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1930s Art

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Period: 1930s
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

Decheance de al Buveuse d'Eau(Downfall of a Lady Teetotaler)

Decheance de al Buveuse d'Eau(Downfall of a Lady Teetotaler)

By Raoul Dufy

Located in Laguna Beach, CA

“My eyes were made to erase all that is ugly”. -Raoul Dufy Raoul Dufy’s depictions for an instant charmer of a "medical book" illustrates the myriad benefits of wine, while being sp...

Category

Post-Impressionist 1930s Art

Materials

Lithograph

Pheasant
Pheasant

Pheasant

By François Pompon

Located in PARIS, FR

Pheasant by François Pompon (1855-1933) Exceptional bronze with old gilded patina Cast by Valsuani Period cast France circa 1930 height 8,2 cm length 14,2 cm width 3,6 cm A similar model is represented in "Pompon, Catalog raisonné", Editions Gallimard, RMN, 1995, page 202, n°95B. Biography: François Pompon (1855-1933) is known for his animal sculptures whose innovative style is characterized by the simplification of shapes and polished surfaces. Pompon entered as an apprentice in the workshop of his father, Alban Pompon (1823-1907) who was a "compagnon du devoir" of the carpenter-cabinetmakers. Thanks to a scholarship obtained by the parish priest, he left in 1870 for Dijon where he became an apprentice stonemason with a marble worker. He attended evening classes at the School of Fine Arts in Dijon, first in architecture and engraving with Célestin Nanteuil, then in sculpture with François Dameron (1835-1900). After a short stint in the army in 1875, Pompon arrived in Paris where he became a marble worker in a funeral business near the Montparnasse cemetery. He attended evening classes at the Petite École, the future National School of Decorative Arts. His teachers were the sculptors Aimé Millet (1819-1891) and Pierre Louis Rouillard (1820-1881), also professor of anatomy, who showed him the menagerie of the Jardin des Plantes. In 1890, François Pompon entered the studio of Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), where he worked as a practitioner at the marble depot, rue de l'Université. He quickly gained the master's confidence since he ran the workshop in 1893. His role then was to pass on the accounts, pay for the marbles and supervise the work. It is in this same workshop that he met Ernest Nivet and Camille Claudel. He worked for a long time as a practitioner for other sculptors such as Jean Dampt...

Category

French School 1930s Art

Materials

Bronze

Japanese Print, White-billed Pie - Signed Woodcut
Japanese Print, White-billed Pie - Signed Woodcut

Japanese Print, White-billed Pie - Signed Woodcut

Located in Paris, IDF

Mokuchu URUSHIBARA White-billed Pie, c. 1930 Woodcut after on an ink drawing Signed with the artist's stamp On paper 32 x 26.5 cm (c. 12.59 x 10.23 in) INFORMATION : Engraving pub...

Category

Modern 1930s Art

Materials

Woodcut

Male Nude
Male Nude

Male Nude

By M. Lambert

Located in Houston, TX

French pencil drawing of a nude male statue with bronze casting to leg by artist M. Lambert, circa 1930. Signed lower right. Original artwork on pap...

Category

1930s Art

Materials

Graphite

Slack Rope Artist
Slack Rope Artist

Slack Rope Artist

By Benton Murdoch Spruance

Located in Myrtle Beach, SC

Benton Spruance, 'Slack Rope Artist', lithograph, 1930, edition 30, Fine and Looney 35. Signed and titled in pencil. Numbered '2' in the bottom right margin. A fine impression, with ...

Category

American Modern 1930s Art

Materials

Lithograph

Winter Moonlight - Signed Landscape Oil Painting by Max Clarenbach
Winter Moonlight - Signed Landscape Oil Painting by Max Clarenbach

Winter Moonlight - Signed Landscape Oil Painting by Max Clarenbach

Located in Marlow, Buckinghamshire

Signed oil on canvas landscape circa 1930 by German post impressionist painter Max Clarenbach. The work depicts a winter scene, with snow laying thick on the ground. To the foregroun...

