American Realist Paintings

This painting, by listed artist James King Bonnar (1884-1961), is a lovely scene of Edgartown Harbor, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. It dates to ca 1960, towards the end of his career. There is a lot of action and detail presented, as the harbor is busy, likely in full summer season. The variety of boats, men working them and an abundance of rigging fill the composition. Bonnar, however, left enough of the foreground water clear to show off his skills of reflection and slight movement to the water. Full sail boats glide past in the background. A hillside of Edgartown is depicted beyond, with a few of its buildings highlighted. The sky is blue with just a hint of high clouds...

This piece is an original oil painting on linen canvas. It features a beautiful bouquet of summer flowers: carnations, chrysanthemums, geraniums, foxglove, all arranged in a blue and white vase. The early morning lights gently washes over the arrangement from the left, casting lyrical shadows on the wall behind. A peaceful portrait of a beautiful, ephemeral moment. GC Williams has a degree in art history which gave her an understanding of, and appreciation for, not only the art of the past, but the historical events and ideologies that fostered various aesthetics, movements, and styles. She has studied at several classical ateliers, including three years at Boston's Academy of Realist Art. Her work has been shown in galleries throughout the US and is included in public and private collections. She maintains a studio on the north shore of Massachusetts. "My work is about the little moments of beauty that comprise our existence: the greening of the landscape in early spring, the glint of light on an object; growing things and made objects. I enjoy creating interesting interactions, and making up narratives. I love the way light animates objects...

Hummingbird in flight

The Wrestlers by Clyde Singer is an excellent Mid-Century painting of a popular Aschan subject. The artist George Bellows (1882-1925) was a precursor of Singer's who often depicted ...

This piece is an original oil painting on panel. It features a colorful bouquet of flowers in a silver cup. A blue and white fabric patterns the background. The piece is framed in a ...

Elizabeth Zanzinger's (US based) "Foragers" is an oil painting that depicts two nude females traversing a tree trunk in the wilderness. Elizabeth Zanzinger is an award-winning paint...

BING ZHANG's Subway no. 4, 48 x 48 inches, oil on canvas. Proudly presented by Andra Norris Gallery in California. Bing Zhang’s Subway painting series explores themes of class, labo...

Going to Borrego oil painting, contemporary landscape — in blue, orange, purple, green. Early morning warm western rolling hills with clear sky. 24 x 48 inches. One of our finest American contemporary realist painters, Willard Dixon has painted Northern California and western landscapes for over 35 years. His work captures the undeniable beauty of the West with its grand and humble spirit. The same sensitivity can be found in Dixon’s urban street scenes that offer viewers a resting place to contemplate our rapidly changing world, and his portraiture, which largely focuses on his artist friends and illustrious colleagues. Dixon’s work can be found in numerous distinctive private and public collections, as well as the San Francisco Museum of Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. Artist signed front and verso. The painting comes framed in a medium hard wood compliments of the gallery. Going to Borrego is 24 x 48 inches. Artist signed, titled and dated. Proudly presented by Andra Norris Gallery in California. The artist was born: Kansas City MO, 1942 Education: Art Students League, New York, NY Cornell University Brooklyn Museum School San Francisco Art Institute, M.F.A. 1969 Awards and Commissions N.E.A. Fellowship Grant- 1989 California Supreme Court Mural Commission- 1998 Las Vegas Federal Courthouse Commission, G.S.A.-1998 Teaching 1989-90: San Francisco State University 1975: San Francisco Art Institute Realism Seminar 1974-76: Academy of Art College, San Francisco, CA 1973-74, 1976: California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA 1971-72: California State University, Hayward, CA One Man Exhibitions 2015: Willard Dixon Portraits College of Marin Fine Art Gallery, Kentfield 2014: SFMOMA Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA. 2008: SFMOMA Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA. 2005: Fischbach Gallery, NYC,NY 2005: Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2004: Fischbach Gallery, NYC, NY. 2002: Earl McGrath Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2002: Bolinas Museum, Bolinas, CA 2001: Hackett Freedman Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2000: Fischbach Gallery, NYC , NY 2000: Hearst Art Gallery, St. Mary’s College, Moraga, CA 1998: Hackett Freedman Gallery, SF, CA 1997: Tatistcheff/Rogers Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 1996, 1995: Contemporary Realist Gallery (now Hackett Freedman Gallery) 1994: Fischbach Gallery 1993: Contemporary Realist Gallery 1992: Fischbach Gallery 1991: Earl McGrath Gallery, 454 North, Los Angeles, CA 1990: Fischbach Gallery 1989: William Sawyer Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1988: Gallery 454 North, Los Angeles, CA 1987: Fischbach Gallery 1987: Gallery 454 North 1986: William Sawyer Gallery 1985: Fischbach Gallery 1984: Harris Gallery, Houston, Tx 1984: William Sawyer Gallery 1983, 1982: Fischbach Gallery 1981: William Sawyer Gallery 1980,1979: Tortue Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 1976, 1975: William Sawyer Gallery 1973, 1972: William Sawyer Gallery Selected Group Exhibitions 2017: SHIFT / with Elizabeth Barlow, Kim Frohsin, Erin Parrish...

