American Modern Animal Prints

In this lithograph, Georges Schreiber focused on the thrill of the circus, taking its circular composition from the central ring. Here, acrobats perform amazing feats of agility on t...

this impression is #46 from edition of 50 Mezzotint artist Mikio Watanabe was born in 1954 in Japan and currently lives in France. He is most known for his elegant, evocative black ...

Cowboy on Horseback with Tourists is a lithograph circa 1935 by Caroline Speare Rohland. Presented in a custom black frame, outer dimensions measure 17 ⅞ x 13 ⅝ x ⅝ inches. Image sig...

(after) Alexander Calder "Calder's Circus" offset lithograph on wove paper after drawings by the artist Published by Art in America and Perls gallery in 1964 (from drawings done in the 1930's) these range slightly in size but they are all about 13 X 17 inches (with minor variations in size as issued.) These have never been framed. The outer folio is not included just the one lithograph. James Sweeny from the introduction “The fame of Calder’s circus spread quickly between the years 1927 and 1930. All the Paris art world came to know it. It brought him his first great personal success. But what was more important, the circus also provided the first steps in Calder’s development as an original sculptor” Clive Gray...

Dan Burne Jones is widely know as the author of the Rockwell Kent print catalogue raisonne. It's so interesting to see that he is a gifted wood engraver as well. Jones's own prints a...

Eli Jacobi: 1898-1984. Very important artist who was born in Kharkov Ukraine. His art studies began at the Bezalel Art Institute in Palestine. He was impris...

Original "The Big Show", US 1-sheet linen-backed movie poster from 1961. Very fine condition. Professional restoration of original theater fold marks. A - A- condition, ready t...

No matter the seriousness (or lack thereof) of the subject, everything is always beautifully drawn on the lithographic stone by Bendiner. Here a bull fight has gone amiss. Perhaps ...

Although this work is titled Horses. It nice to think it could be (Horses in a Field in Woodstock, NY), but it was printed by Will Barnet at the Art Students League, about 1938, and Wilson, who visited Woodstock with Arnold Blanche...

German-born Robert Ernst Marx was a painter, printmaker, and teacher. His main subject was the human condition. This intaglio is somewhat unusual in ...

"White Calf" is an original lithograph print by Thomas Hart benton. It features the image of a man milking a cow while her calf lays down in front. Benton's breathtaking way of rende...

Original excellent condition, linen backed United Airlines: Seattle, the 1968 airplane airline aviation travel poster promoting travel to Seattle, Washington aboard United Airlines and featuring art of a Native American Indian totem pole...

(after) Alexander Calder "Calder's Circus" offset lithograph on wove paper after drawings by the artist Published by Art in America and Perls gallery in 1964 (from drawings done in the 1930's) these range slightly in size but they are all about 13 X 17 inches (with minor variations in size as issued.) These have never been framed. The outer folio is not included just the one lithograph. James Sweeny from the introduction “The fame of Calder’s circus spread quickly between the years 1927 and 1930. All the Paris art world came to know it. It brought him his first great personal success. But what was more important, the circus also provided the first steps in Calder’s development as an original sculptor” Clive Gray...

This black and white mezzotint of a shell next to a violin is an artist proof that was inscribed Happy New Year 2000 and signed by the artist. The regular e...

11 3/4 x 8 5/8 (sheet 12 1/4 x 16). Edition 20, #5. A fine impression printed on green Ingres d'Arches laid paper. Signed, titled and numbered in pencil. Housed in a 20 x 16-inch ar...

The Artist's Christmas homage to the attack on the twin towers with reindeer atop the buildings. Carol Wax originally trained to be a classical musician at the Manhattan School of Mu...

