
The Stone Steps, Italy
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Henry Martin GasserThe Stone Steps, Italy1950
1950
$3,800List Price
About the Item
- Creator:Henry Martin Gasser (1909-1981, American)
- Creation Year:1950
- Dimensions:Height: 29.5 in (74.93 cm)Width: 21.5 in (54.61 cm)Depth: 0.5 in (1.27 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Wiscasett, ME
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU50635688381
Henry Martin Gasser
Henry Martin Gasser was an American painter in every sense. From his working-class industrial town, he sought out the greatest artists in the area in order to study from them and found inspiration in his backyard. Through persistence and a spirit of originality, Gasser turned humble scenes of urban American life in the mid-twentieth century into extraordinary works of art that were widely praised by the art world. After achieving fame for his paintings, he extended his reach further by educating future artists and writing instructional books on his innovative techniques. Gasser was born in Newark, New Jersey, where he lived for most of his life. He studied painting at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts as well as the Grand Central School of Art and the Art Students League in New York City. The well-known artist John R. Grabach (1886–1981), a fellow New Jersey native, privately tutored Gasser, and the two artists developed a close relationship. Despite its highly individualistic style, Gasser’s work still fits neatly into the tradition established by his American predecessors. In addition to exhibiting influence from Grabach, Gasser’s realist depictions of everyday life continued the legacy of the Ashcan painters. The majority of Gasser’s work portrays his native New Jersey. By the time he reached artistic maturity in the mid-twentieth century, Newark had become a major industrial center. Such cities, although the life force of American industry and ingenuity, were not known for their scenic qualities. Nonetheless, Gasser found beauty in his surroundings. His artworks typically feature urban scenes, such as residential streets lined with houses and blue-collar suburban communities. Along with painting in New Jersey and New York, he embarked on excursions with Grabach to New England to capture coastal views and winter scenery. During World War II, Gasser was stationed in South Carolina as a sergeant in a Visual Aid Unit of the army, where he painted the vibrant Southern culture surrounding him. Although adept at painting with oils, he found his stride in watercolors. Paralleling his ability to transform unassuming subjects into captivating pictures, Gasser elevated watercolor—a medium that was more common at the time for preliminary sketches or commercial use—to a fine art. During his life, Gasser exhibited his paintings widely to remarkable critical acclaim. He was honored with numerous solo exhibitions in New York and New Jersey and was included in group exhibitions at the country’s finest museums and galleries. Gasser won more than one hundred exhibition prizes nationally, including the prestigious Hallgarten Prize awarded by the National Academy of Design. Gasser was actively engaged in the art community, belonging to over twenty organizations, including the Allied Artists of America, the Art Students League, the National Arts Club, and the Salmagundi Club. He served as vice president of both the National Academy of Design and the American Watercolor Society, and designed the latter’s certificate of membership.
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Vincent DaCosta Smith was born on December 12, 1929, in the Bedford-Stuyvesant[1] neighborhood of Brooklyn, to Beresford Leopole Smith and Louise Etheline Todd. Both were immigrants from Barbados.[2] He was raised in Brownsville, Brooklyn and Smith drew what he saw around him.[citation needed] He attended an integrated school where he studied piano and the alto sax.
worked a range of jobs before he became a full-time artist. At 16, he worked for the Lackawanna Railroad repairing tracks. At 17, Smith enlisted in the army and traveled with his brigade for a year.[3] It wasn't until after his time in the army that Smith began to paint and printmaking.[4] At the age of 22, Smith was working in a post office where he grew to be friends with fellow artist Tom Boutis.[1]
Art education
Tom Boutis took Smith to a Paul Cézanne show at the Museum of Modern Art in 1951. After seeing the Cézanne show, Smith resigned from his position at the post office and began reading extensively about art.
He studied at the Art Students League of New York with Reginald Marsh.[citation needed]
Later, he began to sit in on classes at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, where the instructors would let him join in on the lessons and the criticisms.[3] After attending classes at the Brooklyn Museum Art School and the Art Students League of New York, he was accepted and received a scholarship to the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine,[4] where he studied from 1953 to 1956.
Beginning in 1954,[5] he started taking official classes at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, and studied painting, etching, and woodblock printmaking.[4]
Career
Smith was a figurative painter who used abstractions and materiality to make something new.[6] Smith's work depicts the rhythms and intricacies of black life through his prints and paintings.[7] Many of his paintings and prints rely heavily on patterns.[6] According to Ronald Smothers, Vincent D. Smith's work "stood as an expressionistic bridge between the stark figures of Jacob Lawrence and the Cubist and Abstract strains represented by black artists like Romare Bearden and Norman Lewis."[7] Smith has described his own work as "a marriage between Africa and the West."[3] Over his life, he worked in both painting and printmaking.
In 1959, Smith won the John Hay Whitney Fellowship which allowed him to travel to the Caribbean for a year.[8] During this year he was deeply inspired by the customs and lifestyle of the native people.[8] Throughout his life, Smith attended various art schools but it was not until turning 50 he returned to college to earn an official degree.[7]
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Death and legacy
Smith died in Manhattan on the December 27, 2003 from lymphoma and related complications.[7] Smith was aged 74.[7]
His work is included in many public museum collections including Art Institute of Chicago,[9] Newark Museum of Art,[1] Museum of Modern Art (MoMA),[1] Metropolitan Museum of Art,[1] Yale University Art Gallery,[10] Davidson Art Center,[11] Fitzwilliam Museum,[12] Brooklyn Museum,[13] Albright-Knox Art Gallery,[14] Rhode Island School of Design Museum,[15] among others.
Exhibitions
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Vincent D. Smith had shown in a range of galleries and museums over his life-span. In 1970, he had his first individual exhibition at the Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. His first retrospective was in 1989 at the Schenectady Museum in Schenectady, New York.[2]
Solo shows:
1974 - The Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine[2]
1974 - Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, New York[2]
1989 - Schenectady Museum (Retrospective 1964-1989), Schenectady, New York
Awards and honors
This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
1959 – John Hay Whitney Fellowship, John Hay Whitney Foundation, New York City, New York[8]
1967 – Artist in Residence, Smithsonian Conference Center
1968 – Grant, The American Academy and National Institute of Arts and Letters, New York
1971 – Creative Public Service Award for the Cultural Council Foundation, New York
1973 – National Endowment of the Arts and Humanities Travel Grant, New York
1973-1974 – Childe Hassam Purchase Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York City, New York
1974 – Thomas P. Clarke Prize, National Academy of Design, New York
1981 – Windsor and Newton Award, National Society of Painters in Casein and Acrylic , New York.
1985-1986 – Artist-in-Residence, Kenkeleba House Gallery, New York.
Works
Below are some selected works:
Study for Mural at Boys and Girls High School, 1972, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
A Moment Supreme, 1972, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
The Triumph of B.L.S., 1973, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
Jonkonnu Festival, 1996, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
Murals
Mural for Crotona/Tremont Social Service Center, The Human Resource Administration, New York, New York 1980[1]
Mural for Oberia D. Dempsey Multi-Service Center of Central Harlem, New York, New York 1989[1]
Publications
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