This charming rural winter scene of ice skaters fully displays Norman Rockwell's America, but it was painted by female artist Charlotte Joan Sternberg. She combines the mid-century A...

Through the lens of autobiographical realism, Bing Zhang invites us into an intimate visual narrative—one that reflects not only her private world, but also offers a mirror to our ow...

Le Pipe, is an original oil painting on panel. It is framed in a handmade, black frame with pale gold lip. The overall dimensions with the frame included are approximately 12x10.5 inches. A master of Trompe l'oeil, the artist here has depicted an antique smoking pipe...

"Old Shoemaker" Ashcan 20th Century Modernism 1924 California WPA Realism Worker. Signed “Otis Oldfield” lower left. 14 x 12 inches. Exhibited: Galerie des Beaux Arts, San Francisco, CA, 1925 Provenance: Estate of the Artist Born in Sacramento, CA on July 3, 1890, Otis Oldfield left high school at age 16 to work in a local print shop. In 1909 he arrived in San Francisco and enrolled at the Best Art School. After working for two years as a bellhop at the Argonaut Hotel and as a hat check boy at the Cliff House, he had saved enough money for further studies in Paris. In 1911 he sailed for France and enrolled at Académie Julian. Caught up in the activities of wartime Paris, he was an apprentice for a book...

Provenance Private collection, New Jersey; Thomas Colville Fine Art, Guilford, Connecticut; Private collection, Connecticut, until present John Koch’s portraits of New York high soc...

An oil painting of sun rays peeking through a clouded sky at one of the Great Lakes. 28.8 x 41 inches, framed American realist painter Carl Bretzke is particularly adept at noctur...

John Steuart Curry "Cockfight in Cuba," 1946 oil on canvas Image: 38.25 x 46.25 in Frame: 43.75 x 51.5 in Signed on reverse with initials JSC on lower right stretcher bar John Steu...

Texas Longhorn and Sheep Realism 20" x 16" oil Bovine Landscape Animals The Duo is an 20 X 16 oil on canvas painting of a sheep and a longhorn who look as if they are in searc...

"3rd Avenue EL" NYC American Scene Ashcan WPA Modern 20th Century Social Realism Bernard Gussow (1881-1957) 3rd Avenue El 28 1/8 x 30 1/4 inches Oil on canvas Signed lower left Fram...

Four Sheep in the Field, Realist, Light/ Shadow Oil Painting 36" x 24" Farm The third and fourth photos show thow this painting will look after being professionally taken by 2/23...

"Gardenias in Juliska Vase" is a still life painting featuring hues of green, white, and dark blue. Sarah Lamb is inspired by the work of John Singer Sar...

Joseph Kardonne (1911-1985).Male Figure at Beach, 1952.. Gouache on cardboard panel, 9 x 10 inches, 14.5 x 15.25 inches in maple frame. Signed, dated lower le...

