Mid-20th Century Art

Jean Dominique Van Caulert, (1897-1979), although most often associated with his celebrity portraits and works for the theater, he was also a true symbolist in the tradition of the Belgian symbolist's. "The Nurturing", oil on canvas, dated 1947, is Van Caulert's depiction of the nurturing of post war Europe, as the shrouded woman offers an apple to an androgynous figure.

Peter Stevens (1920-2001) is an American painter, known for Illustrating magazines. He worked for slick magazines, such as The American Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Family Circle, Liberty...

This drawing, color pencil on paper 26 x 23 cm without frame, portrays a lady on profile, styled as the typical fashion of the time. By the way she's portrayed, she seems an audaciou...

Abstraction by Max Olderock Watercolor on paper, signed Painter, stage designer, weaver and commercial artist. Olderock studied at the Hamburg school of applied arts under A. Kling ...

Signed lower right, 'V. Isbrand' for Victor Isbrand (Danish, 1897-1989) and painted circa 1945. A dramatic, Post-Impressionist still-life showing a group of items including a flute...

A pair of abstract modern paintings by Richard W. Dempsey (1909 - 1987). Paintings are oil on masonite and signed "Dempsey" front bottom corner. On the back of each painting on tape is written "Harmony". Richard Dempsey was born in Ogden, Utah, on September 14, 1909. His youth was spent in Oakland, CA, where he attended Sacramento Junior College (1929-31) as an art major. He then studied at The California School of Arts and Crafts (1932-34) and the Students Art Center (1935-40), where he was taught by the sculptor Sargent Johnson. In 1941, he moved to Washington, DC and studied at Howard University...

His first name sounds like a concerto. Vivacious, its name is reminiscent of an aperitif or a cyclist. The addition of the two evokes the Italianate. Indomitable and unavoidable. Mor...

A man wearing diving equipment talks with a girl in a wicker chair on the beach, Bahamas, 1967 Visual Description: A woman seated in a wicker chai...

Pablo Picasso – Tete de Faune Color soft ground Etching & Aquatint on wove paper, 1958 Hand signed and numbered (225/ 300) in pencil Published by Crommelynck, Paris Image size: 30.3 ...

View of a Busy Street in Dusseldorf Kasimir Luigi Ptuj, Slovenia 1881 – 1962 Grinzing, Austria Austro-Hungarian Painter Signature: Signed bottom middle Medium: Coloured drawing Dim...

A beautifully printed and evocative ocean liner travel poster promoting Mediterranean cruises in 1932. A pyramid can be seen in the background. In fine condition. Hard to find! This...

This is a large scale black and white photo of Marlon Brando as a young man at his family farm with his dog. In 1951 Life Magazine asked Art Shay to photograph Marlon Brando at his family home in Libertyville, IL. This is one of the photos from that shoot. In 2000, Art Shay published Album for an Age: Unconventional Words and Pictures from the Twentieth Century. This artwork is matted and framed. Art Shay Marlon Brando Kissing Dog...

"Young Man with a Mirror" 29" x 24" is a one-of-a-kind, original, Soviet Era oil painting of a young man. Unframed. Dated 1949. For over 20 years, Andre Kohn has passionately collected the works of classically trained master Impressionists from the Soviet Realism...

An original screenprint on Rives BFK paper by German-American artist Josef Albers (1888-1976) titled "Variant III", 1967. Issued unsigned. Limited edition: 100; (there was also a sig...

A wonderful André Hambourg beach scene at Trouville with people, children, sailboats, dogs, horses, birds, cabanas & umbrellas! Signed lower left Initialed and titled verso. Framed d...

"The Judgement of Paris", an allegorical oil painting by German artist Hans Otto Orlowski. Painted in a quintesential style that incorporates e...

Two Mid Century Rural Landscapes in Watercolor on Paper Two lovely watercolors by Beverly Lyons (American, 20th Century). In the top watercolor, an expansive sky sits above a strip ...

“The signature is hard to read ; however , this piece spoke to me and I had to have it as it reminded me of the street in my village where I grew up . The front shows 1951 . The sket...

"A Marro" WPA Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Realism Modernism Ashcan. Signed lower right. Verso, label of Walker Galleries New York and signed in pencil and titled, A Marro....

