Tomas Belsky

'Eeh! You Goosefukkamyahgoosenaroof!', Incident on Mamo Street, Hilo, Hawaii

1983

Signed, lower left, 'T. Nakayama' for Tadashi Nakayama (Japanese, 1927-2014), dated 1973 and inscribed, lower right, with number and edition limitation, '21/75'. Paper dimensions: 3...

Signed lower right, "Hal Stuart" (American, 1892-1982) and inscribed "Tahiti". Color woodblock print showing a Tahitian dancer in traditional dress accompanied by two musicians playing a to'ere and a drum, with lush banana leaves in the background. Hal Steward (Stuart) Wilcox was born in California on March 14, 1892. Wilcox used several aliases for his art works: Piko Siska, Hal Stuart, Michelle Stuart, and Harold Stuart Wilcox. He lived in Laurel Canyon (Los Angeles) in 1931-32 and then made a trip to Tahiti and the Cook Islands. Later in his life he owned a fabric company in Honolulu where he designed native patterned fabric, and was enlisted in the WWI army working on camouflage alongside the "Camofleurs". He went on to do paintings of Mexico...

Signed, lower right, with artist's chop mark in Hiragana, 'Tensen-e' 天泉絵, for Ogyū Tensen 荻生天泉 (Japanese, 1882-1947) A large, early-20th-century, hand-colored Japanese woodblock showing elegantly-robed figures seated beside musical instruments in a panoramic landscape and viewing the full moon through golden clouds. An elegant example composed with clear artistic vision and printed with a consummate mastery of a challenging medium. Nihonga style painter Ogyu Tensen was born in present-day Nihonmatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture. He studied at the Tokyo Fine Arts School, where he was taught by the well-known Kanō school painter Gahō Hashimoto (1835-1908), who was instrumental in the development of nihonga painting. Tensen was selected to participate in the first Bunten exhibition (Ministry of Education Fine Arts Exhibition) in 1907, in which he won an award. He went on to win many other awards at the Bunten exhibitions and the exhibitions of its successor organizations, the Teiten (Imperial Academy of Fine Arts) and Shin Bunten along with exhibitions of the Japan Arts Institute (Nihon Bijutsuin) and the post-war 1946 Nitten (Japan Fine Arts Exhibition). Along with his work in printmaking, the Imperial Court commissioned paintings by him. Tensen was a member of the Futaba kai artist...

Signed lower right, "Edinah L. Jewett", inscribed lower left, "1/2" and titled "Ballerina and Friend". Substantial sugar-lift aquatint and etching showing a young woman in coral se...

Signed lower right, 'Arthur B. Davies' for Arthur Bowen Davies (American, 1862-1928) and created circa 1915. An early twentieth-century sugar-lift aquatint showing Zeus in the guise of a swan, reclining and cradling Lida in his wings while King Tyndareus ponders the mutability of human circumstance. Born in Utica, New York, Arthur Davies attended the Chicago Academy of Design from 1879 to 1882. He furthered his studies at the Chicago Art Institute, before moving to New York City in 1885 where he studied at the Art Students League and Gotham Art Students League. In 1893, he made the first of many trips to Europe, visiting Holland, Paris, and London. He became an arch-exponent of Modernism and the central organizing figure of 1913's watershed Armory Show. Davies developed a style that combined visionary Symbolism with elements of Tonalism and Cubism. Who Was Who in American Art describes him as an “…important but enigmatic Modernist whose work was poetic, mysterious, and visionary”. Davies was the recipient of many gold medals and prizes and juried awards and his work is held in the permanent collections of museums nationwide, including New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others. Photo of Arthur B Davies circa 1907 in New York City by Gertrude Käsebier courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. Reference: Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Peter Hastings Falk, Sound View Press 1999, Vol. 1, p. 835; Artists in California 1786-1940, Third Edition, Edan Milton Hughes: Crocker Art Museum, Sheridan Books 2002, Vol. 1, p. 280; Thieme-Becker Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zu Gengenwart, Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag 1992, Vol. 7/8, p. 470; E. Benezit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs, et Graveurs, Jacques Busse, 1999 Nouvelle Édition, Gründ 1911, Vol. 4, p. 293; Davenport’s Art Reference and Price Guide 2009/10 Edition, LTB Gordonsart, Inc. 2008, p. 672; et al. Additional biographical information follows, written by Catherine Southwick and Robert Torchia from the National Gallery of Art Online Editions: Arthur B. Davies’s mystical, mysterious paintings hearken back to 19th-century romanticism, even while Davies aligned himself with American artists advancing the most radical ideals of their day. Davies was born on September 26, 1862, in Utica, New York, the son of English and Welsh parents who had immigrated to the United States in 1856. He first took art lessons as a teenager from a local landscape painter, Dwight Williams...

Signed lower center, 'Gooch', for Gerald Gooch (American, born 1933) with number and limitation, '5/16' and dated 1965. Born in Mainington, West Virginia, Gerald Gooch first studied...

Delicate woodcut print on handmade paper of a stylized figure and hieroglyphic-like symbols by Monterey Bay artist Paula Walzer (British,/American 1926-20...

A beauty turns to admire the Kirifuri Waterfall in Nikko Province. She holds the handle of an umbrella and wears fashionable clothing that is beautifully printed. This series pairs f...

The boy Bôtarô watches his nurse Otsuji haul a bucket of water from the well. From the kabuki play Osanago no adauchi. Most interesting is the lush backdrop of lotus flowers and pump...

"Sun, Moon and Stars". Three beauties enjoy a full moon on the veranda of a teahouse or restuarant. The woman on the left kneels and adjusts her lavishly printed kimono. The beauty in the center has her hair down, and behind her is a screen against which shadows are beautifully silhouetted, which adds an air of mystery. The seated woman on the right is perhaps a geisha, as we see a shamisen lying next to her. Before her is a tray with an assortment of foods. One may surmise that the beauties are being compared to the sun, the moon, and the stars. On the left we glimpse a full moon shining over the peaceful bay, and boats at harbor. Original first edition Japanese color woodblock print triptych...

Shichirigahama, Sagami Province. A beauty in the foreground waves to her young companions, who run towards her on the beach. The beauty at left wears a western-style golden ring. We ...

“War Chronicles of Osaka” (Osaka gunki no uchi). Okubo Hikozaemon, raising his sword, protects the hidden Tokugawa shogun from the spear of Gorô Matabei Mototsugu in a moonlit fores...