Fairfield Porter

'Apple Blossoms III' — Modernist Representation

1974

Howard Cook, 'Financial District', lithograph, 1931, edition 75, Duffy 155. A fine, richly-inked impression, on cream wove paper, the full sheet with wide margins (2 3/4 to 5 5/8 inches), in excellent condition. Image size 13 5/16 x 10 3/8 inches (338 x 264 mm); sheet size 23 x 16 inches (584 x 406 mm). Matted to museum standards, unframed. Literature: 'American Master Prints from the Betty and Douglas Duffy Collection', the Trust for Museum Exhibitions, Washington, D.C., 1987. Collections: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Library of Congress, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum. ABOUT THE ARTIST Howard Norton Cook (1901-1980) was one of the best-known of the second generation of artists who moved to Taos. A native of Massachusetts, he studied at the Art Students League in New York City and at the Woodstock Art Colony. Beginning his association with Taos in 1926, he became a resident of the community in the 1930s. During his career, he received two Guggenheim Fellowships and was elected an Academician in the National Academy of Design. He earned a national reputation as a painter, muralist, and printmaker. Cook’s work in the print mediums received acclaim early in his career with one-person exhibitions at the Denver Art Museum (1927) and the Museum of New Mexico (1928). He received numerous honors and awards over the years, including selection in best-of-the-year exhibitions sponsored by the American Institute of Graphics Arts, the Brooklyn Museum, the Society of American Etchers, and the Philadelphia Print Club. His first Guggenheim Fellowship took him to Taxco, Mexico in 1932 and 1933; his second in the following year enabled him to travel through the American South and Southwest. Cook painted murals for the Public Works of Art Project in 1933 and the Treasury Departments Art Program in 1935. The latter project, completed in Pittsburgh, received a Gold Medal from the Architectural League of New York. One of his most acclaimed commissions was a mural in the San Antonio Post Office in 1937. He and Barbara Latham settled in Talpa, south of Taos, in 1938 and remained there for over three decades. Cook volunteered in World War II as an Artist War Correspondent for the US Navy, where he was deployed in the Pacific. In 1943 he was appointed Leader of a War Art Unit...

Benton Spruance, 'Eyes for the Night', lithograph, 1947, edition 35, Fine and Looney 260. Signed, dated, titled, and annotated 'Ed 35' in pencil. A fine impression, on heavy, cream ...

Inspiration or L'inspiré - The artist and his wife, self-portrait. This is a self-portrait of the great artist, depicting him as lost in thought before one of his paintings, which is apparently related to his home country Russia, as suggested by the small figure in the lower right of the work. Chagall’s wife Valentina (“Vava”), who was also from Russia, is looking over his shoulder, full of longing. The small surreal elements that are characteristic of Chagall’s paintings are also present here: the silhouettes of the houses that seems to stick out of the painting and a figure with a flute or trombone standing on its head. Chagall Lithographe, Volume II of the catalogue raisonné of Chagall's lithographic work, see Mourlot 398, 1957-1962, Paris 1963, imprinted by Imprimerie Mourlot for the publisher André Sauret. A lithographic plate from the catalog that was published in 10,000 copies. Condition : Excellent Set inside a cream mount bearing brass cartellino Visible sheet size length 23cm, Height 31.50cm In a carved and gilded frame Frame size Length 44cm, Height 55.5cm The reverse with a paper label in Japanese Provenance : Private Collection, purchased with Lovers in Grey

Lithograph on vélin paper. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Notes: From Derrière le miroir, N° 46-47, 1952. Published by Aimé Maeght, Éditeur, Paris; ...