Mid-20th Century Nude Paintings

Gustl Stark (1917 Mainz - 2009 ibid.), Small Nude, 1946. Oil on canvas, marouflaged, 54 x 25 cm (picture), 30 x 60 cm (frame), signed "Stark" top left, verso twice signed "Gustav Stark", inscribed by hand as "Small Nude" and dated by hand "1946". With label of the exhibition of the Bundeshaus Bonn from 1956. - Rubbed area in the lower third of the body, at the same level a retouch in the ochre background. I provisional frame. - Abstract Figurativity - About the artwork During the war, Gustl Stark suffered a particularly severe blow for an artist: he lost his right arm. Nevertheless, he continued to devote himself to art, and the painting, created in 1946, immediately after the end of the Nazi reign of terror, testifies to the dawn of a new era. At the same time, the work is a rare example of the artist's early figurative work, as Stark turned entirely to abstract painting as early as 1950. And even this painting is by no means purely figurative; rather, it already illustrates Stark's turn toward abstraction. We see a female nude, but one that remains faceless. This can be read symbolically and in relation to the immediate past epoch, which, in the face of horrors, silences and blinds - literally renders faceless. In this sense, the figure is positioned to 'look back'. But she does not look. While this meaning may resonate and make the painting an important work of the immediate postwar period, Gustl Stark is primarily concerned with something else here, namely art itself. The absence of the face leads to the body becoming something flat. Due to the de-individualization, we do not see a concrete person with his individual features, but a body surface. And indeed, the body is constructed through an extremely planar design. Even the contour lines that form the corporeality have a planar rather than a linear character, especially where they merge into shadow zones of almost the same color. And the surfaces themselves are not modeled. The incarnate parts do not show any plastic gradations; the corporeality is completely withdrawn into the plane, which is also true for the hair. In addition, there is no uniform background against which the figure could appear; rather, the area next to the hair is kept bluish, creating a succession of earth-toned colored areas, which again binds the figure to the surface. Last but not least, the flatness is also forced by the painting technique. Gustl Stark paints directly, a la prima, onto the coarse canvas, whereby the structure of the painting support remains visible in the picture, and in places - around the hair, for example - the canvas itself can be seen. This structural all-over lends the picture a certain flatness. Gustl Stark thus uses the very motif that stands for the corporeality of art par excellence - the female nude - to transform the spatiality of the traditional picture into a flatness characteristic of modern art. And yet, a strong impression of corporeality is created, without being produced by a painterly modeling of the body. The oscillation between flatness and corporeality creates the intense tension of this groundbreaking painting. In Gustl Stark's oeuvre, as a consequence of the abstraction we see here, the figurative is completely stripped away in a further step, which is also a loss when looking at this early key work. About the artist Gustl Stark was the son of a woodcarver and, after an apprenticeship as a decorative painter, attended the State School of Arts and Crafts in Mainz from 1936 to 1937. Although he was severely wounded in the war and lost his right arm, he studied at the Würzburg School of Painting and Drawing from 1943-1944 and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg from 1944-1948. He won a state scholarship at the state art competition in Bad Ischl. Numerous study trips to Sylt, Paris, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Holland and Belgium followed. Gustl Stark worked in Mainz and was the first artist there to focus on abstract painting. His work quickly gained international recognition, including the Salon Réaliés Nouvelles in Paris. From 1963-1970 he taught at the State University Institute for Art and Work Education in Mainz and from 1970-1975 at the Johannes Gutenberg University. Gustl Stark became particularly famous for his color embossed prints, for which he invented his own technique. Gustl Stark received numerous awards for his work. He received the Art Prize for Painting of the City of Mainz in 1962, the State Prize of Rhineland-Palatinate in 1984, and the Gutenberg Bust of the City of Mainz in 1987. Selected Bibliography Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler des XX. Jahrhunderts, Vierter Band, Leipzig 1958, S. 344. Hans H...

Archaic dancer. 1933, paper, mixed media, 20x9.5 cm Adolfs Zardins (1890 08 II Riga, Latvia – 1967 07 II Jurmala, Latvia), painter. Only in 1990 his rel...

Mr Millerson with Mrs. 1959. Paper, mixed media, 16x6.5 cm Adolfs Zardins (1890 08 II Riga, Latvia – 1967 07 II Jurmala, Latvia), painter. Only in 1990 his relatives give his artist...

Artist: Remo Farruggio, Italian/American (1904 - 1981) Title: Champagne Glasses Year: 1954 Medium: Oil on Masonite, Signed l.r. Size: 26 in. x 19 in. ...

"The Portrait" by Geneviève Zondervan (French 1922-2013) pencil/ charcoal on thick paper, unframed paper size: 25.5 x 19.5 inches Beautifully decorative, mid 20th century French or...

The old sinner and the female figure. Paper, mixed media, 13x15.5 cm watercolor, ink on paper. Adolfs Zardins (1890 08 II Riga, Latvia – 1967 07 II Jurm...

At night. Paper, mixed media, 14.5x8 cm watercolor, ink on paper. Adolfs Zardins (1890 08 II Riga, Latvia – 1967 07 II Jurmala, Latvia), painter. Only in 1990 his relatives give his...

John Braden (Brady, American, XX), Two Nude Female Figures, Oil on Canvas, depicting one standing and one sitting female figure, signed lower right, signed and marked "Lanning (Eve)"...

Lily Harmon (1912 - 1998) Woman with Rose Ink and gouache on board 23 x 19 inches Lily Harmon, was an artist who worked in portraiture, assemblage and book illustration, and whose ...

