American Modern Paintings

"ULANDA - Painting in Studio Class" Figurative Study Oil on Canvas A dark-haired woman is standing at an easel, by American painter, Patricia Gren Hayes (b. 1932). The subject is ca...

Jersey Shore III Casein on Masonite, 1967 Signed lower right (see photo) Initialed, dated and titled verso Provenance: Estate of the artist Virginia Dehn (the artist's widow) Dehn Quests Created on location on the Jersey Shore. The Jersey Shore was the main playground for thousand to escape the summer heat of New York. This small painting shows Dehn's mastery of patterning color to depict movement and recreation. Part of a suite of paintings done on this theme. Within a year of it's creation, Dehn dies from a heart attack. Casein on Masonite Condition: Excellent Image: 6 x 11" Frame: 9 3/8 x 14 1/2" Adolf Dehn, American Watercolorist and Printmaker, 1895-1968 Adolf Dehn was an artist who achieved extraordinary artistic heights, but in a very particular artistic sphere—not so much in oil painting as in watercolor and lithography. Long recognized as a master by serious print collectors, he is gradually gaining recognition as a notable and influential figure in the overall history of American art. In the 19th century, with the invention of the rotary press, which made possible enormous print runs, and the development of the popular, mass-market magazines, newspaper and magazine illustration developed into an artistic realm of its own, often surprisingly divorced from the world of museums and art exhibitions, and today remains surprisingly overlooked by most art historians. Dehn in many regards was an outgrowth of this world, although in an unusual way, since as a young man he produced most of his illustrative work not for popular magazines, such as The Saturday Evening Post, but rather for radical journals, such as The Masses or The Liberator, or artistic “little magazines” such as The Dial. This background established the foundation of his outlook, and led later to his unique and distinctive contribution to American graphic art. If there’s a distinctive quality to his work, it was his skill in introducing unusual tonal and textural effects into his work, particularly in printmaking but also in watercolor. Jackson Pollock seems to have been one of many notable artists who were influenced by his techniques. Early Years, 1895-1922 For an artist largely remembered for scenes of Vienna and Paris, Adolf Dehn’s background was a surprising one. Born in Waterville, Minnesota, on November 22, 1895, Dehn was the descendent of farmers who had emigrated from Germany and homesteaded in the region, initially in a one-room log cabin with a dirt floor. Adolf’s father, Arthur Clark Dehn, was a hunter and trapper who took pride that he had no boss but himself, and who had little use for art. Indeed, during Adolf’s boyhood the walls of his bedroom and the space under his bed were filled with the pelts of mink, muskrats and skunks that his father had killed, skinned and stretched on drying boards. It was Adolf’s mother, Emilie Haas Dehn, a faithful member of the German Lutheran Evangelical Church, who encouraged his interest in art, which became apparent early in childhood. Both parents were ardent socialists, and supporters of Eugene Debs. In many ways Dehn’s later artistic achievement was clearly a reaction against the grinding rural poverty of his childhood. After graduating from high school in 1914 at the age of 19—an age not unusual in farming communities at the time, where school attendance was often irregular—Dehn attended the Minneapolis School of Art from 1914 to 1917, whose character followed strongly reflected that of its director, Munich-trained Robert Kohler, an artistic conservative but a social radical. There Dehn joined a group of students who went on to nationally significant careers, including Wanda Gag (later author of best-selling children’s books); John Flanagan (a sculptor notable for his use of direct carving) Harry Gottlieb (a notable social