This artwork "Lily" C.1975 is an original colors serigraph by noted American artist Lowell Nesbitt, 1933-1993. It is hand signed, dated and numbered A.P. 6/30 in pencil by the artist. The image size is 23.75 x 26 inches, sheet size is 29.35 x 31.25 inches. It is in excellent condition, it has a very light printing ink soiling at the left margin, see picture #6 and a light crease at the lower center margin.
About the artist:
Lowell Nesbitt, who was born in Baltimore on Oct. 4, 1933, was a graduate of the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia and also attended the Royal College of Art in London, where he worked in stained glass & etching.
In 1964, the Corcoran Gallery or Art in Washington gave him one of his first museum exhibitions, and by the mid 1970's he had decided to leave the museum a bequest of more than $1 million. But in 1989, he publicly revoked the bequest after the Corcoran canceled a disputed exhibition of photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe, who was an old friend. Mr. Nesbitt named the Phillips Collection as a beneficiary instead.
He was frequently grouped with the Photo Realists, but his images were more interpretively distorted, somewhat loosely painted and boldly abbreviated. He had many subjects: studio interiors, articles of clothing, piles of shoes and groupings of fruits and vegetables. He also painted his dog, a Rottweiler named Echo, the Neoclassical facades of SoHo's 19th century cast-iron buildings and several of Manhattan's major bridges.
Despite such variety, Lowell Nesbitt was best known for gargantuan images or irises, roses, lilies and other flowers, which he often depicted in close up so that their petals seemed to fill the canvas. Dramatic, implicitly sexual and a little ominous, they earned the artist a popularity with the general public that tended to overshadow his reputation within the art world.
In 1980, the United States Postal Service issued four stamps based on Mr. Nesbitt's floral paintings. He also served as the official artist for the space flights of Apollo 9 and Apollo 13.
SELECTED CORPORATE COLLECTIONS
-Amerada Hess Corporation, New York, New York
-AT&T, New York, New York
-Atlantic Richfield, Los Angeles, California
-Bank of New York, New York, New York
-Biblioteque Nationale, Paris, France
-Celenese Corporation, New York, New York
-Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, New York
-Citicorp, New York, New York
-Florists Trans World Delivery Collection of Contemporary Art, Detroit, Michigan
-Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, Michigan
-General Mills, Minneapolis, Minnesota
-Hess Shoe Corporation, Baltimore, Maryland
-Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb, Chicago, Illinois, New York, New York
-Maryland National Bank, Baltimore
-Mutual of Omaha, Washington D.C.
-Neiman-Marcus, Atlanta, Georgia
-Northern Trust Company, Chicago, Illinois
-J.C. Penny Corporation, New York, New York
-Prudential Insurance Company, Newark, New Jersey
-Schroeder Bank and Trust Company, New York, New York
SELECTED MUSEUM AND GOVERNMENT COLLECTIONS.
-American Embassies: Monrovia, Dar es Salaam, Tel Aviv, Sao Paulo
-The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
-Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland
-Castel Gandolfo, Rome, Collection of Pope Paul II
-Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
-Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, Texas
-Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, Michigan
-Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, Kansas
-Enviromental Protection Agency, Washington D.C.
-Federal Reserve Bank, Baltimore, Maryland
-Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass.
-Fort Worth Art Center, Texas
-The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia
-Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.
-International Monetary Fund, Washington D.C.
-Israel Museum, Jerusalem
-John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida
-Library of Congress, Washington D.C.
-Loch Haven Art Center, Florida
-Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1958:
Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
1971:
-Gimpel Fils, London, England
-Gimpel and Weitzenhoffer, New York, NY
1972:
-Kunstverein, Frieburg, Germany
-Galerie Arneson, Copenhagen, Denmark
-Gerlerie Aronovitsch, Stockholm, Sweden
1973:
The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
1974:
Gimpel Fils, London, England
1975:
The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
1976:
Hayden, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
1977:
Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita KS
1978:
Kent State University, Kent, OH
1979:
Selby Botanical Gardens, Museum of Botany and the Art's, Sarasota, FL
1980:
Marion Koogler Mcnay Art Institute, San Antonio, TX
1981:
Editions Inc, Houston TX
1982:
Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH
1983:
Atlantic Center for the Art, New Smyrna Beach, FL
1984:
Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City, OK
1989:
Tyler Gallery, Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
1990:
Center for Cultural Arts, Gadsden, AL