1940s Paintings

Early original oil on canvas painting of sailboats in stormy seas by the American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Artist signed lower right and dated 1945. Condition is very good. Prese...

Beautiful oil on canvas painting with aerosol spray paint of two reclining figures by the well known Russian/American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed upper right and dated 1949. ...

Original oil on canvas painting by the well known Russian/American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed middle right and dated 1943. Condition is very good. Unlined canvas. The painti...

Outstanding and vibrant figurative oil on canvas painting by the well known American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed lower right and dated 1945. Partial Perl’s Gallery, New York label verso with partial title on same label verso. Title might be “Mountains and Horses” Condition is very good. The painting is housed in it”s original House...

Oil and encaustic on canvas. Russian-Jewish-American artist Nahum Tschacbasov (1899-1984) is known for his intriquing cubo-surrealistic-symbolist works which feature a strong psycho...

Nahum Tschacbasov was born in Baku, in the southeast of Russia. When he was eight years old, he came to America, where his family settled in Chicago. His career, spanning more than five decades from the 1930’s to the 1980’s, is a kaleidoscope of influences, from modernism to the Byzantine style and expressionism of his Russian roots. Tschacbasov’s paintings of the 1930’s reflect the social and political preoccupations of the times. He received considerable critical attention for his powerful dramatic satirical depiction of social injustice. In the 1940’s he gained wider recognition when his style evolved into a fusion of Cubism and Surrealism. Through the influence of Jung, as well as currents brought to America by the newly arrived group of European Surrealists, he created a powerful personal iconography in which the inner workings of the psyche are revealed as myth and metaphor. His first encounters with modern art are the works of Cezanne, Van Gogh, and Rouault. 1932-33 Tschacbasov moves for a short time to New York City in order to be in a modern art center and then to Paris, where he adopts the name Tschacbasov, an anagram of different family names. He studies with Leopold Gottlieb for eight months, then with Marcel Gromaire, who teaches him pictorial structure, and briefly with Fernand Leger. Working in his studio on the edge of Montmartre and later in the Hotel de Sante in Montparnasse, he produces a large body of work, retaining fifty paintings. After trips to North Africa, Spain, and the Balearic Islands, he travels often from Paris to New York City, where he spends six months painting a series of Depression-inspired pictures after finding that his American business has gone bankrupt in his absence. 1934 In Paris, Galerie Zak exhibits landscapes from his trip to Majorca in the first one-man exhibition of Tschacbasov paintings; Salon de Tuileries also exhibits his work. His savings exhausted, he returns to New York via Tunisia in the midst of the Depression. 1935 Living on Pineapple Street in Brooklyn Heights, Tschacbasov works on the WPA Federal Arts Project, Easel Division, where he meets other artists and becomes politically involved. His works are shown at Galerie Secession with those of Mark Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb, and other modernist and expressionist painters. Tschacbasov, Rothko, Gottlieb, Joseph Solman and others from Galerie Secession form a group called The Ten combining common aims of social consciousness with an expressionist and abstract style. Themes of social injustice are more dominant in Tschacbasov's work than in that of others of The Ten, as he draws on his own childhood experiences of the harsh realities of immigrant life in industrial Chicago. In the summer, a one-man exhibition of his non-objective paintings is held at Galerie Secession, and in December, Montross Gallery in New York City holds the first exhibition of The Ten, including two works by Tschacbasov, "Handout" and "Three Graces." 1936 In January, an exhibition of The Ten is held at Municipal Art Galleries in New York City, and later in the fall an exhibition, also of The Ten, is held at Galerie Bonaparte in Paris. 1936-38 Among the paintings exhibited in the "Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting" at the Whitney Museum of American Art are Tschacbasov's "Deportation", "Clinic", "Friday Night", "Harbor Sunset", and "The Matriarch". 1936-37 Tschacbasov is appointed business manager of Art Front Magazine, a publication associated with the Artists' Union. His circle of friends at this time include Philip Evergood, Milton Avery, Stuart Davis, David Burliuk, William Gropper, the Soyer brothers, Robert Gwathmey, Marsden Hartley, and Max Weber. Due to cut-backs in WPA funding, he teaches at his 38 West 22nd Street studio and at the American Artists' School. On the faculty are David Burliuk and the Soyer brothers, as well as Elaine de Kooning and other artists with similar aesthetic and social points of view. Personal and artistic crises lead to his entering into Jungian psychoanalysis, which provides new impetus and direction to his painting. Under the influence of analysis, he starts to write portions of a surrealistic autobiography, The Moon is My Uncle. His paintings, "Refugees" and "Friday Night" are shown with works by Avery, Burliuk, and DeHirsh Margules in a group exhibition at Albright Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York. In September, the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts focuses on themes of social criticism in an exhibition entitled "The World Today", curated by Elizabeth McCausland, which includes Tschacbasov's, "Little Red School House". 1940 Tschacbasov takes up photography. Photographing the works of friends and other artists, he builds a collection of color slides...

