 2023., canvas, oil, 90x70 cm

BASKETS Sheet size: 58 x 45.5 cm Image size: 49 x 38 cm Lithograph on paper A mid century limited edition (164/260) coloured lithograph, signed by Esaias Thorén and dated 1957. It ...

A beautiful Modern British oil on board by Ruth Farrelly which depicts a lady putting her washing out on a line in her garden. Superb quality and striking painting, presented in the ...

William Schock (American, 1913–1976) The Fisherman, c. 1955 Oil on canvas Signed lower right 26 x 40 inches 34 x 48 inches, framed William Schock was...

This mural study is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1930s San Pedro Post Office: History of Writing Mural South, Preliminary Mural Maquette right panel...

Maurice Newman was active/lived in Massachusetts / Lithuania. Maurice Newman is known for sculpture-abstraction, impressionist landscape painting, diorama. Born in Lithuania, Mauric...

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...

This painting is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1930s Quarry Workers, c. 1930s, mixed media on board, unsigned, 24 x 24 inches, possibly exhibited at...

"Point of View" is a figurative painting by Maestro Stefano Georges. About the artwork: TECHNIQUE: Mixed media STYLE: Contemporary Edition : Unique, signed Weight: Approximately 3...

Suhas Roy - Untitled Watercolour on Paper, 11 x 15 inches, 1954 ( Unframed & Delivered ) Suhas Roy 's mystic woman which he calls 'Radha', either Oil on canvas or soft colored past...

Suhas Roy - Radha Conte on Paper, 11 x 9.6 inches ,2011 ( Unframed & Delivered ) Suhas Roy 's mystic woman which he calls 'Radha', either Oil on canvas or soft colored pastel on Pap...

Paritosh Sen - Untitled 22 x 15 inches (unframed size), 1995 Mixed Media Paper Pasted on Board ( Unframed & Delivered ) A stunning work in colors on "red ,Blue Gold in Acrylic on Bo...

Prakash Karmakar – Beach Series, 16 x 23 inches (unframed size) Mixed Media on Paper, 2004 ( Unframed & Delivered ) Karmakar is best known for his landscapes and nudes, whi...

Manu Parekh - Untitled Mixed Media, 24 x 30 inches, 1995 ( Unframed & Delivered ) A lovely Mixed Media work in black, white and red color by Modern Indian Artist Manu Parekh who was...

Genre: Modern Subject: Hasidic Rabbi preaching in Synagogue Medium: Oil Surface: Board, size includes artist decorated frame Country: United States The imagery of Maurice Kish (189...

Dipak Banerjee - Ganesha - 10 x 8 inches (unframed size) Mixed Media on Canvas, 2005 (Framed and ready to hang door delivered) Dipak Banerjee is today the undisputed leader and ‘cre...

Antique American modernist interior scene oil painting. Oil on board. Framed. Image size, 20L x 16H.

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Transection with Architectural Forms, c. 1980s Acrylic and graphite on board 12 x 20 inches A surrealist mid-century figural abstract ...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Maze, 1982 Acrylic on cardboard Signed and dated upper right 7 x 9.5 inches A surrealist mid-century figural abstract painting. Clar...

From the estate of Jerry Opper & Ruth Friedman Opper Tighties c. 1950's Gouache on Paper 15" x 18" blue lacquered frame 18.5"x1.75"x21.5" Unsigned From the estate of Ruth Friedmann Opper & Jerry Opper. Ruth was the daughter of Bauhaus artist, Gustav Friedmann...

Subject: Jewish American Family Bar Mitzvah with Rabbi Medium: Oil Surface: Canvas Country: United States In this painting, Joseph Wolins uses vibrant and complimentary colors and...

Moshe Katz (Romanian Israeli), 1937- an Israeli citizen, studied art at the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem, as well as at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. Although not an expo...

Moshe Katz (Romanian Israeli), 1937- an Israeli citizen, studied art at the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem, as well as at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. Although not an expo...

