Eugene Camille Fitsch

Snowstorm, Morningside Heights, New York City - Monochromatic

1940's

When it comes to abstract painting, the creation date is important. At the height of Abstraction Expressionism, overlooked Academic Artist John Atherton created a wonderfully complex painting that embodies many of the characteristics of what was going on in Mid-Century American Art. The work is simultaneously abstract as it is representational. Like a Bento Box, it's divided into sections by dividers. On close inspection, each section stands on it's own as a beautiful mini-painting yet coalesces as part of the whole. From a distance, it is eye-pleasing, but as the view gets closer and closer, new structures and details gloriously reveal themselves. This is an important painting and not unlike the work of Joaquín Torres-García. It was done in the last year of the artist's life. Signed lower right. Canvas is relined. Framed size: 30 x 41.25. The work is best viewed with top gallery lights to bring out color. Color will look different under different lighting conditions. Atherton exhibited at the famous Julien Levy Gallery in New York and his fine art is mainly associated with Magic Realism. He participated in the seminal 1943 Museum of Modern Art exhibition, American Realists and Magic Realists. The Museum of Modern Art has 4 Atherton paintings in its collection. As an Illustrator, Atherton did covers for the Saturday Evening Post, Fortune and Holiday Magazine...

Squares is a bridge between Mondrian and the Hard-edge abstraction movement. Clearly, this is a very early work because the artist has not yet found his mature style. The flat squares of uneven proportion, are in a formal but off-axis vertical /horizontal grid structure. Perhaps it's the artists take on a "drunk Mondrian" where the squares stumble to align themselves. Each square shape is different in shape and color and with visible brushstrokes and light impasto. Look carefully at the gray squares. They all have a slightly different hue. The squares are all unique individuals and not a repetition To Goodnough this was his departure from his influencer. Squares show the influence of his teachers including Hans Hofman...

