Charles Turzak

Michigan Avenue Bridge — American Modernism

1929

Ohio-born Walter DuBois Richards (1907-2006) was educated at the Cleveland School of Art. He re-located to New York around 1933 where he had a successful career as a commercial artis...

GUSTAVE BAUMANN (1881 – 1971) THE RUG WEAVER, 1910 (Chamberlain 26) Color woodcut signed in pencil. Unnumbed from an edition 100 as published in the Hills o’ Brown...

Barnet, Will. SLEEPING MAN (REST). Szoke 42, Cole 41, Johnson 40. Woodcut, 1937. Edition of 10. Titled "Sleeping Man" at left, and signed at right, both in pencil. This print is usua...

Barnet, Will. AT THE SEASHORE. Szoke 69, Cole 68, Johnson 54. Woodcut printed in black, brown and white, 1939. There was no edition, only a few proofs printed by the artist on Japane...

Barnet, Will. CHILD REACHING. Szoke 83, Cole 82, Johnson 65. Woodcut, 1940. Edition of 25. Titled and signed in pencil. 7 1/4 x 11 1/4 inches (image), 8 1/8 x 11 1/2 inches (sheet). ...

"Merry Christmas" is an original color woodcut on paper by Sylvia Spicuzza. The artist stamped her signature lower right. This artwork features the an abstracted figure on orange p...

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...

The print 'Jones Island' is something of a self portrait. In the image, an artist stands before and easel, depicting the docks and buildings on the coast. The title indicates that this is Jones Island in Milwaukee, the peninsula along Lake Michigan that today is home to largely industrial buildings. The buildings and figures in the print suggest that this might be a view of the last of the Kashubian or German immigrant settlements on the peninsula before they were evicted in the 1940s to make way for the development of the harbor. The artist in the image thus acts as a documentarian of these peoples. The careful line-work of the woodblock engraving adds a sense of expressionism to the scene, leaving the figures and buildings 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. 6 x 5 inches, image 10 x 7.13 inches, sheet 13.43 x 12.43 inches, frame Signed "GS" in the print block,upper left Entitled "Jones Island" lower left (covered by matting) Inscribed "Wood Engraving" lower center (covered by matting) Artist name "Gerrit V. Sinclair" lower right (covered by matting) Framed to conservation standards using 100 percent rag matting and museum glass, all housed in a silver gilded moulding. Gerrit Sinclair studied at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1910 - 1915, under Vanderpoel, Norton, and Walcott. In World War I, he served in the Army Ambulance Corps and later recorded his experiences in a series of oil paintings. He taught in Minneapolis before arriving in Milwaukee in 1920 to become a member of the original faculty of the Layton School of Art. He was also a member of the Wisconsin Painters & Sculptors. Sinclair's paintings and drawings were executed in a lyrical, representational style, usually expressing a mood rather than a narrative. His paintings reveal a great sensitivity for color and atmosphere. His subject matter focused on cityscapes, industrial valleys, and working-class neighborhoods, captured from eye-level. A decade before the popularity of Regionalism, Sinclair's strong interest in the community was reflected not only in his paintings, but also in his encouragement to students to return to their communities as artists and teachers. Joseph Friebert...

The artwork "Nipples & Peas" by Tina Heck, created in 1983, is a print that combines elements of realism and abstraction. The technique appears to be a combination of printmaking, ...

Portrait of Anger - Multilayer Woodblock in Ink on Paper Bold and saturated woodblock print of a screaming man by Michael Dow (American, 20th Century). The man is centered in this m...