Category

Post-Impressionist 1930s Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Barge Toiler -Mid 20th Century Modern WPA Labor Plaster Depression-Era Sculpture
Barge Toiler -Mid 20th Century Modern WPA Labor Plaster Depression-Era Sculpture

Barge Toiler -Mid 20th Century Modern WPA Labor Plaster Depression-Era Sculpture

By Max Kalish

Located in New York, NY

"Barge Toiler" by Max Kalish is a Mid 20th Century modern Depression-Era sculpture from his Labor series. The WPA era work is made of plaster. Max Kalish (1891 – 1945) Barge Toiler 12 x 8”x 4 inches Patinated plaster Signed and monogramed BIO Born in Poland March 1, 1891, figurative sculptor Max Kalish came to the United States in 1894, his family settling in Ohio. A talented youth, Kalish enrolled at the Cleveland Institute of Art as a fifteen-year-old, receiving a first-place award for modeling the figure during studies with Herman Matzen. Kalish went to New York City following graduation, studying with Isidore Konti and Herbert Adams...

Category

American Modern 1930s Art

Materials

Plaster

Soldiers Playing Cards
Soldiers Playing Cards

Soldiers Playing Cards

By Yves Brayer

Located in London, GB

'Soldiers Playing Cards', watercolour and gouache on art paper, by Yves Brayer (1939). Such an atmospheric image, this stunning depiction by celebrated F...

Category

1930s Art

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Gouache

Stevan Dohanos, Backyard
Stevan Dohanos, Backyard

Stevan Dohanos, Backyard

By Stevan Dohanos

Located in New York, NY

Stevan Dohanos was an accomplished draftsman who work was widely known through the Saturday Evening Post. This print 'Backyard,' however, leaves aside the illustrative magazine work ...

Category

American Modern 1930s Art

Materials

Woodcut

Circa 1930 original tourism poster attributed to Atelier Prof. Kirnig - Austria
Circa 1930 original tourism poster attributed to Atelier Prof. Kirnig - Austria

Circa 1930 original tourism poster attributed to Atelier Prof. Kirnig - Austria

By Atelier Prof. Kirnig

Located in PARIS, FR

This elegant circa 1930 original tourism poster attributed to Atelier Prof. Kirnig was produced to promote travel to Austria, highlighting the country’s spectacular Alpine landscapes...

Category

Art Deco 1930s Art

Materials

Linen, Paper, Lithograph

Palo Colorado, South of Carmel, c. 1934
Palo Colorado, South of Carmel, c. 1934

Palo Colorado, South of Carmel, c. 1934

By Albert Thomas DeRome

Located in Pasadena, CA

Acquired by a private collector, Palo Alto, San Carlos and Oceanside, California, from Bingham Gallery in the Fairmont Hotel, San Jose, California; By descent to a private collector,...

Category

Impressionist 1930s Art

Materials

Oil, Panel

Marché à Prizren - Post Impressionist Figurative Oil by Jacques Martin-Ferrieres
Marché à Prizren - Post Impressionist Figurative Oil by Jacques Martin-Ferrieres

Marché à Prizren - Post Impressionist Figurative Oil by Jacques Martin-Ferrieres

By Jacques Martin-Ferrières

Located in Marlow, Buckinghamshire

Signed figurative oil on panel circa 1938 by post impressionist painter Jacques Martin-Ferrieres. This wonderful piece depicts people marching to Prizen in the former Yugoslavia. Mar...

Category

Post-Impressionist 1930s Art

Materials

Oil, Panel

DESERT BARRIER
DESERT BARRIER

DESERT BARRIER

By Frances H. Gearhart

Located in Santa Monica, CA

FRANCES H. GEARHART (1869-1958) DESERT BARRIER c. 1933 Color block print, unsigned 12 x 9 ¼”. Typical original margins on good fibrous japan paper. Many very good impressions by G...

