Martel Schwichtenberg

'Varietesoubrette, Schwalbennest' also Dancer — 1920s German Expressionism

1922

Otto Kuhler, 'Grand Central Station', etching and drypoint, 1927, edition c. 50, Kennedy 27. Signed and titled in pencil. A superb, richly-inked impression, in brown/black ink, with ...

Otto Kuhler, 'Cargo Carriers', etching and drypoint, c. 1932, edition 10, Kennedy 44. Signed in pencil. A superb, atmospheric impression with rich burr and selectively wiped overall plate tone, in dark brown ink, on Arches cream laid paper; wide margins (2 to 2 3/4 inches), in very good condition. Printed by the artist. Original Kennedy Galleries mat and label. Scarce. "On my trips up and down N.Y. harbor on the Weehawken Ferry, the late evening sun playing on the side of the big liners has always intrigued me... The liner shown I believe to be the Vaterland of the North German Lloyd...

Louis Conrad Rosenberg, 'Mosque of the Sultan Bayazid, Constantinople', etching, 1927. Signed in pencil. Initialed and dated in the plate, lower left. A fine, richly-inked impression...

Lawrence Kupferman, 'Fantasia Americana – 1880', drypoint etching with sandground, 1943. Signed, titled, and annotated 'Series A, 1971 2/6' in pencil. A superb, richly-inked impression, on heavy, cream wove paper, with full margins (2 1/2 to 3 1/2 inches); the paper slightly lightened within the original mat opening, otherwise in excellent condition. One of only 6 impressions printed in 1971, with the added sandground grey background tint. Archivally matted to museum standards, unframed. Image size 11 13/16 x 14 3/4 inches; sheet size 18 x 20 1/4 inches. Collections: National Gallery of Art, Zimmerli Art Museum (Rutgers University). ABOUT THE ARTIST Lawrence Kupferman (1909 - 1982) was born in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston and grew up in a working-class family. He attended the Boston Latin School and participated in the high school art program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In the late 1920s, he studied drawing under Philip Leslie Hale at the Museum School—an experience he called 'stultifying and repressive'. In 1932 he transferred to the Massachusetts College of Art, where he first met his wife, the artist Ruth Cobb. He returned briefly to the Museum School in 1946 to study with the influential expressionist German-American painter Karl Zerbe. Kupferman held various jobs while pursuing his artistic career, including two years as a security guard at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. During the 1930s he worked as a drypoint etcher for the Federal Art Project, creating architectural drawings in a formally realistic style—these works are held in the collections of the Fogg Museum and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. In the 1940s he began incorporating more expressionistic forms into his paintings as he became progressively more concerned with abstraction. In 1946 he began spending summers in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where he met and was influenced by Mark Rothko, Hans Hofmann, Jackson Pollock, and other abstract painters. At about the same time he began exhibiting his work at the Boris Mirski Gallery in Boston. In 1948, Kupferman was at the center of a controversy involving hundreds of Boston-area artists. In February of that year, the Boston Institute of Modern Art issued a manifesto titled 'Modern Art and the American Public' decrying 'the excesses of modern art,' and announced that it was changing its name to the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). The poorly conceived statement, intended to distinguish Boston's art scene from that of New York, was widely perceived as an attack on modernism. In protest, Boston artists such as Karl Zerbe, Jack Levine, and David Aronson formed the 'Modern Artists Group' and organized a mass meeting. On March 21, 300 artists, students, and other supporters met at the Old South Meeting House and demanded that the ICA retract its statement. Kupferman chaired the meeting and read this statement to the press: “The recent manifesto of the Institute is a fatuous declaration which misinforms and misleads the public concerning the integrity and intention of the modern artist. By arrogating to itself the privilege of telling the artists what art should be, the Institute runs counter to the original purposes of this organization whose function was to encourage and to assimilate contemporary innovation.” The other speakers were Karl Knaths...

A dynamic football image from the 1920s by a female artist known for her sports scenes. Etching with drypoint on exceptionally fine laid Japon paper with a double watermark, 10 7/8 ...

