Skip to main content

1930s Art

to
875
3,400
1,235
917
540
349
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
7,457
21,405
163,677
232,384
2,022
2,274
4,928
6,488
5,800
14,996
20,714
25,752
18,679
14,129
5,309
2,462
511
401
238
109
107
106
72
14
12
5
2
2
3,606
2,371
318
3,920
1,783
1,633
1,146
1,134
702
455
441
432
361
337
320
292
291
290
234
233
224
219
191
2,016
1,612
1,359
1,218
885
261
139
106
90
55
1,807
1,099
3,506
2,602
Period: 1930s
Art Deco Gouache Painting, Stylish Singer, Monogrammed FG, France, circa 1930
Art Deco Gouache Painting, Stylish Singer, Monogrammed FG, France, circa 1930

Art Deco Gouache Painting, Stylish Singer, Monogrammed FG, France, circa 1930

Located in Atlanta, GA

A striking Art Deco gouache on cardboard depicting a stylish singer captured in a bold, graphic modernist idiom. The figure—rendered with short red hair, a chic black hat, striped tr...

Category

Art Deco 1930s Art

Materials

Gouache, Board, Cardboard

Archipelago Seascape at Sunset (Söderhamn, Sweden), 1936
Archipelago Seascape at Sunset (Söderhamn, Sweden), 1936

Archipelago Seascape at Sunset (Söderhamn, Sweden), 1936

Located in Stockholm, SE

This panoramic seascape from 1936 distils Otto Lindberg’s enduring fascination with northern coastal light into a single, sustained horizon. The unusually wide format invites a slow ...

Category

Post-Impressionist 1930s Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Art Deco Fashion Commercial Illustration
Art Deco Fashion Commercial Illustration

Art Deco Fashion Commercial Illustration

Located in Wilton Manors, FL

Elegant and stylish commercial illustration for print advertisement, ca. 1930s. Original painting. Ink on illustration board. Image measures 9 x 12 inches in a black wood frame meas...

Category

Art Deco 1930s Art

Materials

Ink, Illustration Board

Au Vieux Sculpteur au Travail I (Old Sculptor at Work I) Bloch 157; Baer 224.B.b
Au Vieux Sculpteur au Travail I (Old Sculptor at Work I) Bloch 157; Baer 224.B.b

Au Vieux Sculpteur au Travail I (Old Sculptor at Work I) Bloch 157; Baer 224.B.b

By Pablo Picasso

Located in Santa Monica, CA

Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973) Au Vieux Sculpteur au Travail I (Old Sculptor at Work I), c. 1933 Medium: Etching on Montval Laid Paper with Vollard Watermark Edition: Edition of 260 Artwork Size: 10.5 x 7.6 in Framed Size: 28.5 x 24.25 x 1.5 in This work is Framed Etching on Montval Paper, from the Vollard Suite, c. 1933 Image Size: 10.5 x 7.6 inches From the small margins edition at 260 proofs, unsigned Published by Vollard, Paris Printed by Lacourière, Paris Pablo Picasso’s Vollard Suite...

Category

1930s Art

Materials

Etching

Cloud Study over Lake Vättern, Vadstena
Cloud Study over Lake Vättern, Vadstena

Cloud Study over Lake Vättern, Vadstena

By Erik Tryggelin

Located in Stockholm, SE

Erik Tryggelin (1878–1962) Sweden Cloud Study over Lake Vättern, Vadstena, 7 September 1935 signed and dated lower right E. Tryggelin 7/9 1935 inscribed Vadstena oil on canvas laid...

Category

Post-Impressionist 1930s Art

Materials

Canvas, Masonite, Oil

"Presence de Paris" original etching

"Presence de Paris" original etching

Located in Henderson, NV

Medium: original etching. This impression on Canson et Montgolfier wove paper was printed in 1937 in an edition of 500 for the "Paris 1937" portfolio. Printed at the atelier of Jean-...