Erik Tryggelin is one of Sweden's most talented landscape painters of the 20th century. Born in 1889, Tryggelin studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, and we...

Jean Dominique Van Caulert, (1897-1979), although most often associated with his celebrity portraits and works for the theater, he was also a true symbolist in the tradition of the B...

Blue On Blue #1, original vintage 1965 abstract painting by Denver artist, Angelo Di Benedetto (1913-1992). Acrylic paint in shades of blue on shaped 3 dimensional (3D) canvas with a circular form protruding from the center of square painting. Presented in a vintage/original frame, outer dimensions measure 26 ¾ x 26 ½ x 1 ¼ inches. Image size is 26 x 26 x 3 ¼ inches. Exhibited: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1965 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting December 8, 1965 to January 30, 1966 The son of Italian immigrants from the Salerno province in southern Italy, as a teenager Di Benedetto worked as a truck driver in the mornings and a bartender in the afternoons to study at the Cooper Union Art School in New York City (1930-34) from which he graduated with a certificate in freehand drawing. He won a scholarship to the Boston Museum Art School where he studied for three years, beginning in 1934, with Russian émigré painter, Alexandre Jacovleff, a member of Mir Isskustva (World of Art) in St. Petersburg before the Russian Revolution. In 1936 he painted a religious mural for St. Michael’s Grove in Paterson, New Jersey. The following year, he entered his first juried exhibition at the Montclair Museum in New Jersey, winning first prize and first honorable mention. In December 1938, the Royal Netherlands Steamship Line sent him on a two-month ethnological study trip to Haiti, his first exposure to a different environment outside the United States. During what turned out to be an extended six-month stay, he studied and painted the life and religious customs of the island, resulting in a series of colorful, stylized paintings inspired by his immersion in the local culture. He also did scenes of Port-au-Prince and executed commissions received from prominent people in Haiti, including government officials. In 1940, his Haitian paintings were exhibited at the Montross Gallery in New York (his first solo show) and also reproduced in the January 1940 issue of Life Magazine. One of his Haitian paintings, Morning in Port-au-Prince, was owned by an American author, politician and U.S. ambassador, Clare Boothe Luce, while another image, Haiti Post Office, was acquired for the Encyclopedia Britannica Collection and later donated to Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. Before World War II, Di Benedetto traveled extensively around the United States in his car and trailer doing regional paintings. In 1941, he did what is considered the first authentic version of George Washington Crossing the Delaware, a contrast to the well-known painting on the same subject (1851) by German-born painter, Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze. During the war, Di Benedetto volunteered for a secret mission to Africa in 1941 before the Allied invasion, serving as director of camouflage, foreman of native laborers, and an interpreter while based in Eritrea. The following year he received a direct commission as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Corps in the First Photo Mapping Squadron, leading groups as a guide and interpreter and doing ground control. During his free time in Africa, he sketched and painted the local population and his fellow servicemen. Following Africa, he served as an orientation officer and aerial photographic officer for the 311th Photo Wing at Bolling Field, in the District of Columbia where he did a series of illustrated articles describing the natives in the different countries where the men of his organization were stationed during the war. In 1945 he was assigned to a mapping unit at Buckley Air Field in Denver where he served until his discharge in 1946. Like many other servicemen stationed at the time in Colorado, Di Benedetto chose to remain in Colorado, impressed by the state’s physical grandeur and healthful climate. After the war, he lived briefly for about a year in Rangely, a small town in northwest Colorado where he traveled and sketched. But finding it a little too remote, he settled in the old mining town of Central City in 1947, his home base for the rest of his life. He spent his first six years there transforming the old Sauder-McShane Mercantile warehouse into a giant art studio. His initial acquaintance with the town’s mining town history in 1947 resulted in a drawing, Death of a Miner, showing a male figure buried under a pile of collapsed rock in a mining tunnel. In 1949 Di Benedetto and his wife, ceramist Lee Porzio, opened the Benpro Art School in his studio where he conducted summer art classes. The following year he teamed up with a Denver-based artist, Frank Vavra, to open the Denver Art Center at 924 Broadway. He and Vavra were founding members of the 15 Colorado Artists who seceded in 1948 from the Denver Artists Guild because they were dissatisfied with the older organization’s underlying conservatism and the disdain of some of its members for modern art. Welcoming anyone wanting to learn how to draw or paint, the Denver Art Center in downtown Denver only lasted about a year. Undeterred by its lack of success, Di Benedetto continued throughout his career to give workshops, classes, and lectures on art-related topics in Denver and elsewhere. Examples of topics ranged from subjects such as “African Art,” Chappell House, Denver (1945) and “University or Artistic Thought” sponsored by the Art for