Category

American Impressionist 1930s Art

Materials

Woodcut

Max Eisler Eine Nachlese folio “Portrait of Baroness Bachofen-Echt” collotype
Max Eisler Eine Nachlese folio “Portrait of Baroness Bachofen-Echt” collotype

Max Eisler Eine Nachlese folio “Portrait of Baroness Bachofen-Echt” collotype

By (after) Gustav Klimt

Located in Palm Beach, FL

After Gustav Klimt, Max Eisler #22, Bildnis Baronin Bachofen-Echt; multi-color collotype after 1914-1916 painting in oil on canvas. GUSTAV KLIMT EINE NACHLESE (GUSTAV KLIMT AN AFTERMATH), a portfolio of 30 collotypes prints, 15 are multi-color and 15 are monochrome, on chine colle paper laid down on heavy cream-wove paper with deckled edges; Max Eisler, Editor-Publisher; Osterreichischer Staatsdruckerei (Austrian State Printing Office), Printer; in a limited edition of 500 numbered examples of which: 200 were printed in German, 150 were printed in French and 150 were printed in English; Vienna, 1931. 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of Gustav Klimt’s death. It is a fitting time to reflect upon the enduring legacy and deep impact of his art. Recognizing this need for posterity with uncanny foresight, the publication of Gustav Klimt: An Aftermath (Eine Nachlese) provides a rare collection of work after Klimt which has proven to be an indispensable tool for Klimt scholarship as well as a source for pure visual delight. Approximately 25 percent of the original works featured in the Aftermath portfolio have since been lost. Of those 30, six were destroyed by fire on 8 May 1945. On that fateful final day of WWII, the retreating Feldherrnhalle, a tank division of the German Army, set fire to the Schloss Immendorf which was a 16th century castle in Lower Austria used between 1942-1945 to store objects of art. All three of Klimt’s Faculty Paintings: Philosophy, Medicine and Jurisprudence (1900-1907), originally created for the University of Vienna, were on premises at that time. Also among the inventory of Klimt paintings in storage there was art which had been confiscated by the Nazis. One of the most significant confiscated collections was the Lederer collection which featured many works by Gustav Klimt such as Girlfriends II and Garden Path with Chickens...

Category

Vienna Secession 1930s Art

Materials

Archival Paper

VALLEY RAMPARTS -
VALLEY RAMPARTS -

VALLEY RAMPARTS -

By Frances H. Gearhart

Located in Santa Monica, CA

FRANCES H. GEARHART (1869-1958) VALLEY RAMPARTS 1933 Color block print, signed and titled in pencil. 10 1/8 x 12 inches. Very large and good impression In generally good condition. ...

Category

Impressionist 1930s Art

Materials

Woodcut

1930s Zeppelin Over San Francisco Landscape
1930s Zeppelin Over San Francisco Landscape

1930s Zeppelin Over San Francisco Landscape

Located in Soquel, CA

1930s Zeppelin Over San Francisco Landscape Bright and evocative 1938 painting of burning Zeppelin by Ethel Grace Arpin Harlo Lynn (American 1881-1960). This was original painting w...

Category

American Realist 1930s Art

Materials

Metal

Plate 20 from "Formes et Couleurs"
Plate 20 from "Formes et Couleurs"

Plate 20 from "Formes et Couleurs"

Located in New York, NY

Plate 20 from "Formes et couleurs; vingt planches en couleurs contenant soixante-sept motifs décoratifs" by Auguste H. Thomas. Paris: A. Levy, Librarie Centrale des Beaux-Arts, circa...

Category

1930s Art

Materials

Paper

Nude Viewed from the Back
Nude Viewed from the Back

Nude Viewed from the Back

By Charles Kvapil

Located in London, GB

'Nude Viewed from the Back', oil on canvas, by Charles Kvapil (1937). The world of art has for centuries depicted nudes in one form or another. Kvapil's wonderfully alluring versions may likely be inspired by Courbet and Cézanne. This nude appears on a chair with her back to the artist and viewer. There are plush reds, sensuous pinks and darker, patterned curtains...

Category

1930s Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Calligrammes, by Guillaume Apollinaire and Giorgio De Chirico
Calligrammes, by Guillaume Apollinaire and Giorgio De Chirico

Calligrammes, by Guillaume Apollinaire and Giorgio De Chirico

By Giorgio De Chirico

Located in Roma, IT

Format : 2 Volumes, In-4° Typology : Print Suite Edition of 100 copies, including 65 original lithographs by Giorgio De Chirico in the text. This copy is in two volumes, unlike the standard edition printed in a unique volume. This edition is part of the only 6 made on Japan Supernacré Paper...