Category

1930s Art

Materials

Etching

“Jamaican Girl by the Palm Tree, c. 1930” American Impressionist Portrait Lyme
“Jamaican Girl by the Palm Tree, c. 1930” American Impressionist Portrait Lyme

“Jamaican Girl by the Palm Tree, c. 1930” American Impressionist Portrait Lyme

By Will Howe Foote

Located in Yardley, PA

“Jamaican Girl by the Palm Tree, c. 1930” by Will Howe Foote (American, 1874-1965) A fantastic portrait of a young Jamaican woman set against a vibrant palm frond, painted by the re...

Category

American Impressionist 1930s Art

Materials

Oil, Board

Autumn Morning Spain oil on canvas painting mediterranean landscape
Autumn Morning Spain oil on canvas painting mediterranean landscape

Autumn Morning Spain oil on canvas painting mediterranean landscape

Located in Sitges, Barcelona

Author: Joan Gil i Gil (Barcelona, 1900 – 1984) Title: Autumn Morning Date: 1934 Technique: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 81 × 100 cm (31.9 × 39.4 in) Signature: Signed lower left: Joan ...

Category

Impressionist 1930s Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

WILD PARTY
WILD PARTY

WILD PARTY

By Jose Clemente Orozco

Located in Santa Monica, CA

JOSE CLEMENTE OROZCO (Mexican 1883 – 1949) WILD PARTY 1935 (Orozco 28) (aka - Borrachos en la cama quebrada, Borracho’s & Fin de Fiesta - Miseria) Lithograph signed and numbered 91...

Category

Realist 1930s Art

Materials

Lithograph

original etching

original etching

By John Sloan

Located in Henderson, NV

Medium: original etching. Executed by John Sloan to illustrate the Somerset Maugham classic "Of Human Bondage" and published in 1938 in a limited edition of 1500 by the Yale Universi...

Category

1930s Art

Materials

Etching

1930's English Impressionist Signed Oil Painting Still Life Thick Impasto Paint
1930's English Impressionist Signed Oil Painting Still Life Thick Impasto Paint

1930's English Impressionist Signed Oil Painting Still Life Thick Impasto Paint

Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire

Interior Still Life by Harry Bloomfield (British, 1883-1940) *see notes below signed verso oil on canvas, framed framed: 28 x 24 inches canvas: 22 x 18 inches Provenance: private co...

Category

Post-Impressionist 1930s Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

The Cabaret Dancer
The Cabaret Dancer

The Cabaret Dancer

Located in London, GB

'The Cabaret Dancer', crayon on art paper, by Kolomon Moore (circa 1930s). The Crazy Years (les Années Folles) of Paris in the 1920s hit an abrupt end in...

Category

1930s Art

Materials

Paper, Crayon

Japanese Print, Pair of horses playing (red) - Signed Woodcut
Japanese Print, Pair of horses playing (red) - Signed Woodcut

Japanese Print, Pair of horses playing (red) - Signed Woodcut

Located in Paris, IDF

Mokuchu URUSHIBARA Pair of horses playing (red), c. 1930 Woodcut after on an ink drawing Signed with the artist's stamp On paper 28 x 39 cm (c. 11.02 x 15.35 in) INFORMATION : Engr...

Category

Modern 1930s Art

Materials

Woodcut

A Large, Captivating 1930s Modern Portrait of a Jamaican Man in a Linen Suit
A Large, Captivating 1930s Modern Portrait of a Jamaican Man in a Linen Suit

A Large, Captivating 1930s Modern Portrait of a Jamaican Man in a Linen Suit

By Francis Chapin

Located in Chicago, IL

A Large, Captivating 1930s Modern Portrait of a Jamaican Man in a Linen Suit by famed Chicago artist, Francis Chapin (Am. 1899-1965). A skilled and colorful portrait of a black man seated in a white linen suit, most likely completed during Chapin's trip to Kingston, Jamaica in the 1930s. Chapin exhibited examples of his Jamaican paintings...

Category

American Modern 1930s Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Umberto Brunelleschi, Untitled, from The Tales of Boccaccio, 1934 (after)
Umberto Brunelleschi, Untitled, from The Tales of Boccaccio, 1934 (after)

Umberto Brunelleschi, Untitled, from The Tales of Boccaccio, 1934 (after)

By Umberto Brunelleschi

Located in Southampton, NY

This exquisite lithograph and pochoir after Umberto Brunelleschi (1879–1949), titled Sans titre (Untitled), originates from the celebrated album Les contes de Boccace (The Tales of B...

