William Schock

Crystal City - Pushed Color Greens and Yellow

1950

This impeccably rendered mid-century double portrait of a quarreling man and woman exhibits a supreme academic training knowledge lost in almost all contemporary art. It features an ...

When it comes to abstract painting, the creation date is important. At the height of Abstraction Expressionism, overlooked Academic Artist John Atherton created a wonderfully complex painting that embodies many of the characteristics of what was going on in Mid-Century American Art. The work is simultaneously abstract as it is representational. Like a Bento Box, it's divided into sections by dividers. On close inspection, each section stands on it's own as a beautiful mini-painting yet coalesces as part of the whole. From a distance, it is eye-pleasing, but as the view gets closer and closer, new structures and details gloriously reveal themselves. This is an important painting and not unlike the work of Joaquín Torres-García. It was done in the last year of the artist's life. Signed lower right. Canvas is relined. Framed size: 30 x 41.25. The work is best viewed with top gallery lights to bring out color. Color will look different under different lighting conditions. Atherton exhibited at the famous Julien Levy Gallery in New York and his fine art is mainly associated with Magic Realism. He participated in the seminal 1943 Museum of Modern Art exhibition, American Realists and Magic Realists. The Museum of Modern Art has 4 Atherton paintings in its collection. As an Illustrator, Atherton did covers for the Saturday Evening Post, Fortune and Holiday Magazine...

A twilight figure is balanced with forms of yellow, green and prussian blue in this sophisticated composition by Jennifer Hornyak who titles the work in French 'Crepiscules verts', ...

Symbolist Portrait signed by Bernard Labbe (French mid 20th century) original oil on artist paper, mounted in a card frame overall size: 31.5 x 20 inches painting size: 27.5 x 18 inc...