realist and member of the Woodstock Art Colony), Elizabeth Olds (a printmaker and administrator for the WPA), Arnold Blanch (landscape, still-life and figure painter, and member of the Woodstock group), Lucille Lunquist, later Lucille Blanch (also a gifted painter and founder of the Woodstock art colony), and Johan Egilrud (who stayed in Minneapolis and became a journalist and poet). Adolf became particularly close to Wanda Gag (1893-1946), with whom he established an intense but platonic relationship. Two years older than he, Gag was the daughter of a Bohemian artist and decorator, Anton Gag, who had died in 1908. After her husband died, Wanda’s mother, Lizzi Gag, became a helpless invalid, so Wanda was entrusted with the task of raising and financially supporting her six younger siblings. This endowed her with toughness and an independent streak, but nonetheless, when she met Dehn, Wanda was Victorian and conventional in her artistic taste and social values. Dehn was more socially radical, and introduced her to radical ideas about politics and free love, as well as to socialist publications such as The Masses and The Appeal to Reason. Never very interested in oil painting, in Minneapolis Dehn focused on caricature and illustration--often of a humorous or politically radical character. In 1917 both Dehn and Wanda won scholarships to attend the Art Students League, and consequently, in the fall of that year both moved to New York. Dehn’s art education, however, ended in the summer of 1918, shortly after the United States entered World War I, when he was drafted to serve in the U. S. Army. Unwilling to fight, he applied for status as a conscientious objector, but was first imprisoned, then segregated in semi-imprisonment with other Pacifists, until the war ended. The abuse he suffered at this time may well explain his later withdrawal from taking political stands or making art of an overtly political nature. After his release from the army, Dehn returned to New York where he fell under the spell of the radical cartoonist Boardman Robinson and produced his first lithographs. He also finally consummated his sexual relationship with Wanda Gag. The Years in Europe: 1922-1929 In September of 1921, however, he abruptly departed for Europe, arriving in Paris and then moving on to Vienna. There in the winter of 1922 he fell in love with a Russian dancer, Mura Zipperovitch, ending his seven-year relationship with Wanda Gag. He and Mura were married in 1926. It was also in Vienna that he produced his first notable artistic work. Influenced by European artists such as Jules Pascin and Georg Grosz, Dehn began producing drawings of people in cafes, streets, and parks, which while mostly executed in his studio, were based on spontaneous life studies and have an expressive, sometimes almost childishly wandering quality of line. The mixture of sophistication and naiveté in these drawings was new to American audiences, as was the raciness of their subject matter, which often featured pleasure-seekers, prostitutes or scenes of sexual dalliance, presented with a strong element of caricature. Some of these drawings contain an element of social criticism, reminiscent of that found in the work of George Grosz, although Dehn’s work tended to focus on humorous commentary rather than savagely attacking his subjects or making a partisan political statement. Many Americans, including some who had originally been supporters of Dehn such as Boardman Robinson, were shocked by these European drawings, although George Grocz (who became a friend of the artist in this period) admired them, and recognized that Dehn could also bring a new vision to America subject matter. As he told Dehn: “You will do things in America which haven’t been done, which need to be done, which only you can do—as far at least as I know America.” A key factor in Dehn’s artistic evolution at this time was his association with Scofield Thayer, the publisher of the most notable modernist art and poetry magazine...

