Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 5

Stephen Basso
Scent floral arrangement and mask like head warm yellow and olive colors

2005

About the Item

Oil on board signed on reverse (frame included at no charge) ABOUT Stephen Basso Stephen Basso's highly original pastels and oil paintings are romantic, yet thought provoking fantasies. His whimsical works are alive with boundless imagination, wry wit and fearless color. His shrewd social observations often translate into eerily humorous figurative scenes and narratives. Mr. Basso’s works evoke a high level of inquiry. The fanciful, yet keenly observed characters are unpredictable and evocative. The viewer vacillates between surprise, delight, and consternation. A Brooklyn native, much of Basso's wildly imaginative artwork was inspired by travel to Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and especially Mexico. Basso is particularly drawn to Latin American art, channeling its mix of Western and African influences and imagery into his vibrant, often surrealistic work. Combining a New York and a Mexican sensibility, he says of his work, "There is a natural surreal quality to Mexico that can collide with its harsh realities. One might call it bittersweet. It is often bawdy, but rarely vulgar, and images are everywhere. Love, hate, fear desire and of course, humor, never go out of style.” And he adds, " I like mixing high ideals with American irreverence." The elements of mystery, escapism, and humor blended with reality define his art. It is of a personal nature consisting of a cast of characters that inhabit the stage between the extreme highs and lows of life, a state of limbo where dreamlike scenarios are often pulled back to the reality of daily existence. Of his process, Mr. Basso says, "The paintings and drawings begin with objects around my home and studio, photos from various sources, and people I know, have known, or have yet to meet." By in large, Basso is self taught. (After initially attending the School of Visual Arts for Illustration, he realized painting was more engaging for him.) Seeking emotional honesty, he looked to the work of several "mentors": Max Beckmann, Francisco Goya, Willem de Kooning , Philip Guston , Marsden Hartley and Albert Pinkham Ryder - artists that spoke to the human condition.
  • Creator:
    Stephen Basso (1953, American)
  • Creation Year:
    2005
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 20 in (50.8 cm)Width: 16 in (40.64 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU1339115617822

More From This Seller

View All
Moving Day still life vegetables humorous undertones strong bright color
By Stephen Basso
Located in Brooklyn, NY
this painting is oil on boars framed it is part of a series of still life paintings which the artist refers to as Restless Still Life because in his words "fruits and vegetables have...
Category

2010s Contemporary Still-life Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board, ABS

Scene Twentyone: Living Room bright colors, domestic, Latin objects
By Barbara Rachko
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Price and size includes frames (maple wood with white mats). Artwork 20" x 26" Her pastel-on-sandpaper series, "Domestic Threats" and "Black Paintings", both use cultural objects as surrogates for human beings acting in mysterious, highly charged narratives.[9][10] Rachko also has created a series of photographs entitled "Gods and Monsters".[11] In these chromogenic prints, she is "painting with a camera," creating variations that free the camera from being a mechanical recording device of what lies before it. She prints all of these images by hand. The earlier "Domestic Threats" pastel-on-sandpaper paintings used her West Village apartment or her 1932 Sears house in Virginia as a backdrop. The "Black Paintings" series grew directly from "Domestic Threats". In the "Black Paintings," the figures (actors) take center stage. All background details, furniture, rugs, etc. have been eliminated and replaced by intense dark black pastel. Each painting takes months to complete as she slowly builds up as many as 30 layers of soft pastel. Her long-standing fascination with traditional masks progressed in the spring of 2017 when she visited the National Museum of Ethnography and Folklore in La Paz, Bolivia where one exhibition included more than fifty festival masks. The resulting series is entitled “Bolivianos”.[12] She has also written an e-book, From Pilot to Painter[13] and writes a regular blog, Barbara Rachko...
Category

Early 2000s Folk Art Interior Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pastel