This artwork titled "Sleeping Wolves" 1970 is an original color lithograph on B.F.K Rives paper by noted Italian/American artist Beniamino Benevenuto Bufano, 1890-1970. It is hand signed and numbered 81/100 in pencil by the artist. The image size is 12.35 x 11.35 inches, framed size is 23.75 x 21.5 inches. it is beautifully custom framed in a wooden gold frame, with gold color spacer. It is in excellent condition. About the artist: Beniamino Benvenuto Bufano was born in San-Fele, Italy on Oct. 14, 1889. At age three Bufano's family brought him to NYC where he spent his childhood and was educated by private tutors. He studied at the ASL in NYC from 1913-15, the pupil of James L. Fraser, Herbert Adams, and Paul Manship. He came to San Francisco in 1915 to work on a sculpture for the PPIE. For awhile he worked in the studio of coppersmith Dirk van Erp. He then traveled extensively for four years in France, Italy, India, and China. After returning to San Francisco in 1921, he remained there the rest of his life except for visits to the Orient and Europe. Always a radical, he lost his teaching position at San Francisco Institute of Art in 1923 because he was too modern for the conservative faculty. He later taught at UC Berkeley and the CCAC (1964-65). Henry Miller wrote of him, "He will outlive our civilization and probably be better known, better understood, both as a man and artist, five thousand years hence." His work, simple in style and monumental in scale, includes smoothly rounded animals in granite and icons sheathed in stainless steel. Only five feet tall, Bufano was a controversial, free spirit until his death in San Francisco on Aug. 16, 1970. Member: SFAA; NSS; American Artists Congress. Exh: Whitney Museum (NYC), 1917; Arden Gallery...

In 'The Rabbit,' Wisconsin artist Clarice George Logan presents the viewer with a multi-figural scene: under a wood-frame structure, four children crouch on the ground, gathered around a young woman who presents a rabbit. Under normal circumstances, such an image of children with a bunny would recall childhood storybooks. In this case, however, the image is more ambiguous and suggests the unfortunate economic circumstances many children suffered during the interwar years. Nonetheless, the group could also be interpreted as a nativity play, with the rabbit taking the place of the Christ child, shining light on the children like in a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Correggio. The careful line-work of the woodblock engraving adds a sense of expressionism to the scene, leaving the figures looking distraught and dirty, though the image nonetheless falls into the Social Realist category that dominated American artists during the Great Depression. This print was published in 1936 as part of the Wisconsin Artists' Calendar for the year 1937, which included 52 original, hand-made prints - one for each week of the year. Clarice George Logan was born in Mayville, New York in 1909 but moved to Wisconsin in 1921. She attended the Milwaukee State Teachers College from 1927 to 1931 where she studied with Robert von...

William Sharp, largely known as a court reporter, was based in New York City. Probably this scene of Lincoln Park Marabous is Chicago. There are several ...

This artwork titled " Plato" 1970 is an original lithograph on Japan paper by noted Italian/American artist Beniamino Benevenuto Bufano, 1890-1970. It is hand signed, inscribed Bon a Tirer and dated April 70 in pencil by the artist. The image size is 13.35 x 10 inches, framed size is 24.65 x 20.75 inches. Published by First Impressions, San Francisco, printed by Fikrat Al-Khouri at First Impressions Graphic Society. it is beautifully custom framed in a wooden gold frame, with gold color spacer. It is in excellent condition. About the artist: Beniamino Benvenuto Bufano was born in San-Fele, Italy on Oct. 14, 1889. At age three Bufano's family brought him to NYC where he spent his childhood and was educated by private tutors. He studied at the ASL in NYC from 1913-15, the pupil of James L. Fraser, Herbert Adams, and Paul Manship. He came to San Francisco in 1915 to work on a sculpture for the PPIE. For awhile he worked in the studio of coppersmith Dirk van Erp. He then traveled extensively for four years in France, Italy, India, and China. After returning to San Francisco in 1921, he remained there the rest of his life except for visits to the Orient and Europe. Always a radical, he lost his teaching position at San Francisco Institute of Art in 1923 because he was too modern for the conservative faculty. He later taught at UC Berkeley and the CCAC (1964-65). Henry Miller wrote of him, "He will outlive our civilization and probably be better known, better understood, both as a man and artist, five thousand years hence." His work, simple in style and monumental in scale, includes smoothly rounded animals in granite and icons sheathed in stainless steel. Only five feet tall, Bufano was a controversial, free spirit until his death in San Francisco on Aug. 16, 1970. Member: SFAA; NSS; American Artists Congress. Exh: Whitney Museum (NYC), 1917; Arden Gallery...

