Vance Kirkland

No. 20

1963

Goddess of Fertility, vintage 1960s original oil painting by Edward Marecak (1919-1993), semi abstract with somewhat cubist nude female and male figure in an interior scene with flow...

Diana and the Three Fates, vintage 1970s semi abstract oil painting on board by 20th century Denver artist, Edward Marecak (1919-1993). Female nude figure of the the Roman virgin goddess, Diana, the protector of childbirth reclining with vases of flowers and the Three Fates looking on. Semi abstract, cubist style painting in bright colors of pink, fuchsia, green, yellow, orange, blue, brown, purple and red. Unframed, custom framing is available. In situ photos are frame mocks ups, the piece is currently unframed. Painting is clean and in very good vintage condition - please contact us for a detailed condition report. Provenance: Estate of Edward Marecak Expedited and international shipping is available - please contact us for a quote. About the Artist: Born to immigrant parents from the Carpathian region in Slovakia, Marecak grew up with his family in the farming community of Bennett’s Corners, now part of the town of Brunswick, near Cleveland, Ohio. When he turned twelve, his family moved to a multi-ethnic neighborhood of Poles, Czechs, Slovaks and Slovenians in Cleveland. His childhood household cherished the customs and Slavic folk tales from the Old Country that later strongly influenced his work as a professional artist. During junior high he painted scenery for puppet shows of "Peter and the Wolf," awakening his interest in art. In his senior year in high school he did Cézanne-inspired watercolors of Ohio barns at seventy-five cents apiece for the National Youth Administration. They earned him a full scholarship to the Cleveland Institute of Art (1938-1942) where he studied with Henry George Keller whose work was included in the 1913 New York Armory Show. In 1940 Marecak also taught at the Museum School of the Cleveland Institute. Before being drafted into the military in 1942, he briefly attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art near Detroit, one of the nation’s leading graduate schools of art, architecture, and design. A center of innovative work in architecture, art and design with an educational approach built on a mentorship model, it has been home to some of the world’s most renowned designers and artists, including Eero Saarinen, Charles Eames, Daniel Libeskind and Harry Bertoia. Marecak’s studies at Cranbrook with painter Zoltan Sepeshy and sculptor Carl Milles were interrupted by U.S. army service in the Aleutian Islands during World War II. Following his military discharge, Marecak studied on the G.I. Bill at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center from 1946 to 1950, having previously met its director, Boardman Robinson, conducting a seminar in mural painting at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Although he did not work with Robinson at the Fine Arts Center, who had become quite ill - retiring in 1947 - he studied Robinson’s specialty of mural painting before leaving to briefly attend the Cranbrook Academy in 1947. That same year he returned to the Fine Arts Center, studying painting with Jean Charlot and Mary Chenoweth, and lithography with Lawrence Barrett with whom he produced some 132 images during 1948-49. At the Fine Arts Center he met his future wife, Donna Fortin, whom he married in 1947. Also a Midwesterner, she had taken night art courses at Hull House in Chicago, later studying at the Art Institute of Chicago with the encouragement of artist Edgar Britton. After World War II she studied with him from 1946 to 1949 at the Fine Arts Center. (He had moved to Colorado Springs to treat his tuberculosis.) Ed Marecak also became good friends with Britton, later collaborating with him on the design of large stained glass windows for a local church. In 1950-51 Marecak returned to the Cleveland Institute of Art to complete his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. A year later he was invited to conduct a summer class at the University of Colorado in Boulder, confirming his interest in the teaching profession. In 1955 he received his teaching certificate from the University of Denver. Vance Kirkland, the head of its art department, helped him get a teaching job with the Denver Public Schools so that he and his family could remain in the Mile High City. For the next twenty-five years he taught art at Skinner, Grove, East, George Washington and Morey Junior High Schools. Prior to coming to Colorado, Marecak did watercolors resembling those of Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent and Charles Burchfield. However, once in Colorado Springs he decided to destroy much of his earlier ouevre, embarking on a totally new direction unlike anything he had previously done. Initially, in the 1940s he was influenced by surrealist imagery and Paul Klee, and in the West by Indian petroglyphs and Kachinas. His first one-person show at the Garrett Gallery in Colorado Springs in 1949 featured paintings and lithographs rendered in the style of Magic Realism and referential abstraction. The pieces, including an oil Witch with Pink Dish...

Semi-abstract figurative oil painting by Denver modernist Edward Marecak (1919-1993). Titled 'Zeus, Venus, and Hera', painted in 1982 . Cubist, stylized figures depicting gods and goddesses from ancient mythology. Central to the painting is a male figure depicting Zeus, the Greek god of the sky, shown in the nude in rich shades of brown with a beard and bright blue eyes. His arms are wrapped around Venus, the Roman goddess of love, and Hera, the Greek Goddess of marriage and women. The trio is seated on a blue green chair...