A magnificent oil on canvas by Russian American WPA artist Nahum Tschacbasov (1899-1984), dating from 1943. Depicting a Maternity scene - or possibly a m...

Original oil on canvas painting of a busy interior scene by the well known Russian/American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov’. Signed lower right and dated 1948. Condition is good. The artwork is housed in its original wormy chesnut frame. House of Heydenryk frame. Overall framed measurements are 17 by 14.75 inches. Provenance: A Long Island, New York estate. Nahum Tschacbasov Biography : Russian-American artist Nahum Tschacbasov (1899-1984) is known for his cubo-surrealistic works which feature a strong psychological element. Some of his work bears a resemblance to work of another Russian-American artist--David Burliuk. He was somewhat of a late starter, moving to Paris in 1932 to study under Adolph Gottlieb, Marcel Gromaire and Fernand Leger. He had his first exhibition in Paris in 1934. He then returned to the US where he joined Rothko and Gottlieb at the Galery Seccession. He was one of the co-founders of The Ten, a group of social conscious abstract painters which included Rothko, Gottlieb, Joseph Solman and Ilya Bolotowsky, among others. In 1944, he began to work at Stanley Hayter's Atelier 17, a center for surrealistic ideas. Between 1936 and 1943, he had five one-man exhibitions at the ACA Galleries and participated in five group shows. He also exhibited at the Whitney, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Knox Albright Museum, the Chicago Institute of Fine Art and Corcoran, among others. His work can be found in the permanent collections of the Met, the Whitney, the Brooklyn Museum and the Jewish Museum. Tschacbasov has been the subject of two recent retrospective at Fletcher Gallery, Woodstock, NY and Arthur Kalaher...

Original oil on hardboard (a type of masonite) painting by the Russian American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed, dated 1946 along with a dedication to his wife on their 17th wedding anniversary. Condition is very good. The back of the painting has a sketch as well by Nahum Tschacbasov. Framed in a semi-antique ornate gold frame...

Oil on masonite. Russian-Jewish-American artist Nahum Tschacbasov (1899-1984) is known for his intriquing cubo-surrealistic-symbolist works which feature a strong psychological elem...

Russian-Jewish-American artist Nahum Tschacbasov (1899-1984) is known for his cubo-surrealistic works which feature a strong psychological element. Some of his work bears a resemblan...

Original oil on canvas painting by Nahum Tschacbasov of his daughter Sondra Tschacbasov (Sasha) at approximately the age of eleven or twelve. Signed lower left and dated 1942. Condition is very good. The painting has been relined. Sasha Tschacbasov later became the second wife of the famous American writer Saul Bellow...

Original mid-century modern abstract oil on canvas painting by the well known Russian/American artist Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed lower right and dated 1945. Condition is very good. P...

Oil on canvas original painting by The Russian/ American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed lower left and dated 1943. Condition is very good. Framed in custom contemporary gold le...

Original oil on thick artist board by Russian/American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed upper right and dated 1948. Provenance: Woodstock, New York estate. Housed in a custom sil...

Oil on masonite painting by the well known Russian/American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed lower right and dated 1946. In good condition. The painting is framed in a contemporary...

Oil on canvas painting by the Russian/American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed and dated top right, 1942. Condition: Good. Old relined canvas.. Provenance: Estate of The artis...

Oil on academy board by the Russian/American artist Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed and dated lower left, 1945. Condition: Excellent. Presently not framed. Biography : Russian-America...

Oil on canvas painting by the well known Russian/American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Done with a thick impasto paint the artist portrays the powerful yet colorful nature of the general...

Oil on masonite painting done in 1945 by Russian/American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed lower right and dated lower right, 1945. In original wood and gilt frame 37.5 by 31.5 inc...

Unframed Signed and dated lower left 1946

This rare and wonderful oil on canvas landscape by Nahum Tschacbasov was done circa 1947. A slightly smaller version of this painting by Tschacbasov called "Night and Day" is illust...

This is a oil on masonite painting by Nahum Tschacbasov done in 1946. Signed lower left and housed in a hand carved wood frame circa 1920. Overall size with frame is 40 x 33 inches.

Circa 1945 Signed lower left Unframed

Mid-century oil on masonite modern painting by the well known Russian/American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed top left and dated 1949. Titled verso. Condition is good. Provenanc...