Artist: Millard Owen Sheets, American (1907 - 1989) Title: Brood Mare Pasture Year: circa 1977 Medium: Lithograph, signed in pencil Edition: 250, A...

A series of prints was commissioned by the Met Museum in NY in a regular edition of 40 This impression is from an edition of 5 artist proofs. This impression is #4/5 Carol Wax origi...

No matter the seriousness (or lack thereof) of the subject, everything is always beautifully drawn on the lithographic stone by Bendiner. In this 'Day at the Beach' scene Bendiner h...

Serpentine with Orchids, 2005 Four-color screenprint on Rives BFK. Edition: 50 + 7 artist’s proofs 28 x 22 (paper size) framed by Bark Frameworks. Michael Burton Mazur (1935-August 18, 2009) was an American artist who was described by William Grimes of The New York Times as "a restlessly inventive printmaker, painter, and sculptor." Born and raised in New York City, Mazur attended the Horace Mann School. He received a bachelor's degree from Amherst College in 1958, then studied art at Yale. Mazur first gained notice for his series of lithographs and etchings of inmates in a mental asylum, which resulted in two publications, "Closed Ward" and "Locked Ward." Over the years, he worked in printmaking and painting. His series of large-scale prints for Dante's Inferno won critical acclaim, and were the subject of a traveling exhibition organized by the University of Iowa in 1994. Later he concentrated on creating large, lyrical paintings which make use of his free, gestural brushwork and a varied palette. Some of these paintings were seen in an exhibition of 2002 at Boston University, "Looking East: Brice Marden, Michael Mazur, and Pat Steir." (See also Susan Danly, "Branching: The Art of Michael Mazur," 1997). The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has acquired a definMichael Mazur received a B.A. from Amherst College in 1957, studying in his senior year at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, Italy. He went on to earn both a B.F.A. and an M.F.A. from the Yale School of Art and Architecture in 1961. Mazur's first teaching job was at the Rhode Island School of Design from 1961 to 1964. He was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship for 1964–65. From 1965 to 1976, he taught at Brandeis University, and from 1976 to 1978 at Harvard University. As an artist, teacher, and writer, Mazur has been active in reviving the monotype process. He contributed an essay to the pioneering exhibition catalogue The Painterly Print, published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1980. Mazur recently chaired the New Provincetown...

Lois Ward created a Fragile Series of images including "Crushed Beetle" in 1990 in a very small edition of just 9. This impression is #1 of 9. Ward has always been concerned with t...

A series of prints was commissioned by the Met Museum in NY in a regular edition of 40 This impression is from an edition of 5 artist proofs. This impression is #4/5 Carol Wax origi...

Carol Wax describes her circular images as "most often quasi abstract works that refer to ancient islamic designs using the shapes and attributes of animals, in this case the deer. T...

Carol Wax describes her circular images as "most often quasi abstract works that refer to ancient islamic designs using the shapes and attributes of animals, in this case the frog. T...

An exclusive publication for Stone and Press Gallery, "Snow Does" was created in an edition of 100. It is FIROS #66 in the catalogue raisonne. Carol Wax originally trained to be a c...

Alfred Bendiner (1899-1964) was trained as an architect but worked as an artist throughout his career. He was a noted lithographer, as well an author, muralist, and caricaturist. The...

Such an innovative image on the classic 'Riders in the Park' theme! Further, the use of drypoint and the rather direct -- even aggressive -- drawing style, bring it into the German E...

