Unknown

Modern Wall Art Title "Prairie Grass" Signed Cheryl & Steven Ward

2000s

Denis Mitchell. English ( b.1912 - d.1993 ). Still Life Of Gourds With Japanese Celadon Vase And Dragon Decorated Plate, 1944. Oil On Tea Crate Plywood Panel. Signed & Dated Lower L...

A vibrant, Mid-Century Modern painting, "Vermont Landscape, Spruce Tree and Shoreline" by notable Chicago artist Harold Haydon. Painted near the artist's longtime summer studio loca...

A Charming, Colorful 1950s Mid-Century Modern Harbor Scene of Martha's Vineyard by Notable Chicago Artist, Francis Chapin (Am. 1899-1965). Painted near the artist's studio and summe...

Sylvia Rutkoff (1919-2011) 26-1 "The Schoolgirl" c.1950s Oil paint, sand on Masonite 36x48 wood period frame Unsigned Collection acquired from family estate Sylvia Weinreb Rutkoff (...

Sylvia Rutkoff (1919-2011) Sr10-1 c.1950s “Boy with Mittens” Oil impasto on Masonite 36x42.5 black wood gallery frame Signed on reverse in paint Collection acquired from family estat...

Sylvia Rutkoff (1919-2011) "Traffic" c.1950s Oil, sand, grout, gesso on masonite 48"x36" wood period frame Signed on reverse in pencil Collection acquired from family estate Sylvia ...

An early work by Julio De Diego embodies the deep love he had for his homeland of Spain, combined with his strong emotions against war. The peacefulness of the couple holding hands l...

Signed and dated "Mary Spencer Nay '74" lower left. Titled "Pyromaniac's Pyre" verso. Exhibited: 1976-1977 "Mary Spencer Nay: Recent and Retrospective Works". J.B. Speed Art Museum...

Signed lower right: "Atherton", inscribed "John Atherton Original Tempera 7/28/50" on verso. Artwork measures 16" x 20" and framed 20" x 24" x 2 ½" About this artists: John Atherton (1900-1952) did not show an early aptitude for art; rather, his first love was nature and the activities he relished there, mainly fishing and hunting. Born in Brainerd, Minnesota in 1900, he learned to fish with his father from the age of four. Later the family moved to Spokane, Washington, and when he was old enough, Atherton worked at a variety of jobs to help support his family. One such job, in the sorting plant of a lead and silver mine, paid $4.25 a day—a good wage, though he never had time to spend his money, since he worked seven days a week. After serving in the Navy for a year during World War I, Atherton was determined to get an education. He worked as a sign painter and played the banjo in a dance band, finally accumulating enough money to enroll in the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Once there, he worked like a fiend, attending classes both during the day and at night, getting the best training available. Though he had always intended to be a fine artist, Atherton’s first jobs were for commercial art firms. In 1929, using the prize money won for a painting he entered in an art competition, Atherton and his wife moved to New York City. Though the economic situation was difficult in those years, he managed to keep going by taking commissions for magazine illustrations, and over the years he would paint more than forty covers for The Saturday Evening Post. In 1938, an artist friend suggested that he use the same flat, decorative style as his commercial work for his gallery paintings. This was a breakthrough for Atherton; soon afterwards he held a one-man show at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York, and his paintings began to be collected by museums including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Atherton’s reputation increased to a national scale when he designed the art deco stone lithograph poster for the 1939 World’s Fair that strikingly depicted Earth and its atmospheric layers in the lap of Liberty. Atherton was highly influenced by the magic realist...

Julio De Diego’s Atomic Series paintings made an extraordinary statement regarding the shock and fear that accompanied the dawn of the nuclear age. In the artist’s own words, “Scientists were working secretly to develop formidable powers taken from the mysterious depths of the earth - with the power to make the earth useless! Then, the EXPLOSION! . . . we entered the Atomic Age, and from there the neo-Atomic war begins. Explosions fell everywhere and man kept on fighting, discovering he could fight without flesh.” To execute these works, De Diego developed a technique of using tempera underpainting before applying layer upon layer of pigmented oil glazes. The result is paintings with surfaces which were described as “bonelike” in quality. The forms seem to float freely, creating a three-dimensional visual effect. In the 1954 book The Modern Renaissance in American Art, author Ralph Pearson summarizes the series as “a fantastic interpretation of a weighty theme. Perhaps it is well to let fantasy and irony appear to lighten the devastating impact. By inverse action, they may in fact increase its weight.” Bibliography Art in America, April 1951, p.78 About this artists: Julio De Diego crafted a formidable persona within the artistic developments and political struggles of his time. The artist characterized his own work as “lyrical,” explaining, “through the years, the surrealists, the social-conscious painters and the others tried to adopt me, but I went my own way, good, bad or indifferent.” [1] His independence manifested early in life when de Diego left his parent’s home in Madrid, Spain, in adolescence following his father’s attempts to curtail his artistic aspirations. At the age of fifteen he held his first exhibition, set up within a gambling casino. He managed to acquire an apprenticeship in a studio producing scenery for Madrid’s operas, but moved from behind the curtains to the stage, trying his hand at acting and performing as an extra in the Ballet Russes’ Petrouchka with Nijinsky. He spent several years in the Spanish army, including a six-month stretch in the Rif War of 1920 in Northern Africa. His artistic career pushed ahead as he set off for Paris and became familiar with modernism’s forays into abstraction, surrealism, and cubism. The artist arrived in the U.S. in 1924 and settled in Chicago two years later. He established himself with a commission for the decoration of two chapels in St. Gregory’s Church. He also worked in fashion illustration, designed magazine covers and developed a popular laundry bag for the Hotel Sherman. De Diego began exhibiting through the Art Institute of Chicago in 1929, and participated in the annual Chicago Artists Exhibitions, Annual American Exhibitions, and International Water Color Exhibitions. He held a solo exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago in the summer of 1935. Though the artist’s career was advancing, his family life had deteriorated. In 1932 his first marriage dissolved, and the couple’s young daughter Kiriki was sent to live with friend Paul Hoffman. De Diego continued to develop his artistic vocabulary with a growing interest in Mexican art. He traveled throughout the country acquainting himself with the works of muralists such as Carlos Merida, and also began a collection of small native artifacts...