Alexander Calder

Circus Series

Elizabeth Catlett “Man” 1975 (The Print Club of Cleveland Publication Number 83, 2005) Woodcut and Color Linocut Printed in 2003 at JK Fine Art Editions Co., Union City, New Jersey Signed and Dated By The Artist Lower Right Titled Lower Left Ed. of 250 Image Size: approx 18 x 12 inches Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012) is regarded as one of the most important women artists and African American artists of our time. She believed art could affect social change and that she should be an agent for that change: “I have always wanted my art to service black people—to reflect us, to relate to us, to stimulate us, to make us aware of our potential.” As an artist and an activist, Catlett highlighted the dignity and courage of motherhood, poverty, and the working class, returning again and again to the subject she understood best—African American women. The work below, entitled, “Man”, is "carved from a block of wood, chiseled like a relief. Catlett, a sculptor as well as a printmaker, carves figures out of wood, and so is extremely familiar with this material. For ‘Man’ she exploits the grain of the wood, allowing to to describe the texture of the skin and form vertical striations, almost scarring the image. Below this intense, three-dimensional visage parades seven boys, printed repetitively from a single linoleum block in a “rainbow roll” that changes from gold to brown. This row of brightly colored figures with bare feet, flat like a string of paper dolls, raise their arms toward the powerful depiction of the troubled man above.” Biography: Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012) Known for abstract sculpture in bronze and marble as well as prints and paintings, particularly depicting the female figure, Elizabeth Catlett is unique for distilling African American, Native American, and Mexican art in her work. She is "considered by many to be the greatest American black sculptor". . .(Rubinstein 320) Catlett was born in Washington D.C. and later became a Mexican citizen, residing in Cuernavaca Morelos, Mexico. She spent the last 35 years of her life in Mexico. Her father, a math teacher at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, died before she was born, but the family, including her working mother, lived in the relatively commodious home of his family in DC. Catlett received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Howard University, where there was much discussion about whether or not black artists should depict their own heritage or embrace European modernism. She earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1940 from the University of Iowa, where she had gone to study with Grant Wood, Regionalist* painter. His teaching dictum was "paint what you know best," and this advice set her on the path of dealing with her own background. She credits Wood with excellent teaching and deep concern for his students, but she had a problem during that time of taking classes from him because black students were not allowed housing in the University's dormitories. Following graduation in 1940, she became Chair of the Art Department at Dillard University in New Orleans. There she successfully lobbied for life classes with nude models, and gained museum admission to black students at a local museum that to that point, had banned their entrance. That same year, her painting Mother and Child, depicting African-American figures won her much recognition. From 1944 to 1946, she taught at the George Washington Carver School, an alternative community school in Harlem that provided instruction for working men and women of the city. From her experiences with these people, she did a series of paintings, prints, and sculptures with the theme "I Am a Negro Woman." In 1946, she received a Rosenwald Fellowship*, and she and her artist husband, Charles White, traveled to Mexico where she became interested in the Mexican working classes. In 1947, she settled permanently in Mexico where she, divorced from White, married artist Francisco Mora...

Fritz Scholder (1937-2005) "Custer's Last Fight" Lithograph Ed. 54/75 Signed and Numbered Site Size: approx 22 x 30 inches Framed Size: approx. 35 x 41.5 inches Born in Breckenridge, Minnesota, Fritz Scholder became a prominent Indian portrait, figure, and genre painter in Arizona. His father was part Indian, and Fritz Scholder chose to focus his art work on this part of his lineage and to express both an appreciation and disdain for Indian customs, traditions, and daily existence. He studied at the University of Kansas, Wisconsin State University, and with Wayne Thiebaud at Sacramento College in California. He earned an Master of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Arizona. A long-time resident of Scottsdale, Arizona, he has filled a number of artist-in-residence positions including Dartmouth College and the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute. In his work, he frequently showed the harsh, realistic side of Indians' lives and deaths including the affects of alcohol and other dissipations, but some of his depictions are humorous such as Indians on horseback carrying umbrellas. His brush-work is generally swift, and the tone often sombre and surreal. A major influence on his work was the contemporary British artist, Francis Bacon, from whom Scholder adapted ironic distortions into his canvases. In Scottsdale, he lived in an adobe-walled oasis of palm trees and oleander, amid skulls and skeletons. In the garden, several of Mr. Scholder's sculptures feature skull-like heads. In the library, an 18th-century skull engraved with witchcraft symbols shared shelf space with books printed before 1500. And the porch had been converted into a skull room, complete with Mexican Day of the Dead...

Study/Falling Man (Series II), 1967 By. Ernest Tino Trova (American, 1927-2009) 24 x 24 inches Wrapped to Foam Core Signed Artist Proof Lower Right Ernest Tino Trova (American, 1927...

Study/Falling Man (Series I), 1967 By. Ernest Tino Trova (American, 1927-2009) Black Frame, Green Background Signed in Pencil Lower Right Unframed: 6 x 6 inches With Frame: 8.75 x 8....

Study/Falling Man (Series I), 1967 By. Ernest Tino Trova (American, 1927-2009) 24 x 24 inches Wrapped on Foam Core Signed Artist Proof Lower Right Ernest Tino Trova (American, 1927-...

Study/Falling Man (Series I), 1967 By. Ernest Tino Trova (American, 1927-2009) 24 x 24 inches Wrapped to Foam Core Signed Artist Proof Lower Right Ernest Tino Trova (American, 1927-...

The main image in this work is a red moon covered by a white handpainted guitar. In the background, a man with a hat is sleeping amongst the grass printed...

This small multiple block print, entitled camera, steak, beer, crab & Baguette. Is part of the series of prints called five-block image study series....

This work is entitled Artist palette with fire. Often the central figures will dictate the title of the piece this is the case in this work. Printed in white, In the center, an artist is silhouetted by a large artist palette in the background. Below this in green is printed a small campfire. The remaining piece has a saturated texture of multiple block prints and hand painting. Signed and dated In graphite pencil en verso ( on the Back the writing in graphite pencil reads...

This work is Entitled " Red Betty". The main image is of a woman with a round hairdo looking off to the right. Signed and dated In graphite pencil en ve...

Big Day Coming - 18x24 Hand Signed and Numbered - Number 1 of 10 Limited Edition Giclée Print in 24x36 Vintage Distressed Gold Finish Frame My work is inspired by the beauty that...

A fine impression with large full margins published by Associated American Artists.