Gaston Hoffmann

Three courtroom scenes original signed etchings by French artist Gaston Hoffman

20th c

An etching by Leonor Fini depicting three men and three woman interacting in various ways and one of the woman sitting in the foreground is playing the lute. This is a signed limited edition etching numbering 68 out of 100. There is also a signature by the artist embossed in the paper just below the pencil signature. The paper is very fibrous and is deckle -edged. The paper size is 26 x 20.25 Image size 15.50 x 12.50. This original rare etching is in very good condition. Argentinian-born artist Leonor Fini (1907-1996) is considered one of the great female artists of the twentieth century. She moved to Paris in the early 1930’s where she spent most of her life and almost immediately formed friendships with Salvador Dali, Cartier- Bresson, Max Ernst and other intellectuals of the time. At twenty five she had her first one person show in Paris and was included in the 1936 pivotal exhibition at MOMA…Fantastic Art, Dada and Surrealism…..and that same year had an exhibition at a famous avant garde gallery in New York. Although Fini never considered herself a Surrealist she maintained close personal relationships with several members of the group. One can see how their ideology influenced her work but she remained firmly rooted in the tradition of Symbolism, Metaphysics and Italian and German Romanticism Her works can be found in most important collections of modern art around the world. Fini was renowned as a portraitist and as a painter of erotic sexual tensions with a mysterious atmosphere. She was adamant about being independent and not belonging to any one group. She lived life on her own terms and is sometimes referred to as …..the female Dali. She was also involved with designing for fashion and creating elaborate sets for opera and theatre. As a feminist she was definitely ahead of the times. She produced the first erotic male nude...

Leaves of Love-Orange Lady is an original signed limited edition (XXII/ XXX) lithograph by Alessandro Nastasio showing a full figured orange colored nude holding flowers in each hand standing with her bare feet on the ground. She appears to have wing like orange and green leaves surrounding her. Paper size 18.25 x 11.75 image 13 x 7.75 in very good condition. Alessandro Nastasio was born in Milan in 1934. In 1952 he followed the “free school of the nude” led by Aldo Salvatori. In 1960 he attended the Atelier of Giorgio Upilio where Giacometti, Lam, Fontana, De Chirico worked and where he had the opportunity to study the themes of the inspiring myths. He worked at the MAF foundry with the master Tullio Figini who shared the secrets of the lost wax Renaissance fusion and where he met the masters Crocetti, Manfrini, Manzu , Minguzzi, Fabbri,. He then moved on to Quinto de Stampi at the De Andreis foundry where Marino Marini, Pomodoro, Rudy Wach, Strebelle, Negri and Rosental operated. A regular reader of the great sapienzal texts of antiquity, he trained in particular on the Bible which he illustrated with woodcuts, aquatints, etchings and linocuts, especially the Song of Songs, the book of Ecclesiastes and several pages of the Gospels He also drew his inspiration from the philosophical-religious tradition of the Eastern world through the reading of Rig-Veda, Upanisad and the Matnavi of Rumi. In 1966-67 he obtained the chair at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera and for thirty years he devoted himself to the teaching of Art Education in various schools. Nastasio created works both pictorial and plastic in collaboration with famous architects such as: Figini and Pollini, De Carli, Gardella, Faranda, Selleri, Ponti. His great talent soon came to the attention of various art dealers: first Max G...

Construction d’un temple – Plate n. 3  is a b/w original etching realized in 1973 (as reported on plate on the lower right margin) by Paul Delvaux. From the collection “ Construction d’un temple en ruine à la déesse Vanadé ”, this wonderful original print   came into being from the collaboration of four years between the French author and a member of the Nouveau-Roman , Alain Robbe-Grillet (1922-2008), and the Belgian artist Paul Delvaux (1897-1994). At first, Robbe-Grillet wrote a text, to which Delvaux then replied with a wonderful engraving; Robbe-Grillet then responded with a second text. This is how the building blocks of this beautiful book came together: it was constructed like a temple.  The book was printed in an edition of 187 copies, of which  only 40 contain the illustrations by Paul Delvaux .  Our copy is unnumbered and printed on  “Arches”  ivory colored paper with the  Bateau Lavoir watermark  (on the lower right corner), and  “Richard Bas ” watermark (on the lower left margin). This beautiful artwork, representing an enigmatic composition with seven women realized like ancient Greek marble...

PAWEL ZABLOCKI (born in 1960) Pawel Zablocki is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. He received his diploma in 1987. Between 1991 and 1998, Zablocki studied semiotics a...