Hugo Gellert

FREE MAN'S DUTIES, No 4

1943

Printed on a slightly reflective metallic silver finished paper. there is a companion piece on a money green paper. A depiction of a ballet dancer, superimposed upon canceled dance c...

Artist: Will Barnet, American (1911 - 2012) Title: Interlude Year: 1982 Medium: Serigraph, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: AP Image Size: 20 x 38 inches Size: 25.5 x 42.5 in. (64.77 x 107.95 cm) Fig 179, pg 70 from Will Barnet: Prints 1931-2005, published by John Szoke...

screenprint printed in color ink on wove paper. New York City subway station interior. Anthony Velonis (1911 – 1997) was an American painter and designer born in New York City who helped introduce the public to silkscreen printing in the early 20th century. While employed under the federal Works Progress Administration, WPA during the Great Depression, Velonis brought the use of silkscreen printing as a fine art form, referred to as the "serigraph," into the mainstream. By his own request, he was not publicly credited for coining the term. He experimented and mastered techniques to print on a wide variety of materials, such as glass, plastics, and metal, thereby expanding the field. In the mid to late 20th century, the silkscreen technique became popular among other artists such as Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol. Velonis was born into a relatively poor background of a Greek immigrant family and grew up in the tenements of New York City. Early on, he took creative inspiration from figures in his life such as his grandfather, an immigrant from the mountains in Greece, who was "an ecclesiastical painter, on Byzantine style." Velonis attended James Monroe High School in The Bronx, where he took on minor artistic roles such as the illustration of his high school yearbook. He eventually received a scholarship to the NYU College of Fine Arts, into which he was both surprised and ecstatic to have been admitted. Around this time he took to painting, watercolor, and sculpture, as well as various other art forms, hoping to find a niche that fit. He attended NYU until 1929, when the Great Depression started in the United States after the stock market crash. Around the year 1932, Velonis became interested in silk screen, together with fellow artist Fritz Brosius, and decided to investigate the practice. Working in his brother's sign shop, Velonis was able to master the silkscreen process. He reminisced in an interview three decades later that doing so was "plenty of fun," and that a lot of technology can be discovered through hard work, more so if it is worked on "little by little." Velonis was hired by Mayor LaGuardia in 1934 to promote the work of New York's city government via posters publicizing city projects. One such project required him to go on a commercial fishing trip to locations including New Bedford and Nantucket for a fortnight, where he primarily took photographs and notes, and made sketches. Afterward, for a period of roughly six months, he was occupied with creating paintings from these records. During this trip, Velonis developed true respect and affinity for the fishermen with whom he traveled, "the relatively uneducated person," in his words. Following this, Velonis began work with the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), an offshoot of the Civil Works Administration (CWA), where he was assigned to serve the different city departments of New York. After the formation of the federal Works Progress Administration, which hired artists and sponsored projects in the arts, he also worked in theater. Velonis began working for the federal WPA in 1935. He kept this position until 1936 or 1938, at which point he began working in the graphic art division of the Federal Art Project, which he ultimately led. Under various elements of the WPA program, many young artists, writers and actors gained employment that helped them survive during the Depression, as well as contributing works that created an artistic legacy for the country. When interviewed in December 1994 by the Library of Congress about his time in the WPA, Velonis reflected that he had greatly enjoyed that period, saying that he liked the "excitement" and "meeting all the other artists with different points of view." He also said in a later interview that "the contact and the dialogue with all those artists and the work that took place was just invaluable." Among the young artists he hired was Edmond Casarella, who later developed an innovative technique using layered cardboard for woodcuts. Velonis introduced silkscreen printing to the Poster Division of the WPA. As he recalled in a 1965 interview: "I suggested that the Poster division would be a lot more productive and useful if they had an auxiliary screen printing project that worked along with them. And apparently this was very favorably received..." As a member of the Federal Art Project, a subdivision of the WPA, Velonis later approached the Public Use of Arts Committee (PUAC) for help in "propagandizing for art in the parks, in the subways, et cetera." Since the Federal Art Project could not be "self-promoting," an outside organization was required to advertise their art more extensively. During his employment with the Federal Art Project, Velonis created nine silkscreen posters for the federal government. Around 1937-1939 Velonis wrote a pamphlet titled "Technical Problems of the Artist: Technique of the Silkscreen Process," which was distributed to art centers run by the WPA around the country. It was considered very influential in encouraging artists to try this relatively inexpensive technique and stimulated printmaking across the country. In 1939, Velonis founded the Creative Printmakers Group, along with three others, including Hyman Warsager. They printed both their own works and those of other artists in their facility. This was considered the most important silkscreen shop of the period. The next year, Velonis founded the National Serigraph Society. It started out with relatively small commercial projects, such as "rather fancy" Christmas cards that were sold to many of the upscale Fifth Avenue shops...