Lowell Blair Nesbitt's arrangement of lemons against a blue tablecloth is full of contrast and color. With light shining over the table and casting shadows across the cloth, the lemo...

'Moving Sky' is 48 x 53 inches. The unique work bridges realism with surrealism. The painting is unframed and is ready to hang and enjoy over a lifetime. Signed and dated by the ar...

This interior portrait of a woman dressed in an elegant lace shawl is a 30" x 25" oil on canvas painting in the style of Jacob Eichholtz. The artist is unknown but the painting is believed to have been painted in the 1840's. It is not signed but framed and in good condition. Provenance: Private Collection, Old Queens Gallery...

"Girl with Muff" is aa American figurative portrait oil on canvas painting by Robert Henri in 1912. The artwork is 57 1/4 x 38 1/4 inches and, with the frame, is 64 1/4 x 45 1/4 x 2 ...

An original watercolor by American artist Thomas Aquinas Daly. This work comes housed in an archival frame presentation.

James Robinson (1944-2015) Austin, Dallas, Houston Artist Image Size: 24 x 36 Frame Size: 32 x 44 Medium: Acrylic on Canvas Clearly signed lower left quadrant about an inch above the...

Bruce Kurland – Still Life with Decoy and Shells Oil on board, framed in antique gold leaf A master of intimacy and restraint, Bruce Kurland’s Still Life with Decoy and Shells is a ...

Oil on Canvas Canvas size: 24 x 36 in. Frame Size: 33 x 39 in. "Turning them North" is an exhilarating scene of the American Old West by Gary Lynn Roberts (b. 1953, American) execut...

Brooklyn Bridge NYC American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern WPA Cecil C. Bell (American, 1906-1970) Brookyn Bridge amid the NYC Waterfront 35 ½ x 23 ½ inches Oil on Bo...

"Grapefruit and Strawberries" is a classical realist still life of fruit. Signed bottom right corner Framed Dimensions: 19.25 x 19.25 inches Steven J. Levin - (b. 1964) is classica...

A portrait of two young girls by the Royal Portraitist Chen Yanning. Both the artist as well as the sitters of this magnificent portrait are from racial...

This piece is an original oil painting on linen canvas. It features a beautiful bouquet of two varieties of tulips. Harkening back to Dutch floral paintings, export porcelain popular...

