Bruce McCracken

"The Arno" Italian Village by the River Oil Painting by Bruce McCracken

1965

This Robert Farrington's painting serves as a visual gateway to a distinct period in post-war France, composed with a deep respect for the elements interwoven into the collective memory of Paris. His work adeptly engages with the archetypal settings and concepts that convey the quintessence of this beloved and frequently visited capital. As the viewer gazes upon this artwork, they are instantly immersed in the ambiance of a food trade street, and especially the familiar historic brasserie “Au Pied de Cochon” - the sole establishment in the painting that still exists nowadays - and its surroundings at the heart of the bustling Halles district. At "6 Rue Coquillère", the act of opening the doors, each adorned with handles that resemble pig's trotters, transports one through a temporal gateway into the quintessential French world of "la cochonnaille"... The renowned "Pied de Cochon" restaurant made its debut in 1947. In its early days, it became the preferred gathering place for the "Forts des Halles" – the diligent laborers who tirelessly transported goods through the pavilions of the old Halles de Paris. From these dedicated workers to the luminaries of the time, this establishment emerged as a symbol of Parisian life. Farrington reconstructs a scene around this restaurant, nourished by her own Parisian experience when he was a young American living in France. An iconic Brigitte Bardot poster...

This painting features a yellow sky (as Gastaldi named it) and it is part of 3. The #1 one is featuring a red sky and the third one is the desert light. #1 and 2 show the strength of nature with vigorous large brush strokes and bright colors whereas the colors of #3 depicting the desert light, are more muted and reflect perfectly the desert atmosphere before a storm. See, attached the pictures of the 2 matching ones. Jerome Gastaldi, born in Oakland, California, in 1945, is a contemporary artist. His works have been compared by art critics to that of Robert Rauschenberg, Edward Kienholz...

“Harbor Stories: The Pulse of Pier 12” illustrates a dynamic specific to narrative painting, embodying a visual crossroads of individual and collective stories within an effervescen...

A poetic vision of place, memory, and emotional color. In this luminous Watercolor Landscape, Edna Stoddart transports us to a dreamlike valley where mountains cradle a winding rive...

A lovely scene adeptly painted by listed American artist and illustrator Jan Nosek (1876 - 1966) who was active in the late 19th and early 20th Century. This scene created in the ea...

A Pair of Modernist Landscapes by listed female artist Margaret Munro Stratton McLennan. Margaret was a painter working in the early 20th Century in the Syracuse area. These charmi...

Elizabeth Dailey Untitled, c. 20th Century Oil on board Sight: 19 1/2 x 23 1/2 in. Framed: 21 x 25 x 1 in. Signed lower right: Elizabeth Dailey This lovely painting by an American a...

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...