"Tailor" WPA American Scene Social Realism Modernism Mid Century Modern Fashion The board measures 9 1/2 x 15 1/2. Provenance: Mervin Jules Estate. Bio A painter, illustrator, pri...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Mandala No. 15, 1969 Acrylic on paper Signed and dated verso 27.5 x 22 inches Clarence Holbrook Carter achieved a level of national ar...

Oil on board painted in 1958 by Harold Vincent Skene (1883-1978) titled 'Mountain Sunset'. Colorado mountain autumn landscape featuring changing leaves...

Oil on canvas painting by Charles Ragland Bunnell (1987-1968) titled 'View from the Park'. Presented in a custom frame measuring 28 ¾ x 32 ¾ inches; image size is 22 ½ x 26 inches. ...

Clifford Edgar Jones 1915-1975 American Chickens, 1948. Oil on canvas 30 x 24 inches unframed and 34" x 27.5" inches including the frame. Signed at lower right Clifford Jones ‘48’. P...

Born in 1933, Otis Huband declared his intention to be an artist at age 6. He earned his BFA and MFA at Richmond Professional Institute of the College of William & Mary, now Virginia...

Beni E. Kosh/Charles Elmer Harris (American, 1917-1993) Untitled Oil on canvas board Estate stamped #611 verso 24 x 18 inches Charles Elmer Harris was born in 1917 in Cleveland, Oh...

Leonard Creo (American, 1923-2019) Untitled, c. 1960s Oil on canvas 29 x 48 in. Framed: 30 1/8 x 49 1/4 x 1 1/2 in. Signed lower right: Creo Creo was bor...

Subject: Jewish American Family Bar Mitzvah with Rabbi Medium: Oil Surface: Canvas Country: United States In this painting, Joseph Wolins uses vibrant and complimentary colors and...

Alma Davies Untitled, 1954 Oil on canvas 40 x 25 7/8 in. Signed verso: Alma Davies (illegible inscription) Dated verso: 3/5/54 Inscribed on stretcher bar: Student of Raphael Soyer W...

This oil painting from the 65s by California Artist Bruce McCracken derives its title and inspiration from the mythical Arno River in Tuscany. Dividing the historic city of Florence into two distinct parts, the Arno has long captivated the collective imagination and continues to be a subject of exploration for many contemporary artists. Set against the backdrop of the Arno's picturesque banks, the artist likely sought inspiration from the vantage point of the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) in Florence. The painting is divided into two distinct horizons. The upper section showcases architectural buildings poised upon a medieval arch...

John Evans (American, b. 1945), Untitled oilstick on paper, signed in pencil lower center, gallery label (Allan Stone Gallery, New York) affixed verso, sheet: sight size is 22"h x 3...

I would like to write a couple of words about the Heroine of my paintings - LIPOCHKA. "I'm Lipochka, hello!" - that's how she used to introduce herself to men. By passport - Olympia....

"Madam Suburbia" (Woman and Baby by the Yellow Window) in Oil on Canvas An auburn-haired woman sits in a chair with her infant child, by American painter, Patricia Gren Hayes (b. 19...

Signed and dated lower right: DALE NICHOLS 1953; on stretcher bar: “STARS” by Dale Nichols

Kerry Smith R.E.M. - Murmur Mixed Media on Crescent board Year: 2022 Size: 21x20in Signed, dated by hand COA provided Ref.: 924802-1633 --------------------------------------- "Of...

This painting is from the series 'Rollers & skate', a series of variations on California's skateboard culture of the 70s, which takes a new turn today. The artist defends feminist va...

Cowgirl in the Studio - Figurative Study in Oil on Canvas A woman in a vest, cowboy hat, and boots by American painter, Patricia Gren Hayes (b. 1932). The model is sitting on a stoo...

"Coney Island" Brooklyn NYC Amusement Park Mid-century American Scene WPA Modern Ludwig Bemelmans (1898 – 1962), “Coney Island" 35 x 27 inches Oil on board Signed lower left Origin...

Like it’s listed companion piece, this is a late Art Deco/Moderne architectural painting with vibrant colors and bold composition. This work is untitled but features a whimsical and futurist metropolis. The oil on canvas measures 24” wide by 30” high and with its original silvered frame 27 1/2” x 33 1/2” overall. Unlike its companion work, it is not signed or labeled. This painting dates to ca. 1940. Joseph Albert Sutter was born in Switzerland in 1891 and arrived in Los Angeles in 1926. He became active in the 1930’s Federal Art Program...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Double Ovoids with Blue and Black, 1960s Acrylic on scintilla 15.25 x 12.25 inches A surrealist mid-century figural abstract painting....

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Transection with Architectural Forms, c. 1980s Acrylic and graphite on board 12 x 20 inches A surrealist mid-century figural abstract ...

In this painting by Judith Shahn, the artist renders a boat and dock in a series of lines. The artist takes a naive approach at depicting the subject by simplifying the elements in t...

Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Maze, 1982 Acrylic on cardboard Signed and dated upper right 7 x 9.5 inches A surrealist mid-century figural abstract painting. Clar...