Etching with drypoint in black ink on antique laid paper with various large watermarks, 6 3/4 x 5 3/8 inches (172 x 132 mm), full margins with deckle edges on two sides. Signed, date...

Salvador Dali (Spanish, 1904-1989) Les Coche et la Mouche (The Coach and the Fly) 1974 Drypoint etching on Japan paper Signed and numbered '79/250' (lower left) and 'Dali' (lower rig...

Indian Friendship Dance Drypoint, 1953 Signed in pencil lower right, (see photo) Edition 200 Published by The Society of American Graphic Artists, New York An impression is in the collection of SAAM, Washington and RISD Museum, Condition: Excellent Very rich impression with burr and selective whiping of the ink for atmospheric nocturnal effect. Image/Plate size: 8 3/16 x 11 15/16 inches Sheet size: 11 1/8 x 17 inches Reference: Kloss 450 "'Indian Friendship Dance' is an eloquent statement of something which Gene Kloss has both observed and participated in. It is an Indian dance that is thought of as entertainment, rather than ceremony, but it is essentially an idea expressed in action, and an idea that has universal meaning. The young men who dance wear costumes of exquisite workmanship, intricately wrought with beads and feathers and subtle combinations of colors. The dancers are trained from childhood but develop their own steps and exhibit distinctive strength and grace. Singers and a tom-tom accompany the dance and since it usually takes place at night, a campfire is the source of light. The conclusion occurs when all the onlookers, old and young and from many places, join hands with the dancers in a slow revolving movement, while those who can, sing the difficult but meaningful Indian song that flows with the rhythmical dance step and speaks of fellowship, brotherhood, friendship." - An excerpt from a descriptive statement, written by Lynd Ward, and distributed with the drypoint at the time of publication." Courtesy Old Print Shop Born Alice Glasier in Oakland, CA, Kloss grew up amid the worldly bustle of the San Francisco Bay Area. She attended the University of California at Berkeley, graduating with honors in art in 1924. She discovered her talents in intaglio printmaking during a senior-year course in figurative drawing. The professor, Perham Nahl, held up a print from Kloss’ first plate, still damp from the printing process, and announced that she was destined to become a printmaker. In 1925, Gene married Phillips Kloss, a poet and composer who became her creative partner for life. The match was uncanny, for in her own way Gene, too, was a poet and a composer. Like poetry, her artworks capture a moment in time; like music, her compositions sing with aesthetic harmony. Although she was largely self-taught, Kloss was a printmaking virtuoso. On their honeymoon the Klosses traveled east from California, camping along the way. They spent two week is Taos Canyon – with a portable printing press cemented to a rock near their campsite – where Gene learned to appreciate the wealth of artistic subject matter in New Mexico. The landscape, the cultures, and the immense sky left an indelible impression on the couple, who returned every summer until they made Taos their permanent home 20 years later. Throughout her life, Kloss etched more than 625 copper plates, producing editions ranging from five to 250 prints. She pulled every print in every edition herself, manually cranking the wheel of her geared Sturges press until she finally purchased a motorized one when she was in her 70s. Believing that subject matter dictated technique, she employed etching, drypoint, aquatint, mezzotint, roulette, softground, and a variety of experimental approaches, often combining several techniques on the same plate. She also produced both oil and watercolor paintings. Kloss’ artworks are filled with drama. Her prints employ striking contrasts of darkness and light, and her subjects are often illuminated by mysterious light sources. Though she was a devout realist, there is also a devout abstraction on Kloss’ work that adds an almost mythical quality. For six decades Kloss documented the cultures of the region-from images of daily life to those of rarely seen ceremonies. She and her husband shared a profound respect for the land and people, which made them welcome among the Native American and Hispanic communities. Kloss never owned a camera but relied instead on observation and recollection. Her works provide an inside look at the cultures she depicted yet at the same time communicate the awe and freshness of an outsider’s perspective. Although Kloss is best known for her images of Native American and Penitente scenes, she found artistic inspiration wherever she was. During the early years of their marriage, when she and Phil returned to the Bay Area each winter to care for their aging families, she created images of the California coast. And when the Klosses moved to southwestern Colorado in 1965, she etched the mining towns and mountainous landscapes around her. In 1970 