Category

Art Deco 1930s Art

Materials

Lithograph, Stencil

Edgar Degas, Dancer, from Dance Drawings, 1936 (after)
Edgar Degas, Dancer, from Dance Drawings, 1936 (after)

Edgar Degas, Dancer, from Dance Drawings, 1936 (after)

By Edgar Degas

Located in Southampton, NY

This exquisite engraving after Edgar Degas (1834–1917), titled Danseuse (Dancer), originates from the celebrated album Degas Danse dessin (Degas Dance Drawings), published by Ambrois...

Category

Impressionist 1930s Art

Materials

Engraving

'Loop Alley' — Modernist Chicago Cityscape, WPA
'Loop Alley' — Modernist Chicago Cityscape, WPA

'Loop Alley' — Modernist Chicago Cityscape, WPA

By Charles Turzak

Located in Myrtle Beach, SC

Charles Turzak, 'Loop Alley (Chicago)', color woodcut, edition c. 25, c. 1935. Signed and titled in pencil. A fine, richly-inked impression, with fresh colors, on cream wove Japan pa...

Category

American Modern 1930s Art

Materials

Woodcut

“Still Life, 1936” by Katharine "Kitty" Duff Church British Modern Oil Signed
“Still Life, 1936” by Katharine "Kitty" Duff Church British Modern Oil Signed

“Still Life, 1936” by Katharine "Kitty" Duff Church British Modern Oil Signed

Located in Yardley, PA

“Still Life, 1936” by Katharine "Kitty" Duff Church (British, 1910-1999). This large, early painting by Katherine Church is among her finest canvases of the period. Characterized by its bold color palette, simplified forms, and expressive brushwork, this composition centers around a tabletop adorned with various objects: potted plants, a ceramic dish, bottles, and what appear to be books or papers. The two potted plants provide contrasting elements: on the left, what appears to be a cyclamen with red blossoms and delicate leaves, and on the right, a lush green plant with darker foliage. These plants, painted with loose, textured strokes, add an organic quality to the otherwise structured arrangement. The tabletop is cluttered yet thoughtfully composed, featuring additional objects like a clear, faceted glass bowl, a small bottle, and books or pads in striking red and green. The dynamic use of color blocks and the juxtaposition of shapes (round pots against rectangular books) create a sense of rhythm and harmony. The background is darker and less defined, emphasizing the brightly lit tabletop. Church's brushwork is gestural and modernist, leaning toward abstraction, challenging traditional still life conventions. This painting reflects Church’s interest in balancing everyday objects with bold artistic expression. It conveys both the simplicity and complexity of daily life, transforming an ordinary moment into a vibrant and engaging work of art. This work is oil on canvas and is signed and dated in the lower right. It is housed in its original gessoed frame and retains various labels and inscriptions on the reverse. Size: 28.25 inches tall by 36 inches wide (painting) 34 inches tall by 42 inches wide by 2 inches deep (frame) Provenance: Private collection, NY; Acquired from the above About the artist: Born in Highgate, north London, Katharine Church, known as ‘Kitty’ amongst friends and family, always wanted to paint. She trained at the Royal Academy of Arts between 1930-1933 and at the Slade between 1933 and 1934. In her early years Kitty exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy. Her first solo exhibition was in 1933 at the Wertheim Gallery. Other artists who exhibited there included Christopher Wood, Victor Pasmore and Cedric Morris. Kitty also showed with the New English Art Club, the London Group and between 1937-1947 her work was exhibited at the influential Lefevre Gallery, which supported avant-garde artists such as Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth. In 1954 the artist was invited to take part in the Figures in their setting exhibition held at the Tate Gallery. Henry Tonks and Philip Wilson Steer had a strong influence on Kitty’s early work, but it was her friendship with Ivon Hitchens that liberated her painting technique. In 1936 Kitty married Anthony West, the son of writers Rebecca West and H.G. Wells. The couple initially lived in London before moving to Quarry Farm, Chicksgrove, Tisbury, near Salisbury, where they brought up their children Caroline and Edmund. There they hosted many of their friends, including the New Zealand painter Frances Hodgkins. Other regular visitors before the War included John and Mywafany Piper, Ralph and Frances Partridge, Noel and Catharine Carrington, Julian Trevelyan and Mary Fedden. For many of those who visited Kitty would organise painting expeditions. After the war Kitty and Anthony separated, with Anthony moving to the United States. Anthony West moved to the United States to work as a journalist for The New Yorker. In the early years after their parting Kitty visited most years with the children. In the 1960s Kitty purchased Sutton House and ran the Hambledon Gallery at Blandford Forum. There she promoted the work of her early art-school friends Mary Fedden and Julian Trevelyan, alongside work by the Pipers, John Craxton...

