Albert Sway

New York Social Realist Etching Cease To Do Evil Learn To Do Well WPA Artist NYC

Here for your consideration is a wonderful original etching on archival paper by the well known American artist, Ralph Fabri. Strong impression; signed in pencil by the artist lower right margin. Titled and dated bottom left of the sheet “1947-Americana”. Condition of the etching is excellent. Top corner of sheet and bottom right corner of sheet have tiny creases. Not visible, under the mat. Sheet size is 12 by 15 inches. Image size is 8 by 9.75 inches. Matted but not framed. Provenance: A Long Island, New York collector. Painter and printmaker, commercial artist, writer, and teacher, Ralph Fabri was born Fabri Reszo in Hungary in 1894. He was educated in Budapest, first studying architecture at the Royal Institute of Technology from 1912 to 1914. He then enrolled in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, from which he graduated in 1918 with a Professor's Diploma (M.A.) "for teaching drawing, painting and geometry – including descriptive and projective geometry – in schools of higher education." Fabri arrived in New York City in 1921 and soon adopted the anglicized version of his name, Ralph Fabri. He began doing commercial design work and during the academic year of 1923/24 was enrolled as an evening student at the National Academy of Design. After becoming an American citizen in 1927, he traveled extensively in Europe. Upon returning to New York that same year, Fabri decided his financial situation was stable enough to allow him to focus his attention on fine art. During the Great Depression, Fabri's already inadequate portrait commissions and art sales further declined and he returned to commercial work. He established a workshop known as the Ralph Fabri Studios, that designed theatrical and movie sets, window displays, and retail interiors. But Fabri found the workshop dirty and distasteful, and eventually was able to concentrate on advertising work which could be done from home. The largest clients for his pen and ink drawings were The Stamp and Album Co. of America, Inc. (for which he designed covers for stamp albums and produced illustrations for envelopes housing sets of stamps sold to collectors), Geographica Map Co., and Joseph H. Cohen & Sons (for whom he designed and illustrated mail order catalogs). Another source of income during this period was the design and construction of an addition to "Iroki," Theodore Dreiser...

For a print that's nearly one hundred years old it feels very contemporary. Signed and titled in pencil. Besides the etching I think there is some false biting that adds tone here.

Noon Hour. 1935. Etching. Teller 18. 6 7/8 x 4 7/8 (sheet 11 3/8 x 8 1/2). Edition 250 published by Associated American Artists in 1946 (were a few earlier impressions from a propose...

Japanese born, Fugi Nakamizo came to New York City in 1910. He studied at the Art Students League and Cooper Union, NYC, and also printmaking with Joseph Pennell. He worked on the Federal Public Works of Art Project in the 1930s and in the 40s, during WWII, was interned at the Japanese-American internment camp in Topaz, Utah. His work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum of Art, NYC, and the Library of Congress and Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. This etching of New York...

Philadelphia-born Irving Guyer attended the Art Students League and worked in New York City before moving to California. This print is signed and titled i...

This extravagant subject is a clear exception in the oeuvre of Bernard Sanders. Signed in pencil; interestingly signed in the plate at the upper right ...

This is such an interesting image. Are there 'Four women'? Is the head on the upper right from a hat store or is she another person in the scene. And what a...

Working in the tradition of the Etching Revival, Ernest David Roth made this amazingly conceived and detailed study of the entrance to the Spanish ci...

There's so often a mysterious or evocative atmosphere that permeates Sander's work. Signed in pencil; titled in lower margin in pencil.

A member of New York's 14th Street School, Isabel Bishop is best known for her graphic art and urban subject matter. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, she arrived in New York in 1918 at age ...