Kathleen Keifer is a California-based internationally collected artist. She is a leading force of the New California Realism. With a high level of technical virtuosity Keifer creates a new sense of reality with textures and colors that seem to add lighting effects and distinct shadows, confronting the viewer with new interpretations of familiar objects. This one-of-a-kind 12 inch square original artwork is a composition created with acrylic paint on canvas. It is wired and ready to hang. The sides are painted as a continuation of the front and it does not require framing. It signed by the artist on the front of the artwork. Convenient local Los Angeles area shipping. Affordable Continental U.S. and global shipping also available. A certificate of authenticity issued by the art gallery is included. Kathleen’s paintings invite the viewer to consider the complex relationship between time and timelessness. It is the sheer visual interaction between the elements, taken in their bare simplicity that interests her. For her, painting captures the very essence of time and its passage. She believes that actual sites and places have an individual magic. The goal is to take objects from popular culture and paint them in a new narrative context. Her complex approaches to popular board games present the subjects as living, tangible objects. Born and raised in Chicago, Kathleen Keifer is a second-generation artist. Her mother, also a fine artist, exposed Keifer to the world of art and supervised her training from a very early age. This legacy continues today as Keifer closely nurtures the development of the artistic leaning in each of her three daughters, inspiring a third generation of female artists. Her works are represented by Artspace Warehouse Los Angeles and have been exhibited and collected internationally, including Chicago, New York and London. Artspace Warehouse has been representing and exhibiting Kathleen Keifer's original artworks since 2017. The gallery has been a 1stdibs partner since 2014 with consistently excellent reviews from clients worldwide. The gallery exhibits a large selection of affordable original artworks from established and emerging international artists with diverse backgrounds at high standards. Artspace Warehouse is known to provide accurate descriptions, images, reliable services, communication, and delivery. REPRESENTATION Artspace Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA EXHIBITIONS 2023 “Postcards From Nowhere”, Artspace Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA 2022 “The Comforting Familiar”, Artspace Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA 2020 “Midnight Blue”, Artspace Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA 2018 Morris Inn, Notre Dame, IN Malibu Beach House, Malibu, CA Bon Voyage, Coda Gallery, Palm Desert, CA Solo Exhibition, Jeffrey Breslow Gallery, Chicago, IL Art Palm Springs Fine Art Fair, CA Artspace Warehouse, CA 2017 Affordable Art Fair New York, NY Affordable Art Fair London, UK Art Palm Springs, CA “Pop Futurism and Abstraction”, Artspace Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA 2016 Susan Schomburg gallery, Santa Monica, CA Jazz in the Pines, Idyllwild, CA 2015 Official artist of Chitag, Chicago Toy and Game Fair, Chicago, Il Jazz! Dion Gallery, Redondo Beach, CA Art 90266, LA 25, Manhattan Beach, C Political Commentary, Linus gallery, Long Beach and Pasadena, CA 2014 RETROspective, Coast Gallery, Long Beach, CA ArtHampton, Bridgehampton, NY The Pursuit of…, Lurie Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Art 90266, LA 25, Manhattan Beach, CA 2013 Pop meets Painterly, CODA Gallery, Palm Desert, CA University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN Puzzles and Games, Liss Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada 2012 Art, Wine & Roses, Home Gallery, Malibu, CA Pop Meets Painterly, Oh My Godard Gallery, Atlantic City, NJ 2011 Beach Games, Riley Arts Gallery, Manhattan Beach, CA Art of The Game, Oh My Godard Gallery, Atlantic City NJ Art of The Game, Liss Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada 2010 Art of The Game, Gallery 319, Santa Monica, CA One Woman Show, Canfin Gallery, Westchester, NY 2009 American Riviera, ARTfront Gallery, Los Angeles, CA American Landscape, Hilliard Gallery, Kansas City, MO 2008 Coastal Living, Gallery 319 Santa Monica, CA 2007 On the Beach, Gallery 319 Santa Monica, CA Why We Live Here, Dion Gallery, Redondo Beach, CA 2006 Mc Lean Gallery, Malibu. CA BOOK: Perspective on Coastal Beauty, From Malibu to Manhattan Beach 2005 Along the PCH, Mc Lean Gallery, Malibu, CA FRESH!, MOCA, Los Angeles, CA Gallery C, Hermosa Beach, CA California Visions, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA 2004 President’s Show, CA Heritage Museum, Santa Monica, CA Coastal Nostalgia, Mc Lean Gallery, Malibu, CA Gallery C, Hermosa Beach, CA 2003 Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA Coastal Nostalgia, 2003, Mc Lean Gallery, Malibu, CA 2002 Coastal Nostalgia, 2002, Mc Lean Gallery, Malibu, CA 2001 Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA Ambient Light, Mc Lean Gallery, Malibu, CA 2000 The Coastal Landscape, Mc Lean Gallery, Malibu, CA Malibu Art...

A long and quiet night in the hotel lobby is depicted by Clyde Singer in this moody and still painting. Entitled Hotel Night Lobby (1947), Singer paints a moment of solitude during ...

A walk through any major museum will reveal paintings that depict or legitimate only certain kinds of experience. Despite the good intentions of critical theorists questioning the va...

Represented by George Billis Gallery, NYC & LA --A walk through any major museum will reveal paintings that depict or legitimate only certain kinds of experience. Despite the good intentions of critical theorists questioning the validity of the canon, paintings of the old masters on the walls of museums like the Met, the Louvre, Rijks museum still have a certain cache. They're revered not just for their technique but because they enshrine our collective past experience. Of course, it's a selected past that gets validated. Conspicuously absent to me as a gay man...

John Hanlen (1922-2003). Beach Snack Shack, ca. 1950. Tempera on paper, sheet measures 18 x 23 inches. Measurement with matting: 26 x 31 inches. The piece is unframed. There is ...