In this painting, Nussbaum portrays Rabbi in lively conversation outside the synagogue in a sketch-like manner without focusing on any specific details. The vibrant colors used in th...

Portrait is an original artwork realized by Virgilio Guidi in the half of 20th century. Tempera on board Good conditions. Includes frame. Hand-signed on the lower right. Virgili...

Oil measures 70x50 cm. Frame measures 83x63 cm. Painter of landscapes and figures, in whose characterization he deepens psychologically capturing the character, Albert Roca has won...

Woman with hat is an oil painting realized by Edmondo Maneglia (1925 - 2003). Woman sitting at the table with glass. Oil painting on canvas. Handsigned in the lower left and on th...

Portrait of a Woman with Brown Hair on a Red Background in Acrylic on Artist's Board Portrait of a woman in the style of Amedeo Modigliani by an unknown artist (20th century). The w...

Signed lower right, 'Cabaniss' for Larry Cabaniss (American-Italian, 1926-2007) and painted circa 1975; additionally signed, verso, 'Cabaniss'. Born in...

Atul Bose - Royal Academy Series-3 Pen & Ink on Paper, 15 x 11.2 inches (Unframed Size) 1924-26 (Delivered Unframed in as is condition) Atul Bose was a master artist whose creative journey spanned several decades and left an indelible mark on the Indian art scene. He was born in 1898 in a small village in Bengal and showed an early aptitude for art. Despite facing financial difficulties, he pursued his passion and enrolled in the Government School of Art in Calcutta. Bose's early works were influenced by the Bengal School of Art, which was a movement that sought to revive traditional Indian art forms. However, over time, Bose developed his own unique style that blended elements of Indian art with European modernism. He was particularly influenced by the works of artists like Paul Cezanne and Georges Braque. Bose spent two years, 1924-6, at the Royal Academy. He was heavily influenced there by the post-impressionist Walter Sickert. He refused an invitation to help decorate the pavilion at the British Empire Exhibition in 1924 with Mukul Dey...

Seymour Chwast (born August 18, 1931) is an American graphic designer, illustrator, and type designer. Chwast was born in Bronx, New York, and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Cooper Union in 1951. With Milton Glaser, Edward Sorel...

Signed lower right, 'Janus' for Ian Janus (Dutch-Italian, born 1919) and painted circa 1955. A study of a beautiful young woman shown posed in the foreground with a distant evening ...

Subject: American Family Medium: Oil Surface: Canvas Country: United States In this painting, Joseph Wolins uses vibrant and complimentary colors and broken brushwork. Joseph Wo...

Atul Bose - Royal Academy Series-3 Pen & Ink on Paper, 15 x 11.2 inches (Unframed Size) 1924-26 (Delivered Unframed in as is condition) Atul Bose was a master artist whose creative journey spanned several decades and left an indelible mark on the Indian art scene. He was born in 1898 in a small village in Bengal and showed an early aptitude for art. Despite facing financial difficulties, he pursued his passion and enrolled in the Government School of Art in Calcutta. Bose's early works were influenced by the Bengal School of Art, which was a movement that sought to revive traditional Indian art forms. However, over time, Bose developed his own unique style that blended elements of Indian art with European modernism. He was particularly influenced by the works of artists like Paul Cezanne and Georges Braque. Bose spent two years, 1924-6, at the Royal Academy. He was heavily influenced there by the post-impressionist Walter Sickert. He refused an invitation to help decorate the pavilion at the British Empire Exhibition in 1924 with Mukul Dey...

Way of the Cross - XIII is an old master artwork realized in the 17th century by an Anonymous artist. Mixed colored oil on copper. Titled on the low...

Original oil painting on canvas, realized by Elena Mardashova in 2023. Perfect condition.

"Where are you?", at a place where there are an arched bridge, a pyramid-shaped glass building and a portrait of the Mona Lisa. The lady in the painting asks or is asked in the phone...