Category

Surrealist 1930s Art

Materials

Handmade Paper

"Bucks County Mill"

"Bucks County Mill"

By Walter Emerson Baum

Located in Lambertville, NJ

Jim's of Lambertville Fine Art Gallery is proud to present this piece by Walter Emerson Baum (1884 - 1956). Born in Sellersville, Pennsylvania, Walter Baum was one of the only members of the New Hope Art Colony actually born in Bucks County...

Category

American Impressionist 1930s Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

The Jester, Post Cover
The Jester, Post Cover

The Jester, Post Cover

By Norman Rockwell

Located in Fort Washington, PA

Signed by Artist Lower Right The Saturday Evening Post, February 11, 1939, cover illustration Literature The Saturday Evening Post, February 11, 1939, cover illustration Thomas S....

Category

1930s Art

Materials

Oil

Panther licking
Panther licking

Panther licking

By André Vincent Becquerel

Located in PARIS, FR

Panther licking by André-Vincent BECQUEREL (1893-1981) A bronze sculpture with nuanced green patina Signed on the base " Becquerel " Old edition cast Presented on a wooden base Fra...

Category

French School 1930s Art

Materials

Bronze

Original 1939 Gone With The Wind set of vintage Lobby Cards
Original 1939 Gone With The Wind set of vintage Lobby Cards

Original 1939 Gone With The Wind set of vintage Lobby Cards

Located in Spokane, WA

Original Gone with the Wind (MGM, 1939). Seven Lobby Cards: The collection is seven lobby cards. Size 9.75” x 13”. The small cream border has been trimmed from the 11" x 14" forma...

Category

American Realist 1930s Art

Materials

Offset

original linocut
original linocut

original linocut

By Giorgio De Chirico

Located in Henderson, NV

Medium: original linoleum cut. Printed in 1938 for the art revue XXe Siecle (issue number 4) and and published in Paris by San Lazzaro. Sheet size: 12 1/2 x 9 5/8 inches (317 x 243 m...

Category

1930s Art

Materials

Linocut

'To Market, to Market' — Surrealist Fantasy
'To Market, to Market' — Surrealist Fantasy

'To Market, to Market' — Surrealist Fantasy

Located in Myrtle Beach, SC

Zena Kavin, 'To Market, to Market', lithograph, c. 1935, edition 20. Signed, titled, and numbered '6/20' in pencil. A fine, richly-inked impression, on cream wove paper, with full ma...