Category

Modern 1930s Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

American School Signed Framed Nude Woman Portrait Impressionist Oil Painting
American School Signed Framed Nude Woman Portrait Impressionist Oil Painting

American School Signed Framed Nude Woman Portrait Impressionist Oil Painting

Located in Buffalo, NY

Vintage American school impressionist nude interior scene oil painting. Oil on canvas. Signed. Framed. Provenance from a Sag Harbor, NY collection. Measuring: 18 by 21 inches overall...

Category

Impressionist 1930s Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

City at Night (Cityscape)
City at Night (Cityscape)

City at Night (Cityscape)

By Abram Tromka

Located in Wilton Manors, FL

Abram Tromka (1895-1964) City at Night, ca. 1940. Oil on canvas, 16 x 20 inches; 20 x 24 inches in antique oak frame. Signed lower right. Frame is of the period, but probably not ...

Category

American Modern 1930s Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Fall in the Mountain Valley
Fall in the Mountain Valley

Fall in the Mountain Valley

Located in North Clarendon, VT

Beautiful American School impressionist piece, unsigned, oil on board. Likely 1920-1940. Painted by a talented artist with wonderful composition and brushwork. 10" x 14" sight, 16.2...

Category

American Impressionist 1930s Art

Materials

Oil

Vintage Signed Trompe L'Oeil Dock Scene Framed Interior Seascape Oil Painting
Vintage Signed Trompe L'Oeil Dock Scene Framed Interior Seascape Oil Painting

Vintage Signed Trompe L'Oeil Dock Scene Framed Interior Seascape Oil Painting

Located in Buffalo, NY

Antique American modernist seascape oil painting. Oil on canvasboard. Signed. Framed. Measuring: 13 by 16 inches overall, and 10 by 14 painting alone. Excellent condition, ready to h...

Category

Impressionist 1930s Art

Materials

Oil

'Art Deco Greta Garbo' Giant Oversize print
'Art Deco Greta Garbo' Giant Oversize print

'Art Deco Greta Garbo' Giant Oversize print

Located in London, GB

'Art Deco Greta Garbo' Greta Garbo in 'Mata Hari,' 1931. (Photo: Clarence Sinclair Bull) Beautiful mint condition Giant Archival Pigment print measuring a very large 60 x 40 inches / 152 x 101 cm's Edge Prints...

Category

Modern 1930s Art

Materials

Black and White, Archival Pigment

Kirk Hutton 'Commissionaire's Dog' Archival Photograph by Getty, 16x20
Kirk Hutton 'Commissionaire's Dog' Archival Photograph by Getty, 16x20

Kirk Hutton 'Commissionaire's Dog' Archival Photograph by Getty, 16x20

Located in San Rafael, CA

A hotel commissionaire talking to a small dachshund dog in Piccadilly Circus, London. Original Publication: Picture Post - 2 - In The Heart of the Empire - pub. 1938 (Photo by Kurt H...

Category

Contemporary 1930s Art

Materials

Photographic Paper

Potted Flowers
Potted Flowers

Charles KvapilPotted Flowers, 1933

$3,732Sale Price|40% Off

Potted Flowers

By Charles Kvapil

Located in London, GB

'Potted Flowers', oil on canvas, by Charles Kvapil (1933). Potted red geraniums symbolise happiness, good health, good wishes, and friendship. They are ...