Abstract oil on canvas painting by Werner Drewes painted in vibrant shades of green, blue, and red from 1944. Signed by the artist in the lower right corner of the canvas. Presented ...

Abstract expressionist oil painting on board from 1955 by Charles Bunnell. Abstract shapes in layers of sage green, light blue, brown, gold, and black. Presented in a custom frame, o...

Mid-century modern abstract painting of crystal formations by Margo Hoff (1910-2008) created with acrylic and canvas collage in purple and pink coloring. Wrapped canvas is ready to hang, outer dimensions measure 49 x 49 x 1 ¼ inches. Provenance: Estate of the Artist, Margo Hoff About the Artist: Born Oklahoma 1910 Died New York 2008 A prolific artist, Margo Hoff’s exquisite style evolved throughout her career yet was always rooted in the events, people, and places in her life. The human experience was her sole focus, expressed through her eyes alone. Born in 1910 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Hoff began creating white-clay animals at a young age, giving them to her friends and family. At eleven she contracted typhoid fever and was bedridden for a summer. During her convalescence, she drew and made cutouts, and it was during this time that her bold, artistic imagination came alive. She began formal art training in high school and continued her education at the University of Oklahoma, Tulsa. In 1933 she moved to Chicago and attended the National Academy of Art and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Between 1933 and 1960—her Chicago years—Hoff’s works was deeply rooted in a figurative, regionalist style. She often used elements of magical realism, and many of her paintings have dreamlike qualities. As a child she learned about color by grinding down rocks, plants, and berries. Her color pallet during the Chicago years is indicative of her early-life color experimentation as she consistently used warm, earth tones in her work. Hoff was a born adventurer and traveled extensively. She lived, worked, taught, and painted in Europe, Mexico, Lebanon, Uganda, Brazil, and China. She also showed at the Denver Art Museum’s Annual Western Exhibitions in 1952-54, 56, and 57. In 1957 she showed along side Colorado modernist Vance Kirkland at the Denver Art Museum’s exhibition, Man's Conquest of Space. What was once a focus on the representational, her work began to change after 1957 when she saw Sputnik in its orbit around Earth. At that moment, feet firmly placed on the ground, she was able to imagine herself in space, looking down from the cosmos, and what she saw was an abstracted world. She then had the opportunity to peer into an electron microscope where once again she was looking down into what seemed to be a realm of pure abstraction. These two events profoundly changed her perspective and she began to move from figural painting to abstract, geometric collage. In 1960, Hoff moved to New York City and she began creating collages. Placing the canvas on the ground, and working from all sides, she used strips of painted paper and tissue—and later painted pieces of canvas—glued onto the canvas surface, building layer upon layer, shape against shape, “action of color next to stillness of color.” She believed these simplified, abstracted forms held the spirit of the subject in the same way poetry reduces words to their essence. These pieces range from aerial cityscapes, to dancers in motions, to flora...

Nerea Caos (1993) - to all my lovers - Oil on canvas Canvas size 60X60 cm. Frameless. Nerea Sánchez Castro, born in Ferrol, Galicia in 1993, an art student...

Late 20th century collection of three abstract expressionist oils on board by French artist Emmanuelle Bardet. All signed to the front and each dated 1995 and titled to the reverse. The three paintings are titled; La Cagole...

Syril Frank (American, 1929-2021) Untitled, c. 1970s/80s Oil on canvas Framed: 21 3/4 x 25 2/3 x 1 in. This fantastic painting in the abstract expressionist style loosely depicts a ...

Monday’s Muse by Darryl Hughto, American (1943) Date: 1988 Oil on Canvas, signed and dated verso Size: 55 x 42.25 in. (139.7 x 107.32 cm) Frame Size: 57.5 x 44.25 inches

Title: Ancient Chinese Ladies Medium: Oil on canvas Size: 13.5 x 11.5 inches Frame: Framing options available! Condition: The painting appears to be in excellent condition. Note: Thi...

Abstract Expressionist painting by Southern California artist Chris Hamamoto (American, 20th century). Image, 40"H x 30"W. Unframed. Chris, a native of Southern California, has enjoyed creating artwork since childhood. After trying various media, he decided to specialize in painting on canvas and paper with acrylic paints. He is inspired by the works of Monet, Van Gogh, Sergeant, and Diebenkorn. Chris displays and sells his paintings in art festivals throughout California, Arizona, and Nevada. Education: Los Angeles Valley...