This artwork titled "Three Chidren" 1970 is an original color lithograph on B.F.K Rives paper by noted Italian/American artist Beniamino Benevenuto Bufano, 1890-1970. It is hand signed and numbered 14/50 in pencil by the artist. Published by First Impressions, San Francisco, printed by Fikrat Al-Khouri at First Impressions Graphic Society. The image size is 8.30 x 6.5 inches, framed size is 19.85 x 17.65 inches. it is beautifully custom framed in a wooden gold frame, with gold color spacer. It is in excellent condition. About the artist: Beniamino Benvenuto Bufano was born in San-Fele, Italy on Oct. 14, 1889. At age three Bufano's family brought him to NYC where he spent his childhood and was educated by private tutors. He studied at the ASL in NYC from 1913-15, the pupil of James L. Fraser, Herbert Adams, and Paul Manship. He came to San Francisco in 1915 to work on a sculpture for the PPIE. For awhile he worked in the studio of coppersmith Dirk van Erp. He then traveled extensively for four years in France, Italy, India, and China. After returning to San Francisco in 1921, he remained there the rest of his life except for visits to the Orient and Europe. Always a radical, he lost his teaching position at San Francisco Institute of Art in 1923 because he was too modern for the conservative faculty. He later taught at UC Berkeley and the CCAC (1964-65). Henry Miller wrote of him, "He will outlive our civilization and probably be better known, better understood, both as a man and artist, five thousand years hence." His work, simple in style and monumental in scale, includes smoothly rounded animals in granite and icons sheathed in stainless steel. Only five feet tall, Bufano was a controversial, free spirit until his death in San Francisco on Aug. 16, 1970. Member: SFAA; NSS; American Artists Congress. Exh: Whitney Museum (NYC), 1917; Arden Gallery...

Artist: Millard Owen Sheets, American (1907 - 1989) Title: Summer Gold Medium: Lithograph, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 250, 5 HC Image S...

Sander's interiors are always intriguing. This work also reads as a stage with a dance; it recalls the Porch of the Maidens at the Erectheum at the Acropolis in Athens. There of cour...

This artwork titled "Three Chidren" 1970 is an original color lithograph on B.F.K Rives paper by noted Italian/American artist Beniamino Benevenuto Bufano, 1890-1970. It is hand signed and inscribed "Bon a Tirer" in pencil by the artist. Published by, First Impressions, San Francisco, printed by Fikrat Al-Khouri at First Impressions Graphic Society. The image size is 8.30 x 6.5 inches, framed size is 19.85 x 17.65 inches. it is beautifully custom framed in a wooden gold frame, with gold color spacer. It is in excellent condition. About the artist: Beniamino Benvenuto Bufano was born in San-Fele, Italy on Oct. 14, 1889. At age three Bufano's family brought him to NYC where he spent his childhood and was educated by private tutors. He studied at the ASL in NYC from 1913-15, the pupil of James L. Fraser, Herbert Adams, and Paul Manship. He came to San Francisco in 1915 to work on a sculpture for the PPIE. For awhile he worked in the studio of coppersmith Dirk van Erp. He then traveled extensively for four years in France, Italy, India, and China. After returning to San Francisco in 1921, he remained there the rest of his life except for visits to the Orient and Europe. Always a radical, he lost his teaching position at San Francisco Institute of Art in 1923 because he was too modern for the conservative faculty. He later taught at UC Berkeley and the CCAC (1964-65). Henry Miller wrote of him, "He will outlive our civilization and probably be better known, better understood, both as a man and artist, five thousand years hence." His work, simple in style and monumental in scale, includes smoothly rounded animals in granite and icons sheathed in stainless steel. Only five feet tall, Bufano was a controversial, free spirit until his death in San Francisco on Aug. 16, 1970. Member: SFAA; NSS; American Artists Congress. Exh: Whitney Museum (NYC), 1917; Arden Gallery...

This artwork titled "Sleeping Wolves" 1970 is an original color lithograph on rice paper by noted Italian/American artist Beniamino Benevenuto Bufano, 1890-1970. It is hand signed and inscribed "Bon a Tirer" in pencil by the artist. The image size is 12.35 x 11.35 inches, framed size is 25.25 x 24.75 inches. it is beautifully custom framed in a wooden black frame, with silver color spacer. It is in excellent condition. About the artist: Beniamino Benvenuto Bufano was born in San-Fele, Italy on Oct. 14, 1889. At age three Bufano's family brought him to NYC where he spent his childhood and was educated by private tutors. He studied at the ASL in NYC from 1913-15, the pupil of James L. Fraser, Herbert Adams, and Paul Manship. He came to San Francisco in 1915 to work on a sculpture for the PPIE. For awhile he worked in the studio of coppersmith Dirk van Erp. He then traveled extensively for four years in France, Italy, India, and China. After returning to San Francisco in 1921, he remained there the rest of his life except for visits to the Orient and Europe. Always a radical, he lost his teaching position at San Francisco Institute of Art in 1923 because he was too modern for the conservative faculty. He later taught at UC Berkeley and the CCAC (1964-65). Henry Miller wrote of him, "He will outlive our civilization and probably be better known, better understood, both as a man and artist, five thousand years hence." His work, simple in style and monumental in scale, includes smoothly rounded animals in granite and icons sheathed in stainless steel. Only five feet tall, Bufano was a controversial, free spirit until his death in San Francisco on Aug. 16, 1970. Member: SFAA; NSS; American Artists Congress. Exh: Whitney Museum (NYC), 1917; Arden Gallery...