Two male nude studies by Tony Sisti. Sisti was a master draftsman. With just a few lines he captures the moment. Sisti was a professional boxer and an accomplished artist. A long-...

This nude by Belgian artist Martin Bollé is made in oil on cardboard, elegantly framed in an Art Nouveau style frame.

Goddess of Fertility is a vibrant, vintage 1960s original oil painting by artist Edward Marecak (1919-1993). This semi-abstract piece features dynamic, somewhat cubist nude female an...

Abstract Modernist oil painting by Zoute dated 1941. Oil on board. Unframed. Zoute (Born-Leon Salter, 1903-1976) was self-taught and well exhibited during his lifetime. He painted from 1940-1954 (he stopped painting at this later date due to his wife's illness and death and never painted again) A self-taught artist, he was part of the great modern wave. He exhibited with many of the most notable artists of the day such as Picasso, Braque, Klee and others at the invitation only State University of Iowa International Show 1946-1947. He had numerous one man shows at NYC galleries, Mortimer Levitt / Joseph Heller...

André Derain (1880-1954) nude female pencil drawing, circa 1935 Stamped with Atelier Oval “Andre Derain” Stamped on verso with the S. Knaub...

A nude white woman gazes out and over a Giorgio de Chirico like surrealist landscape to an overly dramatic sunset with stylized orange rays. In the center of the composition is a cut-out of a mountain with a moat. In the extreme foreground is a silhouetted orange plane with a spiral of leaves. Along with the empty landscapes of de Chirico, it's possible that Frederick Haucke was influenced by Salvador Dalí " The Persistence of Memory" in 1931, and Dali's painting was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in 1934. In that painting, Dali, paints a vacant landscape doted with symbols from the unconscious. This painting by Frederick Haucke owes a debt to giants of the Surrealist movement but still, Haucke carves out his style. The shape of the nude's hair echoes the shape of the sunset. What the symbolism to the mountain is and the flower in the foreground we will leave to the viewer to speculate. It was shown at the very prestigious Pearls Gallery in New York City. Artists in the famous Perls' stable included Derain, Dufy, Rouault, Matisse, Picasso, Modigliani, Pascin, Soutine, Chagall and Vlaminck. With a 1971 retrospective of Alexander Calder's work. This Haucke from the Perls Gallery...

Oil on canvas Image size: 15 1/4 x 19 1/4 inches (39 x 49 cm) Contemporary hand made frame Caroline Hutchinson was from the North East. She was a member of the Sunderland Art Club a...

Signed lower right Provenance Private collection, New York Private collection, New York (Descent from above) This work can be viewed at our New York City showroom by appointment.

This is a two sided painting. Nude reclining woman and a ship lit at night. Harold Cohn (1908 - 1982) Harold Cohn was active/lived in New Jersey, Michigan. Harold Cohn is known fo...

Fabry's captures the hight of elegance in his loose style. Conte crayon, watercolor on watercolor paper Signed lower right Private collection Other works by this artist: ca. 1940 - ...

Signed (at lower right): FK [in monogram} EXHIBITED: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 1–November 24, 1968; Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, December 17, 1968–Jan...

Orpheus and Eurydice Erle Loran, American (1905–1999) Date: 1949 Oil on Masonite, signed and dated lower left Size: 24 x 36 inches

Benjamin Bennon most prominently worked in the cubist tradition, stretching and fracturing the figures of his subjects in order to take new approaches to their meaning and interpreta...

Born in New York in 1924, Sam Amato became a key painter in the Southern California (Los Angeles) figurative school of painting of the 1960's and '70's, best known for his diverse su...

Presenting an exceptional oil painting by Polish/American artist Alexander Rosenfeld 1905-1995. The Garden, is an original oil on canvas, signed, dated 1950, with an image dimension of 38 x 29.5 inches, just arrived from an outstanding West Coast collection, the painting is in excellent original condition, beautifully framed. Please contact our West Hollywood gallery...

Presenting a just discovered original pastel by American artist Hans Burkhardt. The Model, is an original pastel on paper, signed, dated 1967, fair original condition with some fol...

Artist Robert Lepeltier (French, 1913-1996) Title: Le Desabillage, Two Women. Year: Circa 1950 Medium: Oil on canvas Canvas size: 16 x 12.75 inches Condition: Excellent, Stretche...

"Backstage", is a large theatrical Art Deco painting by French artist Paul Alex Deschmacker. The painting depicts two theater performers, one se...

A magnificent painting by American artist Ron Blumberg, from one of his rarest periods, the, "Psychological Period", which lasted only from 1948 - 1952 and was never replicated. This...

A rare, early original self portrait by American artist Robert McIntosh(1916-2010) Robert McIntosh was extremely prolific and exhibited throughout his lifetime, including first prize awarded at the Los Angeles County Museum in 1948. "Before the...

Presenting an original oil on panel by American artist Robert McIntosh, c.1958. "Modern Femme", is an original oil on panel, signed,c.1958, ...

A rare, early original self portrait by American artist Robert McIntosh(1916-2010) Robert McIntosh was extremely prolific and exhibited throughout his lifetime, including first pr...

Presenting a large original oil on canvas, "Salome;" by French artist Friedman Hahn. "Salome'", is an original oil on canvas, signed, c.1940, with an image dimension of 46 x 27 in...

Presenting an original oil on panel by American artist E. Ross Vistot. This painting was discovered within the personal collection of a prominent American artist; a gift from one ...