American School, Artist Unknown

Harvey Gregory Prusheck (Slovenian/American, 1887-1940) Bison Oil on board Signed lower right 9.5 x 11.5 inches 16.5 x 18 inches, framed Harvey Gregory Prusheck was a Slovenian-Amer...

This delicate oil and ink painting on panel by Dusso depicts a beautiful and graceful woman seen from behind, her nude figure enhanced by the framing of her hair. She holds a vase in...

WPA era oil on canvas landscape painting by Hayes Lyon (1901-1987) titled 'The Hillside' from 1938. American modernist portrayal of a hillside farm with a b...

(Note: This work is part of our exhibition Connected by Creativity: WPA Era Works from the Collection of Leata and Edward Beatty Rowan) Oil on panel, 14 ½ x 18 inches unframed, 22 x 25 ½ inches framed, inscribed “painted by David McCosh Property of Edward b. Rowan” and numbered “8” verso Exhibited: The First Exhibit of the Iowa Artist...

Tribe of Benjamin, Biblical mural with wolf. I believe this is a study for a stained glass window. Untitled, mixed media on paper, signed lower left, inscribed "To my dear friend Dav...

Kerry Smith Johnny Hodges - The Big Sound Mixed Media on Crescent board Year: 2016 Size: 21x20in Signed, dated by hand COA provided Ref.: 91-0194 ----------------------------------...

Great still-life oil painting by Helen Stein. Has recently been restored to excellent condition. 11x15 inches painting : 16x21 inches with frame Hele...

18.50" x 23.50" sight size Debra Yoo received a degree in Fine Art and the Humanities from the University of Chicago, strongest influences were painting professor Vera Klement and the proximity of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her undergraduate work was primarily abstract, deeply influenced by Matisse, Russian icon painting, Robert Motherwell, and Barnett Newman. After graduation she decided to pursue a growing interest in painterly realism. At that time Minimalism and Conceptualism were dominant, but there was (as there is still) a core of distinguished American artists who practiced the kind of contemporary realism based on modernism. Matisse continued to be a guiding light, but she also became interested in the work of Larry Rivers, Louisa Matthiasdottir...

Oil on board painting by Donna Marecak (1922-1998) titled 'Artist and his Family' from 1950. Interior scene with four figures, a baby, and a cat gathered around a table. Painted in ...

Frank Nelson Wilcox (American, 1887-1964) The Wood Chopper, Brecksville, Ohio, c. 1917 Oil on masonite 33 x 24 inches "We were fortunate in that the two farms in Brecksville were still open to our visits. The urbanization of the township was then only beginning and we spent several summers there where I tried to capture something of the rural peace so soon to be erased from the countryside." - Wilcox Exhibited: “Water Colors and Oils by Frank N. Wilcox,” Cleveland Museum of Art, January 1937. Frank Nelson Wilcox (October 3, 1887 – April 17, 1964) was a modernist American artist and a master of watercolor. Wilcox is described as the "Dean of Cleveland School...

William Stephens Shields, Jr., 1925 - 2010 Untitled 1990 Oil on canvas 60"x48" artist framed Signed lower right William Stephens Shields, Jr., 1925 - 2010 He was born in san Franc...

Arthur Smith (American, 1897-1972) Untitled, 20th century Oil on board 8 x 9 7/8 in. Framed: 14 1/4 x 16 3/8 in. Signed lower left: A Smith Arthur Smith is a listed American paint...

(Note: This work is part of our exhibition Connected by Creativity: WPA Era Works from the Collection of Leata and Edward Beatty Rowan) Oil on canvas, 24 ½ x 19 ½ inches unframed, 32 x 27 inches framed, signed and inscribed “Adrian Dornbush/ Flower Still Life” verso, a remnant of exhibition label verso, stamped “1454” verso, original frame Exhibited: i) Midwestern Artist’s Exhibition Representative Work from Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska & Colorado, Kansas City Art Institute, February 1 to March 2, 1931, no. 34 (see catalog with a listing of work with this title); and ii) Special Display and Sale of Late Oil Paintings Produced by Cedar Rapids Own Artists from the Little Gallery, at Newman’s Department Store, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, March 1932 (see [Advertisement], The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), March 15, 1932 – listing a work with this title, together with paintings by fourteen other artists, including Grant Wood, Marvin Cone...

