Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 3

Albert Urban
Untitled Abstraction (Figures in Red)

1944

About the Item

Albert Urban, Untitled Abstraction (Figures in Red), color serigraph, 1944. Signed and dated in blue ink. A fine, painterly impression, with fresh, rich colors, on cream wove paper; the full sheet with margins (7/8 to 1 1/2 inches); slight toning at the sheet edges, otherwise in excellent condition. Image size 7 1/2 x 11 3/16 inches; sheet size 9 3/4 x 14 inches. Matted to museum standards, unframed. This dynamic abstraction, created during WWII, was inspired by the imagery of soldiers on a war-torn battlefield. ABOUT THE ARTIST Albert Urban (1909-1959), painter, sculptor, printmaker, and teacher, was born in Frankfurt, Germany. He studied at the Kunstschule in Frankfurt, Germany, with Max Beckmann and Willi Baumeister, and after graduation, he was hired as an assistant instructor at the academy. With Hitler's rise to power, Urban was one of many artists condemned by the Nazis. His work was confiscated and included in the 'Degenerate Art Exhibition' in Munich in 1937. Forbidden to paint, he fled to London, finally moving to New York in 1940. Once settled in the U.S., Urban returned to painting; between 1941 and 1948, he had five solo exhibitions in New York and Philadelphia. A critic for Art News in 1946 extolled his work, describing him as "a painter's painter, whose brilliant color, vibrant forms, swiftly spontaneous design, and general technical inventiveness must win the respect of all informed scholars of painting." With the idea of making his work affordable to the general public, Urban began working in the medium of serigraphy in 1942, producing a body of four and five-color screenprints. He and his wife, Reva, opened Gallery Urban at 16 West 10th Street in New York, where they exhibited his work and that of other contemporary modernists. Nineteen of his screenprints, produced between 1944 and 1946, are listed in "The Early History of the Screenprint" by Reba and Dave Williams, as published in the Print Quarterly in December 1986. Between 1948 and 1958, Urban remained something of a recluse, for a period refusing to show his work to anyone. Finally, a solo exhibition of his work was mounted to critical acclaim at the Zabriskie Gallery in 1958. Urban's work was included in many exhibitions in the 1940s, and he is represented in numerous museums including, Addison Gallery of American Art, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Modern Art, National Gallery of Art, Frederick R. Wesiman Art Museum, and Worcester Art Museum.
  • Creator:
    Albert Urban (1909 - 1959, German)
  • Creation Year:
    1944
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 7.5 in (19.05 cm)Diameter: 11.19 in (28.43 cm)
  • Medium:
    Screen
  • Movement & Style:
    Expressionist
  • Period:
    1940-1949
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Myrtle Beach, SC
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: 1024931stDibs: LU53234293641

More From This Seller

View All
'Forms in White' – Mid-Century Abstraction
By Edward August Landon
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Edward Landon, 'Forms in White', color serigraph, 1950, edition 30, Ryan 85. Signed in pencil. Dated, titled, annotated 'ED. 30' and '5 COLORS' in the screen, bottom center sheet edg...
Category

Mid-20th Century Abstract Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

'Forms in White' – Mid-Century Abstraction

Edward August Landon
'Forms in White' – Mid-Century Abstraction, 1950

$850
'Time Silhouette' —Mid-Century Modernism
By Edward August Landon
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Edward Landon, 'Time Silhouette', color serigraph, 1969, edition 30, Ryan 201. Signed, titled, and annotated 'Edition 30' in pencil. A fine impression, with fresh colors, on cream wo...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

'Time Silhouette' —Mid-Century Modernism

Edward August Landon
'Time Silhouette' —Mid-Century Modernism, 1969

$800
'Evening' —Mid-Century American Surrealism
By Edward August Landon
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Edward Landon, 'Evening', color serigraph, 1958, edition 25, Ryan 71. Signed, titled, and annotated 'Ed. 25' in pencil. A fine impression, with fresh colors, on cream wove paper; the...
Category

Mid-20th Century Surrealist Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

'Evening' —Mid-Century American Surrealism

Edward August Landon
'Evening' —Mid-Century American Surrealism, 1958

$680 Sale Price
20% Off
Sister Kate — Mid-century, Jazz-inspired Modernism
By James Houston McConnell
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
James Houston McConnell, 'Sister Kate', color serigraph, 1947, edition 24. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered '24' in pencil. Annotated '10.00 - 19 colors - 24 copies - #24' in pencil. A fine impression, with vibrant, fresh colors, on heavy tan wove paper, with full margins (11/16 to 1 1/2 inches). Tack holes in the four margin corners, well away from the image, otherwise in excellent condition. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Scarce. Another of McConnell's mid-century modernist, jazz-inspired serigraphs, 'Combo', is featured in the British Museum's 2008 publication (and traveling exhibition) 'The American Scene: Prints from Hopper to Pollock'. ABOUT THE IMAGE "I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate", often simply "Sister Kate", is an up-tempo jazz dance song, written by Armand J. Piron and published in 1922. The lyrics of the song are narrated in the first person by Kate's sister, who sings about Kate's impressive dancing skill and her wish to be able to emulate it. She laments that she's not quite "up to date", but believes that dancing like "Sister Kate" will rectify this, and she will be able to impress "all the boys in the neighborhood" like her sister. Over the years this song has been performed and recorded by many artists, including Frances Faye and Rusty Warren, a 1959 version by Shel Silverstein...
Category