House Beautiful Cover Proposal. American Scene Social Realism Industrial WPA Antonio Petruccelli (1907 – 1994) Mixing Mortar 12 1/2 X 14 3/4 inche...

Signed lower right, 'J. P. Serrier' for Jean Pierre Serrier (French, 1934-1989) and dated 1966 Jean-Pierre Serrier was born in Montparnasse and attended the Académie des Beaux-Arts ...

A contorted Rabbi looking upward is depicted in a naive, and almost child-like manner. Vibrant colors, and gestural brushstrokes fill the composition, enhancing the flatness of the figure. Harry Sternberg, artist, teacher, and political activist was born in New York City's lower east side in 1904. He was the youngest of eight children born to his mother, a hungarian immigrant, and his father, an immigrant from Russia, . His passion for art came early; by age 12 he had begun saturday art classes at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Sternberg continued to advance his formal art education through 1922, studying at at New York's prestigious Arts Students League alongside Raphael Soyer, Yasuo Kuniyoshi and other notables of the day. His career as a professional artist began in 1928 when he consigned a group of his early prints with the dealer Frederick Keppel in New York. In 1933 he returned to the Art Students League of New York as an instructor, where he taught etching, lithography and composition, continuing to teach there for over 34 years. During the Great Depression he was a WPA artist, and his murals are in post offices in Chicago, Chester and Sellersville, Pennsylvania. Sternberg came to national prominence as a printmaker, painter, and muralist, in the Depression era and during World War II. Sternberg was an acclaimed member of a vital generation of American artists dedicated to exposing social injustices and offering support for an egalitarian society. His interest in the plight of American workers...