A walk through any major museum will reveal paintings that depict or legitimate only certain kinds of experience. Despite the good intentions of critical theorists questioning the va...

Image Size: 10 x 6 in. Frame Size: 19.5 x 14.5 in. This oil painting by Cal Gaspard portrays a proud rooster, the ruler of the barn yard flock. The bird stands confidently in profi...

A cheerful and luminous still life painting of a bouquet of yellow roses, a blue pot, and red drapery, masterfully executed by A. D. Greer (American, (1904 - 1998), in oil on canva...

In First Light (2024), Alan Bray captures the quiet majesty of dawn over Spencer Pond, Maine. This luminous casein tempera on panel painting (15 x 24 inches) depicts a breathtaking s...

Unframed dimensions: 28 x 42 inches Framed dimensions: 34 x 48 inches Born and raised in Louisiana, Laura Cooper began life surrounded by water. Her childhood home was on the banks of the Vermilion Bayou in Lafayette. She has fond memories of watching the tugboats push barges from the Gulf of Mexico as she was sitting on her back porch. She often went on fishing trips with her family in Louisiana and Upstate New York, where her father’s family summered for generations. This early exposure to the maritime world led her to capture the beauty of sailing on canvas. Her work combines a unique relationship between atmosphere and light while maintaining a painterly feel. Her art is in collections around the world. She is a Signature Member and the Treasurer of the American Society of Marine Artists (ASMA). Recent awards include: 2023 Bronze medal, Regional Guild of Boston Artists Exhibition 2017 Thomas M. Hoyne III Award in the International Marine Art Exhibition at the Maritime Gallery at Mystic Seaport, Mystic, CT 2016 Maritime Gallery Yachting Award in the International Marine Art Exhibition at the Maritime Gallery at Mystic Seaport, Mystic, CT 2015 Rudolph J. Schaefer III Emerging Artist Award in the International Marine Art Exhibition at the Maritime Gallery at Mystic Seaport, Mystic, CT 2008 Duxbury Art...

Artist: Raphael Soyer (1899-1987) Title: Girl with Braided Hair Year: Circa 1987 Medium: Oil on canvas Size: 12 x 9 inches; framed size, 19 x 16 inches Condition: Excellent Inscripti...

This piece is an original oil painting on linen canvas. It features blue and white porcelain vases and deep purple dahlias. Its overall framed dimensions are approximately 40x45 inch...

"The Coward" (Woman Kissing Soldier). Original cover illustration for Life Magazine, published April 1919. Norman Rockwell’s The Coward (or, Woman Kissing Soldier) was published on...

"Auto Service" (2025) is a striking handmade still-life oil painting by American realist Greg Gandy, depicting an older car in a bay at an auto service station. Artist Bio: Greg Ga...

19th Century portrait of Quintin Campbell in the style of Thomas Sully. The 30 x 25 inches oil on canvas is framed in an ornate frame. Provenance: Private collection, Bucks County, P...