Category

American Modern 1930s Art

Materials

Lithograph

2 Lazy 2 P

2 Lazy 2 P

Located in Phoenix, AZ

2 Lazy 2P, ca. 1939 Lon Megargee Serigraph 20 x 24 inches Signed in screen Original serigraph print by Lon Megargee 1883 - 1960 Featured in "Hot Irons" by Oren Arnold and John Hale, 1940 SHIPPING CHARGES INCLUDE SHIPPING, PACKAGING & INSURANCE Lon Megargee created this serigraph from his commission with Oren Arnold and John Hale to do their dust jacket for the book, " Hot Irons", 1940. Arnold and Hale wanted to establish a reference work, an "authority", with a entertaining history about the evolution of the brand. Megargee created a painting of a steer that was branded with the script, 2 Lazy 2 P. Surrounding the steer is a random display of famous brands of ranches in the Southwest. It was well received and must have prompted Megargee to create the likeness as a print. The brand is described in chapter thirteen, page 207-208 and says, " Ed Stram, who was Arizona state veterinarian for sixteen years, fire-branded his cattle with this peculiar crest. It isn't peculiar unless you have an equally peculiar sense of humor. At a glance it appears to be just another typically unimaginative brand, but it has been used to make many a thousand girls blush, and a few thousand bashful young men as well". COLLIER GALLERY, FINE ART ESTATE OF LON MEGARGEE Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Lon Megargee, at age 13, ran away from his upper class home and went West in 1896 led by his zest for the wild and adventuresome life. There he established a reputation as a cowboy painter and illustrator with work most associated with Arizona Brewing Company ads featuring humorous aspects of cowboy life. In his youth, he worked as a free-lance cowboy, exhibition roper, poker dealer, and bronco buster in Arizona, and then went east again to study art in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and to New York at the Art Students League and Pratt Institute. He returned to Arizona, living in Cave Creek, Salt River Canyon, Phoenix and the last years of his life near Sedona. His Phoenix home later became a popular hotel and dining place called the Hermosa Inn. Megargee was a ranch owner and also did oil canvases of the places he loved and the cowboy life he admired. By 1910, he was among the earliest resident artists, and was probably the best known artist in Arizona. His name was first associated with a landscape series of 15 large murals for the Capitol Building, newly constructed just after Arizona became a state in 1912. Another one of his paintings, Elemental, was the first painting by an artist living in Arizona to be acquired for the Municipal Collection of Phoenix. These works were chosen from entries in the State Fair, where he continued to win prizes for figure and landscape painting. From 1911 to 1953, he did numerous commission works for the Santa Fe Railroad, including a work titledNavajos Watching a Santa Fe Train. Between 1915 and 1930, he also painted in the Los Angeles area of California and had entries in the California State Fair. He died in Cottonwood, Arizona. After his death, theSaturday Evening Post had a double-page reproduction of his painting Cowboy's Dream. Creator of the iconic logo for the Stetson Hat Company, " Last Drop From his Stetson", still in use today. Fine Art Estate of Lon Megargee We offer signed in print and original signature block prints. Custom, hand carved, signature frames, with archival standards and a speciality in hand dyed mats and french matting are provided for a beautiful and timeless presentation. Megargee explored different mediums; printmaking captivated him in particular. The contrast of the black and white block print method captured perfectly his interpretation of a bold American West. The first print was produced around 1921 and culminated with the creation of “The Cowboy Builds a Loop” in 1933 with 28 images and poetry by his friend, Roy George. Megargee continued producing prints throughout the 1940s and early 50s. At age 13, Lon Megargee came to Phoenix in 1896 following the death of his father in Philadelphia. For several years he resided with relatives while working at an uncle’s dairy farm and at odd jobs. He returned to Philadelphia in 1898 – 1899 in order to attend drawing classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Back in Phoenix in 1899, he decided at the age of 16 to try to make his living as a cowboy. Lon moved to the cow country of Wickenburg where he was hired by Tex Singleton’s Bull Ranch. He later joined the Three Bar Ranch . . . and, after a few years, was offered a job by Billy Cook...

Category

American Modern 1930s Art

Materials

Screen

Grey Heron, French antique natural history water bird art illustration print
Grey Heron, French antique natural history water bird art illustration print

Grey Heron, French antique natural history water bird art illustration print

Located in Melbourne, Victoria

French chromolithograph, published in 1931. Printed title lower right of sheet. Plate number top right. From a French series of illustrations of birds. 195mm by 265mm (sheet)

Category

Art Deco 1930s Art

Materials

Lithograph

Early 20th Century Ceramic Sculpture of a Polo Player and Horse
Early 20th Century Ceramic Sculpture of a Polo Player and Horse

