Charles Turzak

'Dancers' — 1930s American Modernism

1939

Kawase Hasui, 'Rain at Shinagawa, Ryoshimachi' from the series 'Selection of Views of the Tokaido', woodblock print, 1931. A very fine, atmospheric impression, with fresh colors; the...

Gesso Yoshimoto, 'Sparrows and Bamboo in Snow', woodblock print, 1930s. Signed 'Gesso', lower left. A superb, impression with fresh colors and pronounced woodgrain, fine bokashi gr...

Kawase Hasui, 'Chihan no Ame, Matsue' (Lakeside Shower, Matsue), color woodblock print, 1932. A fine, atmospheric impression, with fresh colors; the full sheet, from a postwar editio...

Margo Humphrey, 'The Garden (Adam and Eve)', reductive color woodcut, 1989. Signed, dated, and annotated 'A/P' in pencil. Signed and dated in the image, lower right. A fine, richly-inked, artist's proof impression, with fresh, vivid colors, on BFK Rives, heavy, off-white wove paper; the full sheet with margins (1 to 1 3/8 inches), in excellent condition. Archivally sleeved, unmatted. Scarce. Image size 27 1/4 x 39 1/8 inches (692 x 994 mm); sheet size 29 1/2 x 42 inches (749 x 1,067 mm). ABOUT THIS WORK "Humphrey continued to reinterpret stories from the Bible with African American figures. In 1989 she published the woodcut print 'The Garden' at Magnolia Editions in Oakland, CA. For this rare foray into relief printmaking, she employed the reductive method, which uses only one block that is successively carved for each color segment, reducing the block with each cutting. Technically challenging, this lush and elaborate print is a testament to Humphrey’s skills as a printmaker. A youthful Adam and Eve are depicted in a luxuriant tropical landscape. Here, Humphrey chooses not to include the traditional symbols of humanity’s downfall but instead portrays them as being protected by angels in an atmosphere of idyllic bounty. ...Although Humphrey challenges traditional representation of Christian themes, her images are not iconoclastic but present a broader, more inclusive engagement with religious spirituality." — Adrienne L. Childs, 'Margo Humphrey, The David C. Driskell Series of African American Art: Volume VII,' Pomegranate Communications, Inc., 2009, page 71. ABOUT THE ARTIST American printmaker, illustrator, and art teacher Margo Humphrey was born in Oakland, California, in 1942. She earned a BFA in Painting and Printmaking from the California College of Arts and Crafts and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Printmaking from Stanford University. Humphrey began teaching in 1973 at the University of California Santa Cruz and has since taught at the University of Texas at San Antonio, the San Francisco Art Institute, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has also taught at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji; Yaba Technological Institute of Fine Art, Ekoi Island, Nigeria; the University of Benin in Benin City, Nigeria; the Margaret Trowell School of Fine Art in Kampala, Uganda, and the Fine Art School of the National Gallery of Art, Harare, Zimbabwe. In 1989, she was appointed Department Head of Printmaking at the University of Maryland in College Park. Humphrey has worked in lithography, monoprint, and woodcut with significant printmaking ateliers, including the Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper, the Bob Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, and the Tamarind Institute in New Mexico. She was one of the earliest African-American woman artists to distinguish herself as a lithographer in a highly technical, male-dominated profession and was the first to have her prints published by Tamarind in 1974. Humphrey’s imagery combines historical perspective, autobiography, and fantasy to illuminate her experience as an African American woman. Bold, saturated color, animated figures, and syncopated rhythmic arrangements are hallmarks of Humphrey's oeuvre. Though Humphrey labels her distinctive style "sophisticated naive," the narrative complexity and technical skill of her works attest to her artistic virtuosity. Joyful, expressive, and at times humorous, her works offer engaging commentary on the presumptions of American culture and myth while embracing her personal vision of authenticity and spirituality. She developed her 1987 work The Last Bar-B-Que, a vividly colored transformation of the Last Supper, following a three-year period during which she examined portrayals of the iconic subject by artists from Pietro Lorenzetti to Emil Nolde. Her narrative work The Garden, a monumentally scaled reductive woodcut, is a further example of an archetypal subject—Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden—debunked and rendered with fresh, life-affirming vibrancy. Since her first solo exhibition in 1965, Humphrey’s works have been exhibited internationally. They are held in major institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Hampton University Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), the Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro, and the National Gallery of Modern Art, Lagos. In 1996, she was invited to be part of the World Printmaking Survey at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 2011, Hampton University Museum mounted a 45-year retrospective of Humphrey’s work Her Story: Margo Humphrey Lithographs and Works on Paper, jointly curated by Robert E. Steele, executive director of the David Driskell...

Edward Henry Gordon Craig (British, 1872-1966) La Procession Nocturne (state 1) Woodcut Inscribed `State 1 only 8 copies’ (lower left under mount) 5.1/8 ...

Gaston Suisse (1896-1988) Panthère noire dans les bambous, 1927 Gravure sur bois, sur papier Velin de Van Gelder. Rehaussé aux lavis d’encre de Chine par l’artiste Signé en bas à gauche et daté 1927 en bas à droite Black panther in a forest of bamboos, 1927 A handcolored woodcut on Velin de Van Gelder paper Signed and dated 1927 Bibliographie /Literature Gaston Suisse, splendeur du laque art déco. Emmanuel Bréon. Somogy Éditions d'art, Paris 2013, reproduite page 105 (un autre exemplaire reproduit) The artist made a wood engraving of which he made about twenty prints himself. These proofs were not marketed as is, Gaston Suisse reworked each of the proofs using Indian ink washes in order to obtain different effects for each proof, which are thus unique original works. Born in 1896 in a family of artists, his father Georges was a close friend of Siegfried Bing and a great lover of Japanese art and a bibliophile. He passed his taste for art to his son whom he often took to draw at the Botanic Garden . Around 1910, Gaston Suisse, who hasn't entered yet the artistic school, met Paul Jouve, then 18 years his elder, who was already famous. In 1911, at the age of 17, he entered the National School of Decorative Art where he followed the teachings of Paul Renouard. Thanks to his knowledge and taste for the Japanese art, he chose lacquer painting as his specialty. His practice of this noble and demanding subject were so much appreciated that he was awarded with two gold medals in 1913 and 1914. Mobilized during the war , he joined the army and go in Salonika where he found his friend Jouve. In 1918, he finished his studies at the School of Applied Arts in order to perfect his training. He learned in particular the techniques of gilding and oxidation of metals. The first productions of Gaston Suisse, furniture and objects in lacquer with geometrical patterns, were an instant success and Suisse was appointed as member of Salon d'Automne in 1924, the very year of his first exhibition. Considered as an artist-decorator, his sincere and deep friendship with Jouve linked him in parallel with the groups of the animaliers of the Jardin des Plantes and became a close friend of Edouard-Marcel Sandoz. When travelling to Maghreb and Middle-East between 1923 and 1925, he produced numerous drawings representing antelopes, apes and fennec foxes...

Proof sheet with four wood engraved book plates by Rockwell Kent. Possibly for a book on this subject published in 1937. There are pencil numbers under each image that probably indic...

Edward Gordon Craig (British, 1872 – 1966) Army of Fortinbras Woodcut Signed with monogram (lower right) 4.3/4 x 8.1/4 in. (12 x 20.8cm.) A beauti...