ASHLEE SELBURG Ginger Cat Ink and pencil on paper 20 x 16 inches

Serene and calm sky, ocean, horizon, sunrise or sunset, oil painting from American Realist Willard Dixon, who bridges realism with natural abstraction in his series of breathtaking and etherial sky paintings. A contemporary sky scape with soft clouds in blue, purple peach and gold. Unframed and ready to hang and enjoy. The original painting is 48 x 60 inches. Signed by the artist verso. One of our finest American contemporary realist painters, Willard Dixon has painted Northern California and western landscapes for over 35 years. His work captures the undeniable beauty of the West with its grand and humble spirit. Dixon’s work can be found in numerous important public collections including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Oakland Museum of Art in California, as well as numerous private art collections worldwide. Proudly presented by Andra Norris Gallery, northern California. The artist was born: Kansas City MO, 1942 Education: Art Students League, New York, NY Cornell University Brooklyn Museum School San Francisco Art Institute, M.F.A. 1969 Awards and Commissions N.E.A. Fellowship Grant- 1989 California Supreme Court Mural Commission- 1998 Las Vegas Federal Courthouse Commission, G.S.A.-1998 Teaching 1989-90: San Francisco State University 1975: San Francisco Art Institute Realism Seminar 1974-76: Academy of Art College, San Francisco, CA 1973-74, 1976: California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA 1971-72: California State University, Hayward, CA One Man Exhibitions 2015: Willard Dixon Portraits College of Marin Fine Art Gallery, Kentfield 2014: SFMOMA Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA. 2008: SFMOMA Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA. 2005: Fischbach Gallery, NYC,NY 2005: Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2004: Fischbach Gallery, NYC, NY. 2002: Earl McGrath Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2002: Bolinas Museum, Bolinas, CA 2001: Hackett Freedman Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2000: Fischbach Gallery, NYC , NY 2000: Hearst Art Gallery, St. Mary’s College, Moraga, CA 1998: Hackett Freedman Gallery, SF, CA 1997: Tatistcheff/Rogers Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 1996, 1995: Contemporary Realist Gallery (now Hackett Freedman Gallery) 1994: Fischbach Gallery 1993: Contemporary Realist Gallery 1992: Fischbach Gallery 1991: Earl McGrath Gallery, 454 North, Los Angeles, CA 1990: Fischbach Gallery 1989: William Sawyer Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1988: Gallery 454 North, Los Angeles, CA 1987: Fischbach Gallery 1987: Gallery 454 North 1986: William Sawyer Gallery 1985: Fischbach Gallery 1984: Harris Gallery, Houston, Tx 1984: William Sawyer Gallery 1983, 1982: Fischbach Gallery 1981: William Sawyer Gallery 1980,1979: Tortue Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 1976, 1975: William Sawyer Gallery 1973, 1972: William Sawyer Gallery Selected Group Exhibitions 2017: SHIFT / with Elizabeth Barlow, Kim Frohsin, Erin Parrish, Irene Zweig, Andra Norris Gallery, Burlingame, CA 2015: REAL with Elizabeth Barlow Gallerie Citi, Burlingame, CA. 2014: Stillness and Activity / A father and daughter exhibition, Gallerie Citi, Burlingame, CA. 2013: Outwin Boocher Portrait Competition 2013 Exhibition” Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. Hey Everybody / Portraits, Diablo Valley College 2012: Artistic Visions of the Golden Gate Bridge”, George Krevsky Gallery, S.F., CA. Introduction Two/ Gallerie Citi, Burlingame, CA. 2011: California: A Landscape of Dreams/ Fresno Art Museum 2010: Self Portrait Invitational/ Julie Nester Gallery, Park City UT 2009: On Beauty /I. Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA. 2008: At Water’s Edge / I. Wolk Gallery, St. Helena, CA. 2007: San Francisco Scenes/ George Krevsky Gallery, S.F., CA Ten Years- A Retrospective/ Dolby Chadwick Gallery, S.F., CA. 2006: Our Planet, Our Home/ SFMOMA Artists Gallery, S.F. CA 2005: 2005 Spring Group Show/ Earl McGrath Gallery, L.A., CA 2002: H2O’02, Paintings of Water/ Fischbach Gallery, NYC Scene in Oakland 1852-2002 Oakland Museum Oakland, CA The Garden/ Art Foundry Gallery, Sacramento, CA The Moving Still Life/ Fischbach Gallery, New York, NY Bay Area Printmakers/ works from Trillium Press, Art Foundry Gallery, Sacramento, CA California Landscape Paintings/ College of Marin Art Gallery, Kentfield, CA Bay Area Printmakers/ SF Museum of Modern Art/Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA Visions: Northern California/ Bank of America, San Francisco, CA 2001: Opening Exhibit: Group Show, Fischbach Gallery, NY, NY 2000: Hackett Freedman Gallery Artists/ Shasta College Art Gallery, Redding, Ca 1999: Homage to the Art Institute, Artists Who Transformed American Culture, Hackett Freedman Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1999: What is Art For? What are Museums For? What are You For? curated Curated for the Oakland Museum by William T. Wiley & Mary Hull Webster, Oakland, CA 1998: Paintings of Marin County Past and Present/ The North Point Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1997: 10th Anniversary Exhibition/ Hackett Freedman Gallery, S.F., CA 1996: Rediscovering the Landscape of the Americas/ Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM (traveling exhibition) Contemporary American Realist Painters/ Halls Crown Center Gallery, Kansas City, MO 1996: Foundation for the Future: Celebrating 125 Years at the San Francisco Art Institute/ One Bush St., S.F., CA 1996: New Work by Selected Gallery Artists, Tatistcheff/Rogers Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Flower Paintings/ Contemporary Realist Gallery, S.F., CA 1995: Facing Eden: 100 Years of Landscape Art in the Bay Area / De Young Museum, S.F., CA Contemporary Still Life Painting/ David Klein Gallery...