This artwork titled "Three Chidren" 1970 is an original color lithograph on B.F.K Rives paper by noted Italian/American artist Beniamino Benevenuto Bufano, 1890-1970. It is hand signed and inscribed "First Impressions" in pencil by the artist. Published by First Impressions, San Francisco, printed by Fikrat Al-Khouri at First Impressions Graphic Society. The image size is 8.30 x 6.5 inches, framed size is 25.25 x 23.35 inches. it is beautifully custom framed in a wooden silver frame. It is in very good condition. See picture 4 and 5 for frame detail, the red mark on the frame are not damages, they are the way the finish is made. About the artist: Beniamino Benvenuto Bufano was born in San-Fele, Italy on Oct. 14, 1889. At age three Bufano's family brought him to NYC where he spent his childhood and was educated by private tutors. He studied at the ASL in NYC from 1913-15, the pupil of James L. Fraser, Herbert Adams, and Paul Manship. He came to San Francisco in 1915 to work on a sculpture for the PPIE. For awhile he worked in the studio of coppersmith Dirk van Erp. He then traveled extensively for four years in France, Italy, India, and China. After returning to San Francisco in 1921, he remained there the rest of his life except for visits to the Orient and Europe. Always a radical, he lost his teaching position at San Francisco Institute of Art in 1923 because he was too modern for the conservative faculty. He later taught at UC Berkeley and the CCAC (1964-65). Henry Miller wrote of him, "He will outlive our civilization and probably be better known, better understood, both as a man and artist, five thousand years hence." His work, simple in style and monumental in scale, includes smoothly rounded animals in granite and icons sheathed in stainless steel. Only five feet tall, Bufano was a controversial, free spirit until his death in San Francisco on Aug. 16, 1970. Member: SFAA; NSS; American Artists Congress. Exh: Whitney Museum (NYC), 1917; Arden Gallery...

Sander's interiors are always intriguing. This one certainly is. Signed in pencil.

Original linen backed vintage travel poster on United Air Lines to Washington D. C. Artist: Jebary. Linen backed vintage poster. Ve...

Carol Wax describes her circular images as "most often quasi abstract works that refer to ancient islamic designs using the shapes and attributes of animals, in this case the zebra. ...

Carol Wax describes her circular images as "most often quasi abstract works that refer to ancient islamic designs using the shapes and attributes of animals, in this case the elephan...

"White Horse" is an original wood engraving by Howard Thomas, signed in the lower right hand corner. A white horse trots past the foreground of the image, spirals in it's eyes and sp...

Lois Ward's "Red Damsel" is a color mezzotint created in 1994 in a very small edition of just 10. This impression is #2 of 10. A young human figure in green gazes down on a Tinker B...

Artist: LeRoy Neiman (American, 1921-2012) Title: Lion Family Year: 1974 Medium: Serigraph, signed in pencil Edition: 204/300 Image Size: 29 x 32 in....

Carol Wax describes her circular images as "most often quasi abstract works that refer to ancient islamic designs using the shapes and attributes of animals, in this case the elephan...

Artist: Gabor Peterdi, Hungarian (1915 - 2001) Title: Black Bull Year: 1962 Medium: Etching, signed, titled and numbered in pencil Edition: HC 10 Image Size...

"Brahma vs. Leghorn" is an original wood engraving by Howard Thomas. In front of an understated farm house, Brahma and Leghorn face off, ready to battle. An unidentified plant sits on the center. Image: 6" x 7.44" Framed: 13.75" x 15.18 Thomas Howard (1899-1971) born a Quaker in Ohio, trained in the Midwest at Ohio State University and the Chicago Art Institute. He taught in the Art Department of the Milwaukee State Teachers College (now University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) where he became good friends with Carl Holty, Edward Boerner, Robert von Neumann...