World Friendship Committee (1954). He also taught locally at the Jewish Community Center, Steele Community Center, International House, Southern Colorado State College-Pueblo, and lectured at the University of Denver. Beginning in 1969 he sponsored over one hundred youths at his studio in Central City to spend a summer learning about art. He also conducted classes for serious working artists. His efforts earned him an honorary doctorate from the University of Colorado in 1977. He likewise promoted contemporary Colorado artists’ work in the 1950s, heading a committee that presented one-person exhibitions in a small gallery at the Vogue Art Cinema on South Pearl Street in Denver. His interest in promoting the arts led to his participation in numerous organizations. In the 1960s he became concerned with environmental and urban art and was the president of Art for the Cities, a Denver-based nonprofit organization. He also was the chairman of and a participant in the first annual environmental art exhibit held at Denver’s American Medical Center. In 1968 Colorado Governor John Love appointed him to the Colorado Council on the Arts and Humanities in which he remained active until 1975. He served for two consecutive years as program coordinator for the Governor’s Conference on the Arts and Humanities. At the 1969 conference, Governor Love presented him an award for his contribution to the art and artists of Colorado. At the same time, he actively participated in the civic life of Central City. The town’s Police Magistrate (1955-56), he twice campaigned for mayor, first in 1966 and again in 1973, and ran for commissioner in 1979. He socialized with artists Ben Shahn, Herbert Bayer and Mark Rothko, as well as theatrical stars appearing at the Central City Opera House, including Helen Hayes, Mae West, and Gypsy Rose Lee. He invited them to carve their autographs on his kitchen table. Di Benedetto worked with equal facility in a variety of media: acrylic, oil paint, watercolor, charcoal, Conte crayon, graphic arts and metal (copper, iron). Up until the early 1950s, his output was dominated by representational figure work and expressionist Colorado landscapes that were not always immune from controversy. When Life Magazine included a reproduction of his Regionalist painting, Lovers in the Cornfield (1941) in its article, “Ten Years of American Art: Life Reviews the Record of a Lively, Important Decade” (November 26, 1946, issue), three counties in Massachusetts banned the publication. Just as immediately, the painting was exhibited in Denver. He said that he liked the West because the people, despite their lack of exposure to art, were individualistic and almost “anarchistic.” In the early 1950s he did woodcuts in a modernist style, including Remembrance, showing his two young daughters. Influenced by Abstract Expressionism at that time, he began considering the elimination of the image from his work. By the end of the decade, he had decided that “the circle – pure and simple was one of the most familiar symbols of mankind and that it metaphored into everything.” At the same time, he noted that “99% of the abstract painters shied away from using…[the circle]. When they didn’t, they slaughtered it, murdered it and buried it. So it became my motif.” For more than three decades he explored the circle in paint, sculpture and shaped canvas. Two examples of the last-named medium are his Red CQ and Black C-1, both from 1969. Because abstraction touched upon his deep feelings and spirituality, he felt he could make visible that part of life which “we feel but almost never see.” His fascination with the circle also relates to his belief that to affect the dialogue existing between object and maker, the artist must “create archetypal shapes [that have universal appeal], not symbols…to reflect simply the intrinsic beauty of the shape itself.” A strong advocate for public art, Di Benedetto headed Art for the Cities, Inc., which sponsored nine sculptures for Burns Park as part of the Denver Sculpture Symposium held in the Mile High City in 1968. The catalysts for the idea of the sculptures were Beverly and Bernie Rosen, who had been instrumental in the creation of the contemporary department at the Denver Art Museum. Along with Di Benedetto, the other participating sculptors were Dean Fleming, Peter Forakis, Roger Kotoske, Tony Magar, Robert Mangold, Robert Morris, Richard Van Buren and Bill Verhelst. The park project eventually served as a prototype for twenty-two states, bringing the sculpture to urban spaces. The sculptures reflected Di Benedetto’s concept of “burden-less environmental art” with no hidden meaning for the public to decipher. His goal in public art was to “create a work which, when integrated with the site, will create a tranquil oasis, a counterbalance to the modern chaotic world we experience daily.” During the 1960s and 1970s, he received other major sculpture commissions: an 80-foot-long copper wall, Jewish Community Center, Denver (1962); sculpture garden, General Rose Hospital, Denver (1964); Fountain, First National Bank of Dallas (1966); Colorado Fuel & Iron Company, Pueblo, Colorado (1969); neighborhood park sculpture, Yonkers, New York (1971); High School Park, Northglenn, Colorado (1974); ice skating rink sculpture, Pueblo (1976). Fate was not as kind to his mural which the Colorado Supreme Court justices commissioned him to paint in 1976 for the Colorado Judicial Building from a field of twenty-two candidates. With his former student, Phyllis Montrose as his principal assistant along with three others, he spent a year and a half executing the mural. Entitled Justice Through the Ages (aka Lawgivers), it depicted sixty individuals from ancient Babylon...