This modern still life diptych by Gio Bellagio is inspired by ancient Greek ceramic vessels. The pots are adorned with minimalist patterns reminiscent of Greek geometry, emphasising...

A walk through any major museum will reveal paintings that depict or legitimate only certain kinds of experience. Despite the good intentions of critical theorists questioning the validity of the canon, paintings of the old masters on the walls of museums like the Met, the Louvre, Rijks museum still have a certain cache. They're revered not just for their technique but because they enshrine our collective past experience. Of course, it's a selected past that gets validated. Conspicuously absent to me as a gay man...

A walk through any major museum will reveal paintings that depict or legitimate only certain kinds of experience. Despite the good intentions of critical theorists questioning the validity of the canon, paintings of the old masters on the walls of museums like the Met, the Louvre, Rijks museum still have a certain cache. They're revered not just for their technique but because they enshrine our collective past experience. Of course, it's a selected past that gets validated. Conspicuously absent to me as a gay man...

Artist: Jan De Ruth, Czech (1922 - 1991) Title: Seated Nude in Yellow Skirt Year: circa 1960 Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed lower left Size: 36 in. x 24 in....

John Steuart Curry "Sketching Wisconsin," 1946 oil on canvas 31.13 x 28 inches, canvas 39.75 x 36.75 x 2.5 inches, frame Signed and dated lower right Overall excellent condition Presented in a 24-karat gold leaf hand-carved wood frame John Steuart Curry (1897-1946) was an American regionalist painter active during the Great Depression and into World War II. He was born in Kansas on his family’s farm but went on to study art in Chicago, Paris and New York as young man. In Paris, he was exposed to the work of masters such as Peter Paul Rubens, Eugène Delacroix and Jacques-Louis David. As he matured, his work showed the influence of these masters, especially in his compositional decisions. Like the two other Midwestern regionalist artists that are most often grouped with him, Grant Wood (American, 1891-1942) and Thomas Hart Benton (American, 1889-1975), Curry was interested in representational works containing distinctly American subject matter. This was contrary to the popular art at the time, which was moving closer and closer to abstraction and individual expression. Sketching Wisconsin is an oil painting completed in 1946, the last year of John Steuart Curry’s life, during which time he was the artist-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The painting is significant in Curry’s body of work both as a very revealing self-portrait, and as a landscape that clearly and sensitively depicts the scenery of southern Wisconsin near Madison. It is also a portrait of the artist’s second wife, Kathleen Gould Curry, and is unique in that it contains a ‘picture within a picture,’ a compositional element that many early painting masters used to draw the eye of the viewer. This particular artwork adds a new twist to this theme: Curry’s wife is creating essentially the same painting the viewer is looking at when viewing Sketching Wisconsin. The triangular composition of the figures in the foreground immediately brings focus to a younger Curry, whose head penetrates the horizon line and whose gaze looks out towards the viewer. The eye then moves down to Mrs. Curry, who, seated on a folding stool and with her hand raised to paint the canvas on the easel before her, anchors the triangular composition. The shape is repeated in the legs of the stool and the easel. Behind the two figures, stripes of furrowed fields fall away gently down the hillside to a farmstead and small lake below. Beyond the lake, patches of field and forest rise and fall into the distance, and eventually give way to blue hills. Here, Curry has subverted the traditional artist’s self-portrait by portraying himself as a farmer first and an artist second. He rejects what he sees as an elitist art world of the East Coast and Europe. In this self-portrait he depicts himself without any pretense or the instruments of his profession and with a red tractor standing in the field behind him as if he was taking a break from