there is a companion piece on a silver paper. A depiction of a ballet dancer, superimposed upon canceled dance class checks. Joanne Seltzer was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania a...

Mary Van Blarcom, 'Crown of Roses', color serigraph, c. 1945, edition not stated but small. Signed in pencil beneath the image, lower left. Titled in pencil, bottom left sheet corner. A rich painterly impression, with fresh colors, on cream laid paper, with full margins (3/8 to 7/8 inch), in excellent condition. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Image size 8 13/16 x 12 11/16 inches; sheet size 9 1/2 x 8 5/16 inches. ABOUT THE ARTIST Painter, printmaker, and craftsperson, Mary Van Blarcom was born in Newark, New Jersey, and studied at Wellesley College. She was a member of the National Serigraph Society, where she served on the board of trustees from 1945 through 1952 and was 1st vice-president from 1949-51. She was also a member of the National Association of Women Artists, the Artists Equity Association, the American Color Print Society, the New Jersey Artists Association (Director), and Artists of Today. Van Blarcom exhibited actively throughout the 1940s at many prominent art organizations, including Montclair Art Museum, 1941-45 and 1947-51 (prize, 1948); Society of Independent Artists, 1942-44; Artists of Today, 1942-46; Elisabeth Ney Museum, 1943; Northwest Printmakers, 1944, 1946-49; Laguna Beach Art Association, 1945-47, 1949; National Association of Women Artists, 1945-50, (prize, 1946); Library of Congress, 1946-47; Museum of Modern Art Traveling Exhibition, 1945-47; Carnegie Institute, 1947; Serigraph Gallery, 1946, 1951 (solo); American Color Print Society, 1947-52; Newark Museum, 1947-48, 1951; California State Library, 1947, 1949; National Serigraph Society, 1949 (prize), 1950 (prize); University of Chile, 1950; New Jersey State Museum, 1950; Philadelphia Art Alliance, 1951; and the Main Gallery, NY, 1952. Van Blarcom’s work is represented in the collections of the Newark Public Library, the U.S. Library of Congress; the American Association of University Women; the New York Public Library; Tel-Aviv Museum, Alabama Polytechnic Institute, Princeton Print Club...

Leon Bibel, 'Abstract Boats', color serigraph, 1938, edition 12. Signed, dated, and numbered ' /12' in pencil. A fine, painterly impression, with fresh colors, on buff wove paper; t...

Leon Bibel, 'Archway', color serigraph, 1939, edition 25. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered ' /25' in pencil. A rich, painterly impression, with fresh colors, on buff wove paper; ...

Edward Landon 'The Castle', color serigraph, 1953, edition 35, Ryan 33. Signed, titled, and numbered '11/35' in pencil. A fine impression, with fresh colors, on cream Japan paper. Th...

Leon Bibel, 'Clown', color serigraph, 1939, edition 20. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered '/20' in pencil. A fine, richly-inked, painterly impression, with fresh colors, on buff la...

Edward Landon, 'Dark Vessel', color serigraph, 1952, edition 50, Ryan 51. Signed, dated, and titled in pencil. A superb impression, with fresh colors, on c...