Category

Expressionist 1930s Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Christopher Street (abstract Greenwich Village cityscape)
Christopher Street (abstract Greenwich Village cityscape)

Christopher Street (abstract Greenwich Village cityscape)

By De Hirsch Margules

Located in Wilton Manors, FL

De Hirsh Margules (1899-1965). Christopher Street, 1939. Watercolor on Arches wove paper. Signed and dated in pencil by artist lower margin. Sheet measures 15.5 x 20 inches. Window in matting measures 15 x 19 inches. Framed measurement: 23 x 30 inched. Bears fragment of original label affixed on verso. Incredibly vibrant and saturated color with no fading or toning of sheet. Provenance: Babcock Galleries, NYC Exhibited: The American Federation of Arts Traveling Exhibition. From the facade of The Waverly at Christopher is depicted One Christopher Street, the 16-story Art Deco residential building erected in 1931. It is not a casual coincidence that the structure appears in this cityscape: 1 Christopher Street is the subject. The original intention of this project was to transform the neighborhood, bring a bit of affluence and make a bid to rival the Upper West Side. Margules, a sensitive aesthete, understood how a massive piece of architecture such as One changes a neighborhood. Sound, scale and focal points are forever altered. A pedestrian's sense of depth and distance becomes pronounced. All of these factors contribute to the intent behind this image. Tall buildings disrupt the human scale, change the skyline and carve up space. In this piece, negative space conforms to the man-made geometries. Clouds become gems fixed in settings. De Hirsh Margules (1899–1965) was a Romanian-American "abstract realist" painter who crossed paths with many major American artistic and intellectual figures of the first half of the 20th century. Elaine de Kooning said that he was "[w]idely recognized as one of the most gifted and erudite watercolorists in the country". The New York Times critic Howard Devree stated in 1938 that "Margules uses color in a breath-taking manner. A keen observer, he eliminates scrupulously without distortion of his material." Devree later called Margules "one of our most daring experimentalists in the medium" Margules was also a well-known participant in the bohemian culture of New York City's Greenwich Village, where he was widely known as the "Baron" of Greenwich Village.[1] The New York Times described him as "one of Greenwich Village's best-known personalities" and "one of the best known and most buoyant characters about Greenwich Village. Early Life De Hirsh Margules was born in 1899 in the Romanian city of Iași (also known as Iasse, Jassy, or Jasse). When Margules was 10 weeks old, his family immigrated to New York City. Both of his parents were active in the Yiddish theater, His father was Yekutiel "Edward" Margules, a "renowned Jewish actor-impresario and founder of the Yiddish stage." Margules' mother, Rosa, thirty-nine years younger than his father, was an actress in the Yiddish theater and later in vaudeville. Although Margules appeared as a child actor with the Adler Family[11] and Bertha Kalich, his sister, Annette Margules, somewhat dubiously continued in family theater and vaudeville tradition, creating the blackface role of the lightly-clad Tondelayo (a part later played on film Hedy Lamarr) in Earl Carroll's 1924 Broadway exoticist hit, White Cargo. Annette herself faced stereotyping as an exotic flower: writing about her publicist Charles Bouchert stated that "Romania produces a stormy, temperamental type of woman---a type admirably fitted to portray emotion." His brother Samuel became a noted magician who appeared under the name "Rami-Sami." Samuel later became a lawyer, representing magician Horace Goldin, among others. A family portrait including a young De Hirsh, a portrait of Rosa and Annette together, and individual photos of Rosa and Edward can be found on the Museum of the City of New York website. At around age 9 or 10, Margules took art classes with the Boys Club on East Tenth Street, and his first taste of exhibition was at a student art show presented by the club. By age 11, he had won a city-wide prize (a box camera) at a children's art show presented by the department store Wanamakers. As a young teenager, Margules was already displaying a characteristic kindness and loyalty. Upon hearing that two friends (one of them was author Alexander King), were in trouble for breaking a school microscope, the nearly broke Margules gave them five dollars to repair the microscope . Margules had to approach a wealthy man that Margules had once saved on the subway from a heart attack. Margules didn't reveal the source of the five dollars to King until twenty-five years later. In his late teens, Margules studied for a couple of months in Pittsburgh with Edwin Randby, a follower of Western painter Frederic Remington. Thereafter he pursued a two-year course of studies in architecture, design and decoration at the New York Evening School of Art and Design, while working as a clerk during the day at Stern's Department Store. He was encouraged in these artistic pursuits by his neighbor, the painter Benno Greenstein (who later went by the name of Benjamin Benno). Artistic career In 1922, Margules began work as a police reporter for the City News Association of New York .Margules then considered himself something of an expert on art, and the painter Myron Lechay is said to have responded to some unsolicited analysis of his work with the remark "Since you seem to know so much about it, why don't you paint yourself?" This led to study with Lechay and a flurry of painting. Margules' first show was in 1922 at Jane Heap's Little Review Gallery. Thereafter Margules began to participate in shows with a group including Stuart Davis, Jan Matulka, Buckminster Fuller (exhibiting depictions of his "Dymaxion house") in a gallery run by art-lover and restaurateur Romany Marie on the floor above her cafe. Jane Heap, left, with Mina Loy and Ezra Pound During the 1920s, Margules traveled outside of the country a number of times. In 1922, with the intent of reaching Bali, he took a job as a "'wiper on a tramp steamer where [he] played nursemaid to the engine." He reached Rotterdam before he turned back. He would return to Rotterdam shortly thereafter. In 1927, Margules took a lengthy leave of absence from his day job as a police reporter