the field work. Here, Curry’s wife symbolizes John Steuart Curry’s identity as an artist. Compared with a self-portrait of the artist completed a decade earlier, this work shows a marked departure from how the artist previously presented and viewed himself. In the earlier portrait, Curry depicted himself in the studio with brushes in hand, and with some of his more recognizable and successful canvases behind him. But in Sketching Wisconsin, Curry has taken himself out of the studio and into the field, indicating a shift in the artist’s self-conception. Sketching Wisconsin’s rural subject also expresses Curry’s populist ideals, that art could be relevant to anyone. This followed the broad educational objectives of UW’s artist-in-residence program. Curry was appointed to his position at the University of Wisconsin in 1937 and was the first person to hold any such position in the country, the purpose of which was to serve as an educational resource to the people of the state. He embraced his role at the University with zeal and not only opened the doors of his campus studio in the School of Agriculture to the community, but also spent a great deal of time traveling around the state of Wisconsin to visit rural artists who could benefit from his expertise. It was during his ten years in the program that Curry was able to put into practice his belief that art should be meaningful to the rural populace. However, during this time he also struggled with public criticism, as the dominant forces of the art market were moving away from representation. Perhaps it was Curry’s desire for public acceptance during the latter part of his career that caused him to portray himself as an Everyman in Sketching Wisconsin. Beyond its importance as a portrait of the artist, Sketching Wisconsin is also a detailed and sensitive landscape that shows us Curry’s deep personal connection to his environment. The landscape here can be compared to Wisconsin Landscape of 1938-39 (the Metropolitan Museum of Art), which presents a similar tableau of rolling hills with a patchwork of fields. Like Wisconsin Landscape, this is an incredibly detailed and expressive depiction of a place close to the artist’s heart. This expressive landscape is certainly the result of many hours spent sketching people, animals, weather conditions and topography of Wisconsin as Curry traveled around the state. The backdrop of undulating hills and the sweeping horizon, and the emotions evoked by it, are emphatically recognizable as the ‘driftless’ area of south-central Wisconsin. But while the Metropolitan’s Wisconsin Landscape conveys a sense of uncertainty or foreboding with its dramatic spring cloudscape and alternating bands of light and dark, Sketching Wisconsin has a warm and reflective mood. The colors of the foliage indicate that it is late summer and Curry seems to look out at the viewer approvingly, as if satisfied with the fertile ground surrounding him. The landscape in Sketching Wisconsin is also revealing of what became one of Curry’s passions while artist-in-residence at UW’s School of Agriculture – soil conservation. When Curry was a child in Kansas, he saw his father almost lose his farm and its soil to the erosion of The Dust Bowl. Therefore, he was very enthusiastic about ideas from UW’s School of Agriculture on soil conservation methods being used on Wisconsin farms. In Sketching Wisconsin, we see evidence of crop rotation methods in the terraced stripes of fields leading down the hillside away from the Curry’s and in how they alternate between cultivated and fallow fields. Overall, Sketching Wisconsin has a warm, reflective, and comfortably pastoral atmosphere, and the perceived shift in Curry’s self-image that is evident in the portrait is a positive one. After his rise to favor in the art world in the 1930’s, and then rejection from it due to the strong beliefs presented in his art, Curry is satisfied and proud to be farmer in this self-portrait. Curry suffered from high blood...

New York City scene of two women walking down a sidewalk with a park in the background, in the foreground a man is walking a small dog. American life is captured in this Clyde Sing...

Lee Jaffe, American (1950 - ) - Portrait of John Brown and Nat Turner, Year: 1983, Medium: Oil on Canvas, Size: 125 in. x 170 in. (317.5 cm x 431.8 cm)