The Demagogue or Tale in a Tub, 1952, oil on canvas, 20 x 24 inches, signed, titled, and dated verso About the Painting The Demagogue is an iconic Bendor Mark painting from the prime of his post-war period. Beginning early in his career, Mark was fascinated with depictions of the human figure and their capacity to tell stories of the world around him. Mark was a keen observer of his times and in The Demagogue we see Mark’s portrayal of a faithless politician holding up a “V” for victory sign as he appeals to the wanton desires and prejudices of the masses. Below the demagogue is a swirl of humanity representing the common man who is being pushed down by the powerful, while the robed figure of liberty with her scales of justice held high is brushed aside. Behind the demagogue, Mark places two other powerful supporting institutions which were often co-opted by the world’s dictators, the Church and the Military. Mark was an internationalist, so it is difficult to know exactly which demagogue inspired him to create this work, but in 1952 there were many to choose from. Whether depicting Argentina’s Peron (the demagogue and the women to the right resemble Juan and Eva Peron), Spain’s Franco or the United States’ homegrown fear mongers like Joseph McCarthy, Mark tells a universal story that unfolded in dramatic fashion during the post-war period as nations and their peoples grappled with authoritarianism and anti-democratic impulses. Stylistically, The Demagogue draws on the elements which make Mark’s work from this period immediately recognizable, a saturated palette, a closely packed and frenetic composition, exaggerated figuration and stylized facial features. But, above all, we see Mark’s ability to tell the stories of the rich and powerful and their ability to oppress. Like Mark’s work in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art (The Hourglass - 1950-51) and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Execution – 1940), The Demagogue pulls no punches, as the artist lays bare the threats to freedom and basic human rights. About the Artist Bendor Mark was an American modernist and social realist painter. Born as Bernard Marcus on June 5, 1912, in Brooklyn, New York, Mark trained at The Cooper Union during the 1920s where he studied with William Brantley van Ingen and became a prize-winning artist with a focus on painting the human figure. After his time at Cooper, Mark continued to live in New York and worked as a commercial artist and textile designer in addition to his pursuit of a career in painting. Like many Depression Era artists, Mark engaged with social progressives and in 1934, he joined the Artist’s Union which had the goal of advancing artists’ position as “worker.” Mark’s painting, Restaurant, which is now in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, appeared in the February 1936 edition of the Union’s publication, Art Front, as part of a review of an exhibition at ACA Gallery in New York. Mark worked on the Federal Art Project and by the mid- to late-1930s, began a series of paintings exploring the working conditions and hazards of the mining industry. Mark believed that miners were “in the forefront of the struggle for emancipation” and that the mere “struggle for existence is like moving mountains.” He became passionate about the Spanish Civil War and painted sympathetic images in support of the Spanish Republic. Mark was a premature anti-fascist and throughout his career painted works critical of dictators and other oppressors. During the late 1930s, Mark entered mural competitions with designs influenced by the Mexican muralists, taught adult art education in Queens, New York, and was an instructor at the WPA’s Queensboro Art Center. He was so committed to socially progressive art that by 1934, he had changed his name to Bendor Mark, in part, to distinguish his social realist paintings from his earlier work. During World War II, Mark worked as an artist for military contractors. After the war, he was employed as a graphic artist and in the printing industry before moving to Southern California in 1948, where he returned to a fine art practice the following year with politically and socially charged images which reflected his view of the shortcomings of the post-War period, the continued threat of fascism, and the international tensions of the Cold War. As the mood of the country shifted towards the right during the McCarthy Era and the art world’s attention focused on abstraction at the expense of figuration, Mark’s career as a painter suffered. From the 1950s through the 1980s, Mark continued to depict the events that shaped the world around him, often employing a highly stylized approach characterized by dynamic multi-figure compositions, a subtle muted palette, and exaggerated expressive features. A review of Mark’s oeuvre suggests that few people escaped Mark’s attention. He painted presidents, prime ministers, royalty, evangelists, musicians, and dictators (and their henchman), along with miners, farm workers, the urban poor, protesters, the unemployed and dispossessed. He laid bare the arrogance, cruelty, and hypocrisy of the world’s elites. Mark noted, “A work of art cannot be fully appreciated or wholly understood without considering the socio-political and cultural ambience that gave it birth.” He continued, “I have the ability to foresee the direction of social and political events while they are actually taking place.” He was not himself a direct political activist, however. Although Mark commented, “It’s a misconception to separate art from the social aspect of life,” he viewed artists as being neutral. According to Mark, “An apolitical attitude reflects the fact that the artist is passive. . . An artist never affects society; he merely reflects it.” In addition to the Mexican Muralists, Mark was influenced by the old masters Rembrandt, Michelangelo, and Masaccio, as well as the more modern master, Van Gogh. Mark’s writings directly acknowledge these influences and archival material from his estate includes magazine articles, pamphlets and transparencies related to these artists. Mark also collected materials related to several of his social realist contemporaries, including Reginald Marsh, Ben Shahn, Leonard Baskin, and Raphael Soyer, who was Mark’s good friend. For years, Soyer sent Mark holiday cards and Soyer inscribed a message of friendship on a self-portrait he gifted to Mark in the 1970s, all of which are still held in the collection of Mark’s family. From the late 1920s through the mid-1950s, Mark’s work was well received. His paintings won prizes and were accepted into major juried exhibitions including at the Brooklyn Museum, the New York World’s Fair and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He gained national recognition for paintings depicting the oppressed and the common worker. Despite the decline in popularity of representational art during the 1950s and 1960s, Mark stayed true to his interest in depicting the human figure and by the last two decades of his life, his work underwent a reassessment as curators included Mark’s paintings in exhibitions showcasing the role of labor in art during the Depression Era. This recognition continued in recent years when Mark was honored by having his work included in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s ground-breaking exhibition, Vida Americana, which explored the pioneering role that the Mexican muralists played in the development of modern American art during the inter-war period. The influence of Rivera, Siqueiros and Orozco on Mark is unmistakable and his paintings from the 1950s (and beyond) sit comfortably in dialogue with other Los Angeles artists who continued to paint in the social realist tradition long after the mainstream art world had moved toward abstraction. Mark’s concern for underserved Brown and Black communities was shared with artists such as Charles White and his ally, Edward Biberman...

Signed and dated lower left: WARREN B. DAVIS 06