in order to travel to Paris, where he "set up a studio in Montmartre's Place du Tertre, on the top floor of an almost deserted hotel, a shabby establishment, lacking both heat and running water." He studied at the Louvre and traveled to paint landscapes in provincial France and North Africa. Margules also joined the "Noctambulist" movement and experimented with painting and showing his artwork in low light.Jonathan Cott wrote that: the painter De Hirsch Margulies sat on the quays of the Seine and painted pictures in the dark. In fact, the first exhibition of these paintings, which could be seen only in a darkened room, took place in [ Walter Lowenfels'] Paris apartment. Elaine de Kooning remarked that studying the works of the Noctambulists confirmed Margules' "direction toward the use of primary colors for perverse effects of heavy shadow." It was also in Paris that Margules initially conceived his idea of "Time Painting", where a painting is divided into sectors, each representing a different time of day, with color choices meant to evoke that time of day. In Paris, his social circle included Lowenfels, photographer Berenice Abbott, publisher Jane Heap, composer George Anthiel, sculptor Thelma Wood, painter André Favory, writer Norman Douglas, writer and editor George Davis, composer and writer Max Ewing, and writer Michael Fraenkel. Upon his return to New York in 1929, Margules attended an exhibition of John Marin's paintings. While at the exhibition, he "launched into an eloquent explanation of Marin to two nearby women", and was overheard by an impressed Alfred Stieglitz. The famous photographer and art promoter invited Margules to dine with his wife, the artist Georgia O'Keeffe, and his assistant, painter Emil Zoler. Stieglitz thereafter became a friend and mentor to Margules, becoming for him "what Socrates was to his friends." Alfred Stieglitz Stieglitz introduced Margules to John Marin, who quickly became the most important painterly influence upon Margules. Elaine de Kooning later noted that Margules was "indebted to Marin and through Marin to Cézanne for his initial conceptual approach - for his constructions of scenes with no negative elements, for skies that loom with the impact of mountains." Margules himself said that Marin was his "father and ... academy." The admiration was by no means unreciprocated: Marin said that Margules was "an art lover with abounding faith and sincerity, with much intelligence and quick seeing." Stieglitz also introduced Margules to many other artistic and intellectual figures in New York. With the encouragement of Alfred Stieglitz, Margules in 1936 opened a two-room gallery at 43 West 8th Street called "Another Place." Over the following two years there were fourteen solo exhibitions by Margules and others, and the gallery was well-respected by the press. It was in this gallery that the painter James Lechay, Myron's brother, exhibited his first painting. In 1936, Margules first saw recognition by major art museums when both the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston purchased his works. In 1942, Margules gave up working as a police reporter, and apparently dedicated himself thereafter solely to an artistic vocation. "The Baron of Greenwich Village"[edit] Margules made his mark not only as an artist, but also as an outsized personality known throughout Greenwich Village and beyond. To local residents, Margules was known as the "Baron", after Baron Maurice de Hirsch, a prominent German Jewish philanthropist. Margules was easily recognizable by the beret he routinely wore over his long hair. Writer Charles Norman said that he "dressed with a flair for sloppiness." He was said to "know everybody" in Greenwich Village, to the extent that when the novelist and poet Maxwell Bodenheim was murdered, Margules was the first one the police sought to identify the body. Margules' letters show him interacting with art world figures such as Sacha Kolin, John Marin and Alfred Stieglitz, as well as with prominent figures outside the art world such as polymath Buckminster Fuller and writer Henry Miller. Most of his friends and acquaintances found Margules a generous and voluble man, given to broadly emotionally expressive gestures and acts of kindness and loyalty. In 1929, he exhibited an example of this loyalty and fellow-feeling when he appeared in court to fight what the wrongful commitment of his friend, writer and sculptor Alfred Dreyfuss, who appeared to have been a victim of an illicit attempt to block an inheritance. The Greenwich Village chronicler Charles Norman described the bone-crushing hugs that Margules would routinely bestow on his friends and acquaintances, and speaks of the "persuasive theatricality" that Margules seemed to have inherited from his actor parents. Norman also wrote about Margules' routine acts of kindness, taking in homeless artists, constantly feeding his friends and providing the salvatory loan where needed. Norman also notes that Margules was blessed with a loud and good voice, and was apt to sing an operatic air without provocation. The writer and television personality Alexander King said I think the outstanding characteristics of my friend's personality are affirmation, emphasis, and overemphasis. He chooses to express himself predominantly in superlatives and the gestures which accompany his utterances are sometimes dangerous to life and limb. Of the bystanders, I mean. King also spoke with affectionate amusement about Margules' pride in his cooking, speaking of how "if he should ever invite you to dinner, he may serve you a hamburger with onions, in his kitchen-living room, with such an air of gastronomic protocol, such mysterious hints and ogliing innuendoes, as if César Ritz and Brillat-Savarin had sneaked out, only a moment before, with his secret recipe in their pockets." Margules was such a memorable New York personality that comic book writer Alvin Schwartz imagined him at the Sixth Avenue Cafeteria in a risible yet poignant debate with Clark Kent about whether Superman had the ability to stop Hitler. Margules' entrenchment in the Greenwich Village milieu can be seen in a photograph from Fred McDarrah's "Beat Generation Album" of a January 13, 1961 writers' and poets' meeting to discuss "The Funeral of the Beat Generation", in Robert Cordier [fr]'s railroad flat at 85 Christopher Street. Among the people in the same photograph are Shel Silverstein...