Jean Cocteau (1889 -1963 ) " LE LIVRE BLANC " . 1930 . original and unique : exemplaire H.C " EXEMPLAIRE d " imprimé pour Madame GERMAINE KRULL . ce livre contient 18 lithogr...

Barbara Robinson is a leading contemporary artist of the classical school. His paintings are figurative, although sometimes bordering on the abstract. In 1952, Barbara won the portra...

Jackson Square, NYC WPA Mid 20th Century American Scene Ashcan Modernism Realism. 30 1/4 x 24 3/4 inches Oil on Canvas c. 1930s. Signed lower right. ...

This unique artwork by Richard Proctor is part of a series of 3 (see last pictures and other listings). It is a self-portrait repeated 3 times in different colors. It has been create...

Signed lower right, 'V. Wicht' for John Von Wicht (German-American, 1888-1970) and painted circa 1965. Born in Germany, this abstract expressionist painter, muralist, printmaker, mo...

An original screenprint on Mohawk Superfine Bristol paper by German-American artist Josef Albers (1888-1976) titled "Tenuous", 1962. Issued unsigned. Limited edition: 250. Comes from...

At what appears to be a costume party, this beautiful woman, draped in a sheer tunic, must have been the center of attention. Dressed as Aphrodite, she clearly commands those aroun...

On assignment for Life Magazine in 1950, Art Shay photographed Marlon Brando at his family farm in Libertyville, Illinois, just north of Chicago. Looking straight into Art's lens, B...

STOW WENGENROTH (1906 – 1978) DUNE ROAD OGUNQUIT, MAINE 1949 (Stuckey 186) Lithograpn signed and numbered in pencil, edition 40. Image 5 7/8 x 10 1/8 inched, sheet 12 x 16. Large sh...

A woman in a bright red dress walks down a New York Street carrying a green hat box. Provenance: HM Levis Gallery Private collection, New York

Marcello Fantoni is a florentine artist specialized in ceramic. He followed the courses at the Art Institute in Florence, having Libero Andreotti and Bruno Innocenti as his Scultping...

This small terracotta statue ( 35 x 8.5 x 8 cm) represents John the Baptist. Bruno Innocenti was a pupil and a collaborator of Libero Andreotti. When Andreotti died, Innocenti took ...

"Men in Barracks" WPA Mid 20th Century American Scene Realism Gay Modernism WWII. 18 x 24 inches Watercolor on paper. c. 1940s. Signed lower right. B...

Alan Fenton (1927 - 2000) Untitled, 1958-1960 Oil on canvas 96 x 78 inches Fenton's quiet and contemplative nonobjective paintings and drawings were wi...

John Hare Gloucester Harbor at Sunset, Massachusetts Signed lower right Watercolor on paper 16 x 12 inches John Cuthbert Hare, 1908-1978, was a watercolorist who painted boats, seascapes and harbor scenes. He was primarily associated New England, especially Cape Cod, Massachusetts where he spent his summers from 1938 to 1965. However, he was in Florida where he was a member of the St. Augustine Art Association, and other locations on the East Coast. It is likely Hare was born in New York City. He first studied commercial art in Brooklyn at the Pratt Institute and also studied at the Art Students League in Manhattan. He worked for Hearst newspapers corporation, and in 1933 married. In the next few years, he and his wife traveled extensively, camping and painting and exhibiting his work in galleries. In 1935, they visited St. Augustine and an exhibition of his watercolors was held there in the old bank...