1940s American Modern Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

Sister Kate — Mid-century, Jazz-inspired Modernism

James Houston McConnell
Sister Kate — Mid-century, Jazz-inspired Modernism, 1947

$1,800
'Untitled Fantasy' — 1980s Surrealist Abstraction
By Edward August Landon
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Edward Landon, 'Untitled Fantasy', color serigraph, 1983, edition 30, Ryan 214. Signed, titled, and annotated 'Edition 30' in pencil. A fine impression, with fresh colors, on off-whi...
Category

Mid-20th Century Abstract Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

'Untitled Fantasy' — 1980s Surrealist Abstraction

Edward August Landon
'Untitled Fantasy' — 1980s Surrealist Abstraction, 1983

$750
'Salient in February' — Mid-Century Abstraction
By Edward August Landon
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Edward Landon, 'Salient in February', color serigraph, 1945, edition 25, Ryan 166. Signed in pencil. Titled, dated, and annotated 'ED. 40' in pencil. A fine impression, with fresh colors, on cream, wove paper; with full margins (1 3/4 to 2 5/8 inches, top sheet edge deckle); in excellent condition. Image size 9 x 11 inches; sheet size 12 3/4 x 16 inches. Matted to museum standards, unframed. ABOUT THE ARTIST Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Edward Landon dropped out of high school to study art at the Hartford Art School. In 1930 and 1931, he was a student of Jean Charlot at the Art Students League in New York, after which he traveled to Mexico to study privately for a year with Carlos Merida. In 1933 he settled near Springfield, Massachusetts, painted murals in the local trade school, and exhibited with the Springfield Art League. His painting 'Memorial Day' won first prize at the fifteenth annual exhibition of the League at the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts. Landon became an active member of the Artists Union of Western Massachusetts, serving as president from 1934-1938. Landon acquired Anthony Velonis’s instructional pamphlet on the technique of serigraphy in the late 1930s. With colleagues Phillip Hicken, Donald Reichert, and Pauline Stiriss, he began experimenting with screen printing techniques. The artists' groundbreaking work in screen printing as a fine art medium was the subject of the group’s landmark exhibition at the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts in 1940. Landon became one of the founding members of the National Serigraph Society and served as editor of its publication, 'Serigraph Quarterly,' in the late 1940s and as its president in 1952 and 1953. The Norlyst Gallery in Manhattan held a one-person show of his prints in 1945. Awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in 1950, Landon traveled to Norway, where he researched the history of local artistic traditions and produced the book 'Scandinavian Design: Picture and Rune Stones...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

'Salient in February' — Mid-Century Abstraction

Edward August Landon
'Salient in February' — Mid-Century Abstraction, 1945

$1,400

You May Also Like

Nick's Coffee House in the Village - Rare Edition 1970s Modern Figurative Print
By Lenore SImon
Located in Soquel, CA
This bold screen print depicts a scene from the 1950s, set in a jazz coffee house in Greenwich Village called Nick's, which Simon patronized while in high school. The original stone ...
Category

Late 20th Century Expressionist Figurative Prints

Materials

Archival Paper, Screen

Nick's Coffee House in the Village - Rare Edition 1970s Modern Figurative Print

Lenore SImon
Nick's Coffee House in the Village - Rare Edition 1970s Modern Figurative Print, circa 1980

$1,150
CARABINIERI A OSTIA
By Nicola Simbari
Located in Aventura, FL
Serigraph on paper. Hand signed and numbered by the artist. Frame size approx 32 x 24 in. Artwork is in excellent condition. Edition of 125. Certificate of authenticity included. Al...
Category

1990s Expressionist Abstract Prints

Materials

Paper, Screen

CARABINIERI A OSTIA

Nicola Simbari
CARABINIERI A OSTIA

$900 Sale Price
25% Off
Geometric Composition #4 (3D-construction, Op Art, Lyonel Feininger)
By Eduard Diem
Located in Kansas City, MO
Eduard Diem Geometric Composition #4 (3D-construction, Op Art, Lyonel Feininger) 3D-Construction Year: 2020 Signed and numbered by hand Edition: 25 Size: ...
Category

2010s Expressionist Prints and Multiples

Materials

Screen

Geometric Composition #4 (3D-construction, Op Art, Lyonel Feininger)

Eduard Diem
Geometric Composition #4 (3D-construction, Op Art, Lyonel Feininger), 2020

$920
Computer City
By Bruno Zupan
Located in Paonia, CO
Computer City is a frenzy of colors and action. This is a city scene with stop lights, parking signs, directional signs, stop signs, digital time clock, buildings, streets and a mass...
Category

1970s Expressionist Abstract Prints

Materials

Screen

Computer City

Bruno Zupan
Computer City, 20th century

$1,500
Robert Rauschenberg - OVERDRIVE. Limited Skate Deck Modern Design Pop American
By Robert Rauschenberg
Located in Madrid, Madrid
Robert Rauschenberg - OVERDRIVE Date of creation: 2017 Medium: Digital print on Canadian maple wood Edition: 300 Size: 80 x 20 cm (each skate) Condition: In mint conditions and never...
Category

2010s Expressionist Abstract Prints

Materials

Wood, Maple, Screen

Robert Rauschenberg - OVERDRIVE. Limited Skate Deck Modern Design Pop American

Robert Rauschenberg - OVERDRIVE. Limited Skate Deck Modern Design Pop American, 2017

$1,096
'Nuits de la Fondation Maeght' lithograph event poster
By Wassily Kandinsky
Located in Milwaukee, WI
This poster, published in 1971 for the Fondation Maeght, proudly boasts a lithographic rendering of Wassily Kandinsky's 1922 mural plans for the Juryfreie exhibition in Germany. It w...
Category

1970s Blue Rider Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

'Nuits de la Fondation Maeght' lithograph event poster

'Nuits de la Fondation Maeght' lithograph event poster, 1971

$1,900

Recently Viewed

View All