Category

American Modern 1930s Art

Materials

Watercolor, Rag Paper

Rockport Landscape
Rockport Landscape

Rockport Landscape

By Giovanni Martino

Located in Wilton Manors, FL

Beautiful 1931 painting by American artist, Giovanni Martino (1908-1997). Oil on canvas measures 25 x 30 inches. Measures 35 x 39 inches framed. The scene depicts what is definitively the Rockport, Mass. fishing pier. Excellent condition with a few very minor areas of paint flaking. The darker areas in the sky is a result of unpainted areas. The canvas is sized with glue but not primed white: observable areas of natural linen color results. Signed wet into wet and dated lower left. No restoration or overpaint. Giovanni Martino, National Academy of Design* member, was born on May 1, 1908 in Philadelphia PA where all seven brothers and one sister, Filomina, Frank, Antonio, Albert, Ernest, Giovanni, Edmond, and William became painters. They were under the tutelage of their eldest brother, Frank, who in the late 1920s, founded the first commercial art* studio, Martino Studios, at 27 South 18th Street. Besides studying with his two eldest brothers, Giovanni also studied with Albert Jean Adolph at La France Institute, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts*, The Graphic Sketch Club, and Spring Garden Institute in Philadelphia. In his mid teens he accompanied his two eldest brothers to New Hope searching for subjects to paint. In the 1930s, he also started to paint in Manayunk, a hilly mill town along the Schuylkill River...

Category

American Impressionist 1930s Art

Materials

Oil