Early 20th Century Ceramic Sculpture of a Polo Player and Horse

By Waylande Gregory

Located in Beachwood, OH

Waylande Gregory (American, 1905-1971) Polo Player, c. 1930s Ceramic Inscribed signature on bottom 11 x 8.5 inches Waylande Gregory was considered a major American sculptor during the 1930's, although he worked in ceramics, rather than in the more traditional bronze or marble. Exhibiting his ceramic works at such significant American venues for sculpture as the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City and at the venerable Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, he also showed his ceramic sculptures at leading New York City galleries. Gregory was the first modern ceramist to create large scale ceramic sculptures, some measuring more than 70 inches in height. Similar to the technique developed by the ancient Etruscans, he fired his monumental ceramic sculptures only once. Gregory was born in 1905 in Baxter Springs, Kansas and was something of a prodigy. Growing up on a ranch near a Cherokee reservation, Gregory first became interested in ceramics as a child during a native American burial that he had witnessed. He was also musically inclined. In fact, his mother had been a concert pianist and had given her son lessons. At eleven, he was enrolled as a student at the Kansas State Teacher's College, where he studied carpentry and crafts, including ceramics. Gregory's early development as a sculptor was shaped by the encouragement and instruction of Lorado Taft, who was considered both a major American sculptor as well as a leading American sculpture instructor. In fact, Taft's earlier students included such significant sculptors as Bessie Potter Vonnoh and Janet Scudder. But, Taft and his students had primarily worked in bronze or stone, not in clay; and, Gregory's earliest sculptural works were also not in ceramics. In 1924, Gregory moved to Chicago where he caught the attention of Taft. Gregory was invited by Taft to study with him privately for 18 months and to live and work with him at his famed "Midway Studios." The elegant studio was a complex of 13 rooms that overlooked a courtyard. Taft may have been responsible for getting the young man interested in creating large scale sculpture. However, by the 1920's, Taft's brand of academic sculpture was no longer considered progressive. Instead, Gregory was attracted to the latest trends appearing in the United States and Europe. In 1928 he visited Europe with Taft and other students. "Kid Gregory," as he was called, was soon hired by Guy Cowan, the founder of the Cowan Pottery in Cleveland, Ohio, to become the company's only full time employee. From 1928 to 1932, Gregory served as the chief designer and sculptor at the Cowan Pottery. Just as Gregory learned about the process of creating sculpture from Taft, he literally learned about ceramics from Cowan. Cowan was one of the first graduates of Alfred, the New York School of Clayworking and Ceramics. Alfred had one of the first programs in production pottery. Cowan may have known about pottery production, but he had limited sculptural skills, as he was lacking training in sculpture. The focus of the Cowan Pottery would be on limited edition, table top or mantle sculptures. Two of the most successful of these were Gregory's "Nautch Dancer," (fig. 1) and his "Burlesque Dancer," (fig. 2). He based both sculptures on the dancing of Gilda Gray, a Ziegfield Follies girl. Gilda Gray was of Polish origin and came to the United States as a child. By 1922, she would become one of the most popular stars in the Follies. After losing her assets in the stock market crash of 1929, she accepted other bookings outside of New York, including Cleveland, which was where Gregory first saw her onstage. She allowed Gregory to make sketches of her performances from the wings of the theatre. She explained to Gregory, "I'm too restless to pose." Gray became noted for her nautch dance, an East Indian folk dance. A nautch is a tight, fitted dress that would curl at the bottom and act like a hoop. This sculpture does not focus on Gray's face at all, but is more of a portrait of her nautch dance. It is very curvilinear, really made of a series of arches that connect in a most feminine way. Gregory created his "Burlesque Dancer" at about the same time as "Nautch Dancer." As with the "Nautch Dancer," he focused on the movements of the body rather than on a facial portrait of Gray. Although Gregory never revealed the identity of his model for "Burlesque Dancer," a clue to her identity is revealed in the sculpture's earlier title, "Shimmy Dance." The dancer who was credited for creating the shimmy dance was also Gilda Gray. According to dance legend, Gray introduced the shimmy when she sang the "Star Spangled Banner" and forgot some of the lyrics, so, in her embarrassment, started shaking her shoulders and hips but she did not move her legs. Such movement seems to relate to the "Burlesque Dancer" sculpture, where repeated triangular forms extend from the upper torso and hips. This rapid movement suggests the influence of Italian Futurism, as well as the planar motion of Alexander Archipenko, a sculptor whom Gregory much admired. The Cowan Pottery was a victim of the great depression, and in 1932, Gregory changed careers as a sculptor in the ceramics industry to that of an instructor at the Cranbrook Academy in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Cranbrook was perhaps the most prestigious place to study modern design in America. Its faculty included the architect Eliel Saarinen and sculptor Carl Milles. Although Gregory was only at Cranbrook for one and one half years, he created some of his finest works there, including his "Kansas Madonna" (fig. 3). But, after arriving at Cranbrook, the