Expressionist Abstract Composition Canvas size 24"x32" gold leaf frame 27"x35", signed lower right corner. Sandro von Lorsch German painter born 1921-1993. Very dynamic and expressi...

Clarence Van Duzer He is Risen 1958 Signed Upper-Left Asphaltum, Patent Gold Leaf, Oil, Egg Tempera and Collaged Canvas on Masonite 48 x 36 inches Exhibited: 40th Annual May Show, Cleveland Museum of...

"Nun Shoveling Snow" - Figurative Lithograph in Ink on Paper Bold lithograph by Eugene Hawkins (American, b. 1933). Rendered in a semi-abstracted style, a nun is about to plunge a s...

Signed figures in landscape circa 1950 by French impressionist painter Eduoard Cortes. The work depicts a view of La Madaleine, a Catholic parish church situated on Place de la Madel...

Black Ducks Etching with drypoint, 1933 Signed in pencil lower right (see photo) Titled in pencil lower left Signed and dated in the plate lower right corner (see photo) Edition: 65 ...

First Try Lithograph, 1954 Signed lower right (see photo) Titled and numbered lower left (see photo) Edititon 250 Published by Associated American Artists, New York Illustrated: AAA ...

Wonderful original surreal artwork by German artist Piet Morell (b.1939). Titled in German "The Worshiper of a Beautiful Watering Can". Signed bottom right. Work is B&W pencil on ...

Trout Fishing on the Gunnison (Colorado) Lithograph, 1941 Signed and dated '42 in pencil lower right Annotated lower left: "40 Prints-The Gunnison River, Colorado-For Anne & Jack" Ed...

Andy Warhol (1928-1987) is arguably the most important American artist of the 20th century. He not only defined Pop Art but had an unrivaled influence on artists and image-making. ...

Belgian artist Miette Braive(1916-2000), was classically trained in Belgium, before moving to Paris to pursue her art career as first a student and then a contemporary of the French ...

Woman Grinding Corn Lithograph, 1947 Signed in pencil lower right (see photo) Published by Associated American Artists Edition 250 Illustrated AAA Cat. 1947-06 Impressions of this im...

Pintails and Mallards Etching, 1966 Signed lower right (see photo) Numbered 25/250 lower left (see photo) Edition 250 (25/250) Published by Associated American Artists, New York Illu...

Residents of Deerfield, IL learned a housing developer planned to sell homes in the village to black and white buyers. Many residents opposed integration and sought reasons to halt t...

Rare and early contemporary Japanese print by master print maker Okiie Hashimoto (1899-1993). Self printed, the bottom margin is signed, titled in K...

"The Little One" - Figurative Lithograph in Ink on Paper Bold lithograph by Eugene Hawkins (American, b. 1933). A young child is kneeling, facing away from the viewer. He is wearing...

For over 20 years Andre Kohn has been collecting Mid-century Soviet Realism (1930-1970) and now for the first time offers just few pieces for sale to the public . Few years after the...

Dorothy Eaton Tully Lumber Mill, Orange, Massachusetts, 1935 Signed and dated lower right Oil on canvas 17 1/2 x 23 1/2 inches Dorothy Eaton was born in East Orange, New Jersey in 1893. She studied at Smith College...

Alan Fenton Untitled, circa 1960 Signed on the reverse Oil on canvas 50 x 36 inches Fenton's quiet and contemplative nonobjective paintings and drawing...

1960s gouache and ink on paper abstract artwork by artist Ward Lockwood (1894-1963), signed lower right. Abstract shapes painted in shades on brown, orange, gray, yellow, and green. ...

Alan Fenton (1927 - 2000) Untitled, 1958-1960 Oil on canvas 89 x 83 inches Signed on the stretcher Fenton's quiet and contemplative nonobjective paintings and drawings were widely r...

Alan Fenton (1927 - 2000) Untitled, 1958-1960 Oil on canvas 90 x 84 inches Fenton's quiet and contemplative nonobjective paintings and drawings were wi...