This meticulously planned, designed, and executed work depicts an ultra-wide angle view of a rock quarry/mine. The viewer looks down at close-up-stylized rock formations and then out at a horizon line with rust-colored mine trestles. Atherton hints at perspective with a broken white line that is wider in the foreground and tapers to a hairline as it recedes to the background. The work was done in 1951 at the height of America's most important art movement: Abstract Expressionism. John Atherton absorbs its influences but retains elements of representation. Atherton was an in-demand commercial artist who worked for most blue-chip clients. It is possible that this was an editorial assignment for Fortune Magazine. At the same time, Atherton was also a fine artist and the work could be an expression of pure creative pursuits. The work looks better in person and one can look at it for hours and not get bored. Look carefully and you may discover a deeper meaning in this painting of precisely arranged rocks. Signed lower right. Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, sold to benefit the acquisitions program ____________________ From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia John Carlton Atherton (January 7, 1900 - September 16, 1952) was an American painter and magazine illustrator, writer and designer. His works form part of numerous collections, including the Museum of Modern Art,[1] Whitney Museum of American Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.[2][3][4] Early Years He was the son of James Chester Atherton (1868-1928) and Carrie B. Martin (1871-1909). He was born in Brainerd, Minnesota.[5] His father was Canadian born. His parents relocated from Minnesota to Washington State, with his maternal grandparents whilst he was still an infant. He attended high school in Spokane, Washington. Career During his early years he never displayed an aptitude for art; rather, his first love being nature and the activities he relished there, mainly fishing and hunting. He enlisted in 1917, serving briefly in the U.S. Navy for a year during World War I. At the end of the war, determined to get an education he worked various part-time jobs, as a sign painter and playing a banjo in a dance band to pay his enrolment fee at the College of the Pacific and The California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute). Once there, he also worked in the surrounding studios developing his oil painting techniques. A first prize award of $500 at the annual exhibition of the Bohemian Club in 1929, financed his one way trip to New York City, which helped to launch his career as an artist.[6] Atherton had aspired to be a fine artist, however his first paid jobs were for commercial art firms designing advertisements for corporations such as General Motors, Shell Oil, Container Corporation of America, and Dole. However, by 1936, encouraged primarily by friends, such as Alexander Brook, an acclaimed New York realist painter, he returned to the fine arts. Atherton continued to accept numerous commissions for magazine illustrations; such as Fortune magazine, and over the years he would paint more than forty covers for The Saturday Evening Post starting with his December 1942 design, “Patient Dog.” This picture is reminiscent of his friend Norman Rockwell ‘Americana style’ and captures a poignant moment of nostalgia, where a loyal dog looks toward a wall of hunting equipment and a framed picture of his owner in military uniform. Selected One person Exhibitions Atherton accomplished his first one-man show in Manhattan in 1936. His Painting, “The Black Horse” won the $3000 fourth prize from among a pool of 14,000 entries. This painting forms part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection in New York.[7] Atherton achieved recognition in New York City and elsewhere during the 1930s. Having exhibited at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York,[8] his paintings began to be collected by museums; including the Museum of Modern Art[9] and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His reputation increased with his art deco stone lithograph poster for the 1939 New York World's Fair. In 1941, his design won first place in the Museum of Modern Arts “National Defense Poster Competition”. Selected Public Collections Fleming Museum of Art, Burlington, Vermont Albright-Knox Art Gallery,[10] Buffalo, NY Art Institute of Chicago,[11] Chicago Wadsworth Atheneum,[12] Hartford, CT Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York The Museum of Modern Art,[13] New York Whitney Museum of American Art,[14] New York Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,[15] Philadelphia De Young Museum,[16] San Francisco Smithsonian American Art Museum,[17] Washington DC Butler Institute of American Art[18] Youngstown, OH The Famous Artists School Founded in 1948 in Westport, Connecticut, U.S.A. The idea was conceived by members of the New York Society of Illustrators (SOI), but due to the Society's legal status, could not be operated by it. SOI member Albert Dorne led the initiative to set up a separate entity, and recruited the support of Norman Rockwell, who was also an SOI member. For the founding faculty, Dorne recruited Atherton, as well as accomplished artists such as Austin Briggs, Stevan Dohanos, Robert Fawcett, Peter Helck, Fred Ludekens, Al Parker, Norman Rockwell, Ben Stahl, Harold von Schmidt and Jon Whitcomb.[19] He collaborated with Jon Whitcomb with the book “How I Make a Picture: Lesson 1-9, Parts 1”.[20][21] Society of Illustrators Atherton as an active member from his arrival in New York. The society have owned many of his works. Ex-collection includes: Rocking Horse (ca. 1949) [22] Atherton, as his peers had many of his works framed by Henry Heydenryk Jr.[23] Personal On November 2, 1926, he married Polly “Maxine” Breese (1903-1997).[24][25] They had one daughter, Mary Atherton, born in 1932. Atherton's often chose industrial landscapes, however found himself spending considerable time in Westport, Connecticut, with an active artistic community, and it became home for him, and his family. He then moved to Arlington, Vermont.[26] Norman Rockwell enlisted Atherton in what was to be the only collaborative painting in his career.[27] He was part of a group of artists including a Norman Rockwell, Mead Schaeffer and George Hughes who established residences in Arlington.[28] Atherton and Mead Schaeffer were avid fly fishermen and they carefully chose the location for the group,[29] conveniently located near the legendary Battenkill River. In his free time, Atherton continued to enjoy fly-fishing.[30] He brought his artistic talent into the field of fishing,[31] when he wrote and illustrated the fishing classic, “The Fly and The Fish”.[32] He died in New Brunswick, Canada in 1952,[33] at the age of 52 in a drowning accident while fly-fishing.[34] Legacy The Western Connecticut State University holds an extensive archive on this artist.[35] His wife, Maxine also published a memoir “The Fly Fisher and the River” [36] She married Watson Wyckoff in 1960. Ancestry He is a direct descendant of James Atherton,[37][38] one of the First Settlers of New England; who arrived in Dorchester, Massachusetts in the 1630s. His direct ancestor, Benjamin Atherton was from Colonial Massachusetts...

Quick and confident brush strokes describe the gritty forms of perhaps steam engines or railroad yards. Luks bravura style of putting paint to canvas anticipates action painting of ...