(Note: This work is part of our exhibition Connected by Creativity: WPA Era Works from the Collection of Leata and Edward Beatty Rowan) Oil on canvas, 18 x 14 inches unframed, 22 x 18 inches framed, signed and dated lower right, inscribed “Mother and Son by Herman Maril ‘31” and “property Edward B. Rowan Falls Church VA” verso Literature: i) Dows, Olin, Herman Maril, The American Magazine of Art, Vol. 28, No. 7 (July 1935), p. 407 (illustrated with the title “Mare and Colt...

(Note: This work is part of our exhibition Connected by Creativity: WPA Era Works from the Collection of Leata and Edward Beatty Rowan) Fresco, 20 x 16 inches unframed, 22 x 18 inch...

Education 2002 – MFA; cum laude, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY 1993 – BFA; Washington University, St. Louis, MO 1992 – Lorenzo Di Medici Institute, Florence, Italy Select Gallery Exhibitions Linda Warren Projects, Chicago, IL Eden Rock Gallery, St Barthelemy, F.W.I Blank Space Gallery, New York, NY Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL Noyes Cultural Arts Center, Evanston, IL Quidley & Company, Boston, MA Zolla Lieberman Gallery...

Joseph Raskin painted still lifes throughout his career, often using them for formal and technical experimentation. Here, the artist renders a bouquet of a wide variety of flowers in...

Saul Schary was born in 1904 in Newark, New Jersey. Painter, Printmaker, Illustrator. He lived and worked in New York City and New Milford, Connecticut. Schary studied at the Art St...

'Central City, Colorado' by Leonard Silverstein is an original gouache on paper from 1954. Hand signed, titled, and dated by the artist in the lower right...

Oil on canvas painting, titled 'Early Spring' (Thompson's Studio) painted in 1933 and signed by John Edward Thompson (1882-1945). Impressionist style portrayal of the artists studio ...

Oil Painting Mid 20th century, signed P. Zimmerman Reminiscent of the Mid Century Social Realist and WPA works of Ben Shahn this captures an architectural street scape...

Signed lower right: Will Barnet; on verso (photo available): Will Barnet / Aug 1963

Donald Stacy "Curled Up Cubist c.1950s Gouache on paper 24" x 18" unframed Unsigned Came from artist's estate Donald Stacy (1925-2011) New Jersey Studied: Newark School of Fine Art The Art Students League Pratt Graphic Arts Center University of Paris 1953-54 University of Aix-en-Provence 1954-55 Faculty: Art Department of the New School Museum of Modern Art School of Visual Arts Stacy Studio Workshop Exhibitions: Grand Central Moderns George Wittenborn The New School Print Exhibitions, Chicago University of Oklahoma Honolulu Museum Monclair Museum Wisconsin State College Louisiana Art Commission Philadelphia...

