David Leonard

Modern Sunset

2019

Represented by George Billis Gallery, NYC & LA --When asked what kind of paintings I make, I usually call my work "Urban Landscapes" to distinguish them as paintings about areas of h...

Represented by George Billis Gallery, NYC & LA --From the artist statement, "My artwork centers on mid-century American architecture and design, once revered for its groundbreaking i...

The primary subjects of my paintings are 21st century man's working monuments, which represent our culture's dedication to production and consumption. The essence of our way of life ...

I think of my work as being like a visual journal- observations and interpretations of people, places and things I experience day to day. Translating that experience into two dimensi...

Columbus Avenue NYC c. 1920s/30s American Scene Ashcan WPA Modern 20th Century "Late Afternoon, Columbus Avenue, New York", impasto oil on canvas, signed lower left, signed verso (under relining, shown in photo), and titled verso on stretcher, in maple mitered cove frame, 23 1/4" x 27 1/4", SS: 19 1/4" x 23 1/4", Relined. BIO Russian-born Gussow trained at the Art Students League and the National Academy of Design. He also studied under Bonnat at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. His first claim to fame was exhibiting two works at the Armory Show in 1913. Gussow exhibited at the Society of Independent Artists between 1917 and 1934 and at Salons of America in the 1930s. The Whitney Museum of American Art, for example, has his Subway Stairs. The Barnes Foundation...

Frank Corso was born in Syracuse New York. Taking a keen interest in art at a very early age, he was inspired to draw and paint the landscape of the Finger Lakes region of Upstate Ne...

Fletcher Martin Lunch Break, circa 1940 Signed lower right Oil on canvas 31 1/2 x 37 3/8 inches When Fletcher Martin died in 1979, the New York Times entitled his obituary “Artist o...

George Picken Playground, Carl Schurz Park, 1938 Signed and dated lower left Oil on canvas 28 x 36 inches Provenance: Estate of the artist A native New Yorker, George Picken was born in 1898. His father, an artist and photographer, emigrated from Scotland; his mother came from Wales. They joined other European immigrants settling in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen. Picken enlisted in the army during World War I and saw action at Verdun. After the war, he stayed in France and like many Americans returning from the vibrant Paris art scene, was inspired by the radical movement known as Impressionism. Upon his return Picken decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and become an artist. George began his studies in 1919 at the Art Students League during Robert Henri, Max Weber, and John Sloan’s tenure. There he took classes in studio art, illustration, and etching through 1923 studying extensively with George Bridgman. The writings of French philosopher Henri Bergson were widely circulated among the artistic community and looking at Picken’s early paintings one cannot help but wonder if as a young artist he was influenced by Bergson’s ideas. Bergson said, "[There are] two profoundly different ways of knowing a thing. The first implies that we move round the object; the second that we enter into it. The first depends on the point of view at which we are placed and on the symbols by which we express ourselves. The second neither depends on a point of view nor relies on any symbol. The first kind of knowledge may be said to stop at the relative; the second, in those cases where it is possible, to attain the absolute.” Picken’s recognition came early with showings of his work while he was a student. His drawings were published in the New Masses, a significant left-wing publication. The New York Public Library honored him with one-man shows in 1924 and 1928 and his work was included in group exhibitions at the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, the Whitney Studio Club, Montross Gallery, and the Art Students League. During this time Picken married Viola Carton, one of Reginald Marsh’s models, and they lived in Westchester. Later they moved to Yorkville in Manhattan between 82nd street and East End Avenue where they began their family. Picken’s grandson Niles Jaeger recalled that, “Grandpa’s home and studio were in a five-story walk-up apartment, heated only by a coal stove. But there were wonderful views of the East River and the Queensborough Bridge...