Gregory's had to face emerging financial pressures. Although Gregory and his wife were provided with complimentary lodgings, all other income had to stem from the sale of artworks and tuition from students that he, himself, had to solicit. Gregory had many people assisting him with production methods at the Cowan Pottery, but now worked largely by himself. And although he still used molds, especially in creating porcelain works, many of his major new sculptures would be unique and sculpted by hand, as is true of "Kansas Madonna." The scale of Gregory's works were getting notably larger at Cranbrook than at Cowan. Gregory left the surface of "Kansas Madonna" totally unglazed. Although some might object to using a religious title to depict a horse nursing its colt, it was considered one of Gregory's most successful works. In fact, it had a whole color page illustration in an article about ceramic sculpture titled, "The Art with the Inferiority Complex," Fortune Magazine, December, 1937. The article notes the sculpture was romantic and expressive and the sculpture was priced at $1,500.00; the most expensive sculpture in the article. Gregory was from Kansas, and "Kansas Madonna" should be considered a major sculptural document of Regionalism. Gregory and his wife Yolande moved to New Jersey in the summer of 1933. And the artist began construction on his new home in the Watchung Mountains of Bound Brook (Warren today) in 1938. His enormous, custom kiln was probably constructed at the start of 1938. Gregory's new sculptures were the largest ceramic sculptures in western art, in modern times. To create these works of ceramic virtuosity, the artist developed a "honeycomb" technique, in which an infrastructure of compartments was covered by a ceramic "skin." Science and atomic energy were a theme in Gregory's most significant work, the "Fountain of the Atom" (fig. 4), at the 1939 New York's World Fair. This major work included twelve monumental ceramic figures at the fairground entrance from the newly constructed railway entrance, giving the work great visibility and prominence. The framework of the fountain itself was of steel and glass bricks. It consisted of a bluish green pool which was sixty five feet in diameter. Above it were two concentric circular tiers, or terraces, as Gregory called them; the first wider than the second. On the first terrace were eight "Electrons," comprised of four male and four female terra cotta figures, each approximately 48 inches high. These relate to the valance shell of the atom. Above them on a narrower terrace, were the much larger and heavier terra cotta figures depicting the four elements, each averaging about 78 inches in height and weighing about a ton and a half. Of the four, "Water" and "Air" were male, while "Earth" and "Fire" were female. This terrace represents the nucleus of the atom. In the center of the fountain, above the "Elements," was a central shaft comprised of sixteen glass tubes from which water tumbled down from tier to tier. At the top, a colorful flame burned constantly. The glass block tiers were lit from within, the whole creating a glowing and gurgling effect. Since the fair was temporary, the figures could be removed after its closing. But the credit for the design of the structure of the fountain belongs to collaborator Nembhard Culin, who was responsible for several other structures on the fair grounds as well. Although Gregory created a figure of "Fire" for the "Fountain of the Atom," he also executed a second, slightly smaller but more defined version which he exhibited at various locations (including Cranbrook, Baltimore Museum, etc.) in 1940-1941, during the second year of the fair (fig.5). Measuring 61 inches in height, "Fire" may be a metaphor for sexual energy, as well as atomic energy. Gregory stated, "Fire is represented by an aquiline female figure being consumed in endless arabesques of flame." Portraiture was also a significant focus of Gregory's sculpture. Gregory produced many commissioned portraits of local people as well as celebrities. He created Albert Einstein's portrait from life (fig. 6, ca. 1940) after Einstein had seen Gregory's "Fountain of the Atom." He also sculpted some of the leading figures in entertainment, including 2 sculptures of Henry Fonda, who became a personal friend. Gregory also sculpted a series of idealized female heads, both in terra cotta and in porcelain. These include "Girl with Olive" (ca. 1932) and "Cretan Girl;"(ca. 1937) both are very reductive and almost abstract works that call to mind Constantine Brancusi's "Mademoiselle Pogany" (1912, Philadelphia Museum of Art). But perhaps one of his most original female heads is "Head of a Child" (fig. 7, ca. 1933), a sensitive white glazed terra cotta portrayal with elaborately crafted braded hair, was originally created as one of a pair. Gregory also produced sculptural works for the Works Progress Administration. The WPA was a work relief project that greatly helped artists during the great depression. Founded by the Federal Government in 1935, an estimated 2500 murals were produced. Among these public works were the iconic post office murals. But, among the painted murals were also sculptural relief murals including Gregory's "R.F.D.," 1938, for the Columbus, Kansas Post Office. But, Gregory's largest WPA relief...

Category

1930s Art

Materials

Ceramic

Buoy - Woodcut by Maurits Cornelis Escher - 1931
Buoy - Woodcut by Maurits Cornelis Escher - 1931

Buoy - Woodcut by Maurits Cornelis Escher - 1931

Located in Roma, IT

Woodcut print realized by Escher for the series "Emblemata", and published in 1931. On Hollande van Gelder paper. Edition of 300. Unsigned, as issued. Excellent condition, matted....

Category

Modern 1930s Art

Materials

Woodcut