ADOLF ARTHUR DEHN (American, 1895-1969) Portrait of Mexican Man with Agave Cactus plant, 1939, Gouache Painting Hand signed and dated '39 lower left. Whitney Museum of American Art, N.Y. Label verso sight: 20.5 in. X 15 in. Frame is 32 X 24 inches This was subsequently made into a lithograph in 1941 titled Man From Orizaba Standing in the foreground of an agave field is man wearing a straw hat, a white button up collared shirt, white pants and sandals. The man has shaggy black hair, a beard and moustache and large eyes. His right hand is clenched as if holding something and his left hand is open holding some flower-like objects. He stands in the middle of a large agave plant that expands the width of the composition. In the middle ground are large agave plants in subsequent rows. Behind the agave plantation is a mountain range with snow covered peak on the right hand side. Above the mountain range is a partially cloudy sky. Adolf Dehn (November 22, 1895 – May 19, 1968) was an American artist known mainly as a lithographer. Throughout his artistic career, he participated in and helped define some important movements in American art, including regionalism, social realism, and caricature. A two-time recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, he was known for both his technical skills and his high-spirited, droll depictions of human foibles. Dehn was born in 1895 in Waterville, Minnesota. He began creating artwork at the age of six, and by the time of his death had created nearly 650 images. Dehn went to the Minneapolis School of Art (known today as the Minneapolis College of Art and Design), where he met and became a close friend of Wanda Gag. In 1917 he and Gág were two of only a dozen students in the country to earn a scholarship to the Art Students League of New York. He was drafted to serve in World War I in 1918, but declared himself a conscientious objector and spent four months in a guardhouse detention camp in Spartanburg, SC and then worked for eight months as a painting teacher at an arm rehabilitation hospital in Asheville, NC. Later, Dehn returned to the Art Students League for another year of study and created his first lithograph, The Harvest. In 1921 Dehn's lithographs were featured in his first exhibition at Weyhe Gallery in New York City. From 1920 to 1921 in Manhattan, he was connected to New York's politically left-leaning activists. In 1921, he went to Europe. In Paris and Vienna he belonged to a group of expatriate intellectuals and artists, including Andrée Ruellan, Gertrude Stein, and ee cummings...

Original abstract oil painting signed by Wilma Fiori (1929-2019) painted in 1994. Signed and dated by the artist on verso. Large format horizontal abstract...

Subject: American Family Medium: Oil Surface: Canvas Country: United States In this painting, Joseph Wolins uses vibrant and complimentary colors and broken brushwork. Joseph Wo...

Joyce Treiman Ink on paper, framed under glass; signed in pencil lower right; Dimensions: 16 1/2 x 13 3/4 inches; 18 3/4 x 14 3/4 inches frame. Joyce Wahl Treiman was an American painter, printmaker, sculptor and teacher. Her work ranged from "the impishly perverse and humorously paradoxical to the brilliant and profound." She was known as an excellent draftsperson throughout her career. She made several trips to Europe to study the old masters, and the human figure is central in her work. In her later paintings she is known to have inserted self-portraits. She attended Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, and then studied at the State University of Iowa (today the University of Iowa) under the influential painter Philip Guston. During World War II she worked as a commercial artist but resigned when she began to have success with exhibitions of her work in Chicago and New York. In 1945 she married Kenneth Treiman, and son Donald, now an Architect, was born in 1950. The Treimans, along with Rene and Rose Wahl, moved to Los Angeles in 1960. She was in an exhibit of Tamarind prints...

Seymour Chwast (born August 18, 1931) is an American graphic designer, illustrator, and type designer. Chwast was born in Bronx, New York, and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Cooper Union in 1951. With Milton Glaser, Edward Sorel...

Frank Nelson Wilcox (American, 1887-1964) On the Back Porch, Brecksville, Ohio, c. 1922 Watercolor on paper Monogram lower right 21.5 x 27. 5 inc...

Betsy Podlach (American, born 1964.) Still life with Fruit, a Bowl of Apples Framed 25 X 26 24 X 25 inches Betsy Podlach graduated from Harvard, cum laude, (she studied at Harvard with Alfred Decreido and William Reimann as well as Carlos Fuentes continuing her studies at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture, Ms. Podlach was awarded an art fellowship and residency at The International School of Art in Umbria, Italy. Betsy Podlach is an American painter who considers the Italian Venetians and the american abstract expressionist painters her mentors. The two painters she is most inspired by are Titian and Jackson Pollock, Both use the picture plane and abstraction and space, light, movement and form to communicate a physicality built entirely on the principals of painting, in the “classical” sense of a flat plane and lines, color, shape, space and light applied to that flat surface to create magic – light, space, form, emotion, force, movement, the physical and the spiritual. She describes her work as a figurative version of abstract expressionism. She was influenced by many of the abstract expressionists from the NY school...

Original Painting Published Fortune Mag Cover 1935 Jewels Jewelry Illustration Antonio Petruccelli (1907 – 1994) Fortune cover published, Decembe...