Yohanan Simon

German Israeli Artist Abstract Lithograph

Red Angel, intensely and seductively colored: swooning purples and reds, ecstatic lemon yellows, and black construction paper. Jostling shapes, geometric and biomorphic, lyrical and hard-edged, refuse to resolve neatly Assemblage, a bold strategy to keep viewers unsettled and curious, the reward for which are profuse and luscious details: varied incidents of refinement, suggestive signs, most in a private code, not merely ornamental but integral to the overall message. William Scharf (born 1927, Media, PA) is an American artist from New York, he teaches at The Art Students League of New York. Painting with acrylics, he was a member of the New York School movement. Often categorized as a late generation Abstract Expressionist, Known for producing paintings with abstract compositions incorporating biomorphic and geometric forms in vivid colors, the artist was influenced by Surrealism, the Color Field painters, and symbolism. He apprenticed with Mark Rothko and was influenced by his color field paintings. The surrealist painter Arshile Gorky and the Abstract expressionism style found in 1950s New York City also influenced Scharf. His exhibits include San Francisco Art Institute (1969), the Pepperdine University's Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art (2001), and Richard York Gallery in New York City (2004). In the heyday of Abstract Expressionism, being serious meant following the tenets of the New York School, which required abstract paintings to be spontaneous improvisations, the messier the better. At once hedonistic and disciplined, his brazen paintings are nothing if not promiscuous. The best ones mix the dynamism of gestural abstraction with sensual rhythms of decorative patterning, sometimes souping up the stew with cartoonish symbols and flourishes so ripe they belong in a dandy's fantasies. His exhibits include San Francisco Art Institute (1969), the Pepperdine University's Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art (2001) and Richard York Gallery in New York City (2004). Scharf's work has been exhibited in a number of galleries, including the Anita Shapolsky Gallery, Meredith Ward Fine Art, and Hollis Taggart Galleries in New York City. Scharf has been an instructor of art at various institutions including The Art Students League, the San Francisco Art Institute, and the School of Visual Arts in New York. He is a member of the Society of Illustrators and the Artists Equity Association. EDUCATION 1944-49 The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts — Philadelphia, PA (1948 Cresson Scholar) 1949 The University of Pennsylvania — Philadelphia, PA 1948 The Academie de la Grand Chaumiere — Paris, France 1947 The Barnes Foundation — Merion, PA 1939-41 Samuel Fleisher Memorial School— Philadelphia, PA (also known as Graphic Sketch Club) TEACHING HISTORY Instructor: Painting & Drawing 1987-Present Art Students League, New York, NY 1989, 74, 69, 66, 63 San Francisco Institute of Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA 1965-69 he School of Visual Arts, New York, NY 1964 Art Center of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY Guest Lecturer 1979 Pratt Institute, New York, NY 1974 Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA 1974 California College of Arts and Crafts, San Francisco, CA Recent Solo Exhibitions: 2005 Meredith Ward Fine Art, New York, NY 2004 Richard York Gallery, New York, NY 2002 P.S.1/MOMA, Queens, NY 2001 The Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Malibu, CA 2000-2001 The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC Selected Group Exhibitions: 2005 National Academy of Design, New York, NY 2005 Peter McPhee Fine Arts, Stone Harbor...

John Altoon (American, 1925-1969) From the 'About Women' Series. Color lithograph 1965/66, Hand signed and editioned in pencil with the chop mark of Gemini G.E.L. publishers John Altoon (1925 - 1969), an American artist, was born in Los Angeles to immigrant Armenian parents. From 1947–1949 he attended the Otis Art Institute, from 1947 to 1950 he also attended the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, and in 1950 the Chouinard Art Institute. Altoon was a prominent figure in the LA art scene in the 1950s and 1960s. Exhibitions of his work have been held at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Corcoran Gallery, Washington D.C, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, The Baxter Museum, Pasadena, and The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Altoon's work was influenced by the Abstract Expressionism Movement although he is best known for his figurative drawings of the 1960s, with as Leah Ollman describes "a vocabulary of vaguely figurative, botanical and biological forms that he pursued until his death." He was part of the "Ferus group" of artists so called for their association to the Ferus Gallery that operated in Los Angeles in 1957–1966. Some of the other artists included in this group are Edward Kienholz, Larry Bell, Robert Irwin, Billy Al Bengston. He was featured in the Cool School documentary, a film about Altoon and other Ferus Gallery artists such as Walter Hopps and Ed Kienholz...

Guinovart, Josep (Spanish/Catalan, 1927-2007), Untitled Abstract, 1984, lithograph on paper, hand signed, dated and marked E.A. (artist's proof) in pencil at bottom, full sheet 26.75 x 22 inches, unframed. Josep Guinovart (1927 –2007) was a Spanish Catalan painter most famous for his informalist or abstract expressionist work. In 1941, he began to work as a decorator. Three years later, he started his studies at the Escuela de Artes y Oficios de la Llotja (Art School of La Llotja) where he stayed until 1946. He first exhibited his work in 1948 in Galerías Syla in Barcelona. In 1951, he produced his first engravings entitled 'Homage to Federico García Lorca'. Two years later, he was awarded a grant from the French Institute to study in Paris for nine months. Here he discovered the cubist works of Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso and travelled to Belgium, Holland and Germany. On his return to Barcelona and after a period working as an illustrator and set designer, around 1957 he began moving towards abstract art. His work is highly unconventional and usually on a large scale, using a wide range of materials, three-dimensional objects and organic substances such as eggshell, earth and straw. In 1962, he illustrated a book of poetry entitled Posies by Joan Salvat-Papasseit for the Ariel Editorial. He won many accolades for his work throughout the 1970s and 80s, including Spain's National Award for Plastic Arts in 1982. In 1994, a museum foundation dedicated to his art was inaugurated in Agramunt, his mother's birthplace to which he always felt a special attachment. In 2006 he designed the winery Mas Blanch i Jové in La Pobla de Cérvoles (Lleida) and created The Artists' Vineyard, a project intended to mix sculptures and other art works from different artists in the middle of a vineyard. The Artists' Vineyard was inaugurated after his death in 2010 with the unveiling of his sculpture The Countryside Organ: a music instrument, 6 meters height, for the wind to sing the vines. This winery also displays the 10.5 meters work In Vino Veritas...

Eric Orr, (American 1939-1998) In Barcelona, 1989, Color lithograph, hand signed in pencil and numbered from edition of 75 sheet 30 x 22", Published by Poligrafia Eric Orr (1939–1...

Joan Miró (Spanish, 1893-1983) La Boite Alerte, 1959 Color lithograph Signed lower right, numbered 98/200 lower left 9.75 x 6.75 inches Joan Miró Ferra was born April 20, 1893, in B...

Paul Jenkins' works are described as: "Flowing veils of color that overlap and interact together, seeping and bleeding vivid color." In 1954 Jenkins had his first exhibition in Paris...

Joan Miró Untitled from Je traville comme un jardinier 1963 Original lithograph in colors on Rives vellum paper 16 x 13 inches Hand signed in pencil From an edition of 5 H.C. copies...

Leon Polk Smith (1906 -1996) holds a unique place in a long tradition of American geometric abstract painting. Born near Chikasha, a Native American territory later annexed by the U.S. as the state of Oklahoma, Smith’s parents, who were of Cherokee ancestry, raised him with both a strong sense of his heritage and an abiding respect for the land. Art would eventually draw Smith to New York where he would quickly embrace elements of geometric abstraction in his work. Many of Smith’s hard-edge compositions could be viewed as distillations of imagery drawn from the Oklahoma landscape...