"The Flight (Duck Flying) is an original color silkscreen by Schomer Lichtner. The artist initialed the piece lower right. This piece features a duck in flight through red hatched lines. 4 3/4" x 6 3/4" art 13" x 15" frame Milwaukee artist, Schomer Lichtner passed away on May 9, 2006 at the age of 101. He continued to amaze and create with his whimsical paintings of ballerinas and cows. He and his late wife Ruth Grotenrath, both well-known Wisconsin artists, began their prolific careers as muralists for WPA projects, primarily post offices. Schomer Lichtner was well known for his whimsical cows and ballerinas, such as his "Ballerina Dancing on Cow" sculpture below. The late James Auer, art critic for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel referred to Lichtner as the artist laureate of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was the official artist of the Milwaukee Ballet. Lichtner also painted murals for industry and private clients. Schomer was a printmaker and produced block prints, lithographs, and serigraph prints. His casein (paint made from dairy products) and acrylic paintings are of the rural Wisconsin landscape and farm animals. He became interested in cows when he and Ruth spent summers near Holy Hill in Washington County. According to David Gordon, director of the Milwaukee Art Museum, Schomer Lichtner had a tremendous joie de vivre, " joy of life," and expressed it in his art. Schomer Lichtner was nationally known for his whimsical paintings and sculptures of black- and white-patterned Holstein cows...

Original Watch Him! Feed Him! Go to the Oregon Coast! They Want You There! Vintage poster. Linen backed in excellent condition, ready to frame. Whale watching has been popular among people in the Pacific Northwest for decades. The Oregon coast, in particular, is a prime location for spotting various whale species, including gray whales, humpbacks, and orcas. One of this activity's most iconic and memorable reminders can be seen in the “Watch Him! Feed Him! 3 tons of krill” whaling poster from Oregon State. The poster, which features a stylized image of a gray whale, was initially created in the mid-20th century to promote whale-watching trips along the Oregon coast. It is a testament to the region’s natural beauty and the importance of conservation efforts to protect these magnificent creatures. The first line of the poster, “Watch Him!” is a call to action for people to come and witness these majestic animals in their natural habitat. For many people, whale watching is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that leaves a lasting impact on their lives. Seeing a whale breaching the water or gliding gracefully through the ocean is a sight that cannot be replicated in any other environment. The second line...

Original travel poster: Braniff International Airways, Peru Bull. Size 20" x 26" A- condition. This vintage poster is not linen-backed beca...

MILLARD SHEETS (1987 – 1989) HORSE FRIGHTENED BY LIGHTNING, 1939 Lithograph signed in pencil, annotated “TRIAL PROOF”. The published edition is 75. Image, 17 x 22”. Sheet 19 ½” x 2...

Bareback Act, Old Hippodrome By Gifford Beal (1879-1956) Signed Lower Right Unframed: 6.5" x 9.5" Framed: 17.5" x 20" Gifford Beal, painter, etcher, muralist, and teacher, was born in New York City in 1879. The son of landscape painter William Reynolds Beal, Gifford Beal began studying at William Merritt Chase's Shinnecock School of Art (the first established school of plein air painting in America) at the age of thirteen, when he accompanied his older brother, Reynolds, to summer classes. He remained a pupil of Chase's for ten years also studying with him in New York City at the artist's private studio in the Tenth Street Studio Building. Later at his father's behest, he attended Princeton University from 1896 to 1900 while still continuing his lessons with Chase. Upon graduation from Princeton he took classes at the Art Students' League, studying with impressionist landscape painter Henry Ward Ranger and Boston academic painter Frank Vincent DuMond. He ended up as President of the Art Students League for fourteen years, "a distinction unsurpassed by any other artist." His student days were spent entirely in this country. "Given the opportunity to visit Paris en route to England in 1908, he chose to avoid it" he stated, "I didn't trust myself with the delightful life in ParisIt all sounded so fascinating and easy and loose." His subjects were predominately American, and it has been said stylistically "his art is completely American." Gifford achieved early recognition in the New York Art World. He became an associate member of the National Academy of Design in 1908 and was elected to full status of academician in 1914. He was known for garden parties, circuses, landscapes, streets, coasts, flowers and marines. This diversity in subject matter created "no typical or characteristic style to his work." Beal's style was highly influenced by Chase and Childe Hassam, a long time friend of the Beal family who used to travel "about the countryside with Beal in a car sketching...