Highly energetic and abstracted garden flowers and the hint of a figure emerge from this abstract expressionist explosion of color and form, by Dana Wegter (American, 20th-21st Century), 2000. Signed and dated "Dana Wegter '00" lower right. Displayed in a bright yellow mat...

Abstract Expressionist cityscape of Old City of Jerusalem in moody blues and gold. Yitzhak Greenfield, painter, born 1932, Brooklyn, New York His focus is on the heavenly and the terrestrial Jerusalem; on the Hebrew alphabet; and on central themes in Jewish tradition and culture. He deals with the tension between figurative and abstract. Education 1946 Educational Alliance Art School, New York City, with Abba Ostrowsky, Chaim Gross, and Louis Lozowick. 1948 Thomas Jefferson High School, Brooklyn, New York, Art 1953 Drawing and Drawing Wall Murals,Seminar at Givat Haviva with P. Pelzig, Yohanan Simon, and Naftali Bezem. 1960 Printmaking with the artist and printmaker Borin, Venice, Italy 1979-1981 Morris Blackburn Print Workshop, New York City, U.S.A. Teaching Art Kibbutz Gal-On and Gat 1961-1963 Arts, regional school at Mateh-Yehuda Regional school, Mate-Yehuda Anglican school, Jerusalem 1965–70 Bet Ha'am, Popular University Outreach Program, Jerusalem Ruth Youth Wing, Israel Museum, Jerusalem Shira Mushkin: Majestic scenes in blue, gold and indigo, radiating spheres and grand expanses hover above architectural forms and clusters of Hebrew letters, revealing dreamlike realities. These are the creations of the artist Yitzhak Greenfield who works in watercolor and acrylic paints layered with collages of painted papers, discarded book materials, and fragments of his own prints. Applying parts of broken furniture, clock springs, iron locks and keys, the artist forms assemblages that hint at familiar settings, resonating the past. For Brooklyn born, Israeli artist Yitzhak Greenfield, these visions are the essence of the Jerusalem landscape, inspired by the city’s ever-changing magical scenery. For generations, Jerusalem has been a focal point for the Jewish people. It is the center of Jewish life, faith, hope, history, and consciousness. Jerusalem holds a particular significance for Greenfield, who moved to Ein Kerem, Jerusalem over fifty years ago, after living on a kibbutz. Greenfield is a Jerusalem artist, and he remarks: “Living and working in Jerusalem is a special journey for me. My works are visionary landscapes, which are reconstructions of Jerusalem, not always relating to specific sites.” The artist has always been intrigued by the historical and dynamic nature of the city, as he constantly explores his own connection to the traditional and spiritual forms of Judaism. Greenfield’s art is linked to Jewish and Israeli history and symbols, such as the Hebrew letters, Jewish amulets, and the Ten Sephirot (Kabbalah emanations), containing aesthetic qualities of the material and the spiritual. Working in a distinctive modernist method, Greenfield’s artwork lends itself to rich possibilities of expression. The exhibition Yitzhak Greenfield: Exploring Jerusalem comprises three main series from the artist’s career, which span over the course of many years and continue to this day; Jerusalem Visions, Jerusalem Assemblages, and Landscape and Meditation on the Hebrew Letter. These artworks portray timeless dream-landscapes of Jerusalem. The hidden secrets of the city are locked away in assemblage constructions, and prints depicting Hebrew letters illuminate into mystical meanings. The spectator travels along with Greenfield through his creations, exploring Jerusalem and experiencing a spiritual and living Judaism, in which the artist constantly searches for the expression of his cultural and spiritual legacy as he reconstructs Jerusalem. 1966 General Exhibition - Jerusalem Artists' House Artists: Hirszenberg, Samuel Boris Schatz, Lilien, Ephraim Moses, Joseph Budko, Leopold Krakauer, Meir Gur Arie, Jacob Eisenberg, Ben Zvi, Zeev Palombo...

Frameless

Dramatic and vibrant mixed media abstract by California artist Doris Sherwyn (American, 1927-2015). Signed lower right "Doris Sherwyn" Artist's card affixed to verso. Unframed. Can...