Scene Fourteen: Kitchen, bright colors, domestic, Latin objects
By Barbara Rachko
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Price and size includes frames (maple wood with white mats). Artwork 58" x 38" Her pastel-on-sandpaper series, "Domestic Threats" and "Black Paintings", both use cultural objects as surrogates for human beings acting in mysterious, highly charged narratives.[9][10] Rachko also has created a series of photographs entitled "Gods and Monsters".[11] In these chromogenic prints, she is "painting with a camera," creating variations that free the camera from being a mechanical recording device of what lies before it. She prints all of these images by hand. The earlier "Domestic Threats" pastel-on-sandpaper paintings used her West Village apartment or her 1932 Sears house in Virginia as a backdrop. The "Black Paintings" series grew directly from "Domestic Threats". In the "Black Paintings," the figures (actors) take center stage. All background details, furniture, rugs, etc. have been eliminated and replaced by intense dark black pastel. Each painting takes months to complete as she slowly builds up as many as 30 layers of soft pastel. Her long-standing fascination with traditional masks progressed in the spring of 2017 when she visited the National Museum of Ethnography and Folklore in La Paz, Bolivia where one exhibition included more than fifty festival masks. The resulting series is entitled “Bolivianos”.[12] She has also written an e-book, From Pilot to Painter[13] and writes a regular blog, Barbara Rachko...
Category

2010s Folk Art Interior Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pastel

Congregation, still life food peppers dark colors rough textured surface
By Stephen Basso
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Oil on wood with a rough texture surface. Signed and dated on reverse. Part ot an ongoing series if still life by the artist which is the artist refers...
Category

2010s Expressionist Still-life Paintings

Materials

Wood, Oil

Hide and Seek still life peppers and lemons Spanish influence dark undercurrent
By Stephen Basso
Located in Brooklyn, NY
oil on linen canvas heavy duty stretcher framing recommended but not required. Part pf a series by the artist titled RESTLESS STILL LIFE
Category

Early 2000s Post-Modern Still-life Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Linen, Oil

Peaches, photo realism still life, orange and grey tones
By Douglas Newton
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Still life painting of three peaches, one cut up, lit from the left. The peaches are from the artist's local farmer's market in Brooklyn, NY, A study of texture.
Category

2010s Realist Still-life Paintings

Materials

Oil

You May Also Like

'Garden Chairs' original oil on wood painting signed by Robert Richter
By Robert Richter
Located in Milwaukee, WI
In this painting, Robert Richter presents the viewer with something of a still life. Not unlike the early cubist paintings of Picasso and Braque, which often focused on the vibrant c...
Category

2010s Outsider Art Interior Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

'Leaf in a Jug' original oil on wood painting signed by Robert Richter
By Robert Richter
Located in Milwaukee, WI
In this painting, Robert Richter presents the viewer with a still life of a massive Swiss cheese plant leaf emerging from a small ceramic jug. Though the leaf is a common tropical ho...
Category

2010s Outsider Art Still-life Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

"Little Jade, " Oil on Wood signed by Robert Richter
By Robert Richter
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Little Jade" is an original oil painting on wood by the artist Robert Richter. It depicts a small jade plant in a red planter. The artist titled, dated, s...
Category

2010s Outsider Art Still-life Paintings

Materials

Wood, Oil

Flowers
Located in Edinburgh, GB
Roman Dub "Flowers"
Category

2010s Outsider Art Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

'Feast' by Steven H. Rehfeld - Very Large Figurative Epic Original Oil Painting
By Steven H. Rehfeld
Located in Carmel, CA
Steven H. Rehfeld (American, born 1954) 'Feast' 2021 Oil paint, canvas, stretcher bars The artist signed the back of the painting. "Feast" by Steven H. Rehfeld emerges as a triumpha...
Category

2010s Outsider Art Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars

'Untitled' by Steven H. Rehfeld - Large Vibrant Still Life Painting with Flora
By Steven H. Rehfeld
Located in Carmel, CA
Steven H. Rehfeld (American, 1954) 'Untitled' 2015 Oil paint, canvas, stretcher bars The artist signed the back of the painting. About the Artist: Introducing Steven H. Rehfeld, a d...
Category

2010s Outsider Art Still-life Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars

Recently Viewed

View All