John Beerman

Field, Veteran's Memorial Park

1998

"Apaches" is an oil on canvas painting by Olaf Wieghorst. The painting is signed on the lower left, "O-Wieghorst". The framed piece measures 25 1/2 x 29 3/4 x 2 in. “When the time comes for me to put away my palette and unsaddle my pony for the last time, I hope that my canvases will in some small measure add to the historical recording of an era, the cowboy, and the great American West.” ~ Olaf Wieghorst Wieghorst worked with the mounted patrol of the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Cavalry (1920-1922) with occasional interludes as a wrangler on ranches in the western states. Wherever he went, he sketched and painted the Western culture he loved, often selling his work as calendar and magazine illustrations. His work appeared in Zane Grey...

"Grand Canyon Series" is an oil on panel painting by Sheldon Orrin Parsons, painted in 1943. The work is signed in the lower left, “Sheldon Parsons 16”...

"Quart and a Half" is an American Realist abstract landscape watercolor on paper painting by Andrew Wyeth in 1961. The artwork is 21 x 29 1/4 inches and is 33 3/4 x 42 1/4 x 1 inches...

A painting by Georgia O'Keeffe . "Cottonwood Tree (Near Abiquiu), New Mexico" is a modern art oil on canvas by American female artist Georgia O'Keeffe. Georgia O’Keeffe was among the most influential figures in Modernism, best known for her large-format paintings of natural forms, especially flowers and bones, and for her depictions of New York City skyscrapers and architectural and landscape forms unique to northern New Mexico. Provenance: An American Place, New York Mr. and Mrs. Max Ascoli, New York, 1944 Descended in family Harold Diamond, New York, c. 1975 Gerald Peters...

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 ...

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 ...

keywords; surrealism, portrait, oil painting, representation painting, strangeness, contemporary surrealistic, unsettling, contemporary realist painting, dreams, symbolic composition, tonalist, grey, monochrome, nostalgic, vintage, early century, illustration, car, automobile, tractor, old car wreck...

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...