Alfred Bendiner (1899-1964) was trained as an architect but worked as an artist throughout his career. He was a noted lithographer, as well an author, muralist, and caricaturist. The...

Alfred Bendiner (1899-1964) was trained as an architect but worked as an artist throughout his career. He was a noted lithographer, as well an author, muralist, and caricaturist. The...

Jamie Wyeth "Herring Gulls" 1978 Color Lithograph Signed Lower Right Numbered Lower Left 149/300 Born in 1946, James Browning Wyeth came of age when the meaning of patriotism was clouded by the traumas of the Vietnam War and the scandals of Watergate. Working in an era of turmoil and questioning of governmental authority, he did art that encompassed both marching off to war and marching in protest. One of James's early masterworks, Draft Age (1965) depicts a childhood friend as a defiant Vietnam-era teenager resplendent in dark sunglasses and black leather jacket in a suitably insouciant pose. Two years later Wyeth painstakingly composed a haunting, posthumous Portrait of President John F. Kennedy (1967) that seems to catch the martyred Chief Executive in a moment of agonized indecision. As Wyeth Center curator Lauren Raye Smith points out, Wyeth "did not deify the slain president, [but] on the contrary made him seem almost too human." Based on hours of study and sketching of JFK's brothers Robert and Edward - documented by insightful studies in the exhibition - the final, pensive portrait seemed too realistic to family members and friends. "His brother Robert," writes Smith in the exhibition catalogue, "reportedly felt uneasy about this depiction, and said it reminded him of the President during the Bay of Pigs invasion." In spite of these misgivings, James's JFK likeness has been reproduced frequently and is one of the highlights of this show. The poignancy, appeal and perceptiveness of this portrait, painted when the youngest Wyeth was 21 years old, makes one wish he would do more portraits of important public figures. James himself feels he is at his best painting people he knows well, as exemplified by his vibrant Portrait of Jean Kennedy Smith (1972), which captures the vitality of the slain President's handsome sister. He did paint a portrait of Jimmy Carter for the January 1977 man-of-the-year cover of Time magazine, showing the casually dressed President-elect as a straightforward character posed under a flag-draped water tower next to the family peanut plant in Plains, Ga. James recalls that Carter had one Secret Service agent guarding him as he posed outdoors, a far cry from the protection our Chief Executives require today. As a participating artist in the "Eyewitness to Space" program organized by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in collaboration with the National Gallery of Art in the late 1960s, Wyeth deftly recorded in a series of watercolors his eyewitness observations of dramatic spacecraft launchings and more mundane scenes associated with the space program. Commissioned by Harper's Magazine to cover the 1974 congressional hearings and trials of Watergate figures, James Wyeth executed a series of perceptive and now evocative sketches that recall those dark chapters in our history. Memorable images include a scowling John Ehrlichman, a hollow-eyed Bob Haldeman, an owlish Charles Colson, a focused Congressman Peter Rodino, a grim visaged Father/ Congressman Robert Drinan, and vignettes of the press and various courtroom activities. An 11-by-14-inch pencil sketch of the unflappable Judge John Sirica is especially well done. These "images are powerful as historical records," observes Smith, "and as lyrically journalistic impressions of events that changed the nation forever." Wyeth's sketch of early-morning crowds lined up outside the Supreme Court building hoping to hear the Watergate case, with the ubiquitous TV cameramen looking on, is reminiscent of recent scenes as the high court grappled with the Bush-Gore contest. The Wyeth family penchant for whimsy and enigmatic images is evident in Islanders (1990), showing two of James's friends, wearing goofy hats, sitting on the porch of a small Monhegan Island (Me.) cottage draped with a large American flag. Mixing the serious symbolism of Old Glory with the irreverent appearance of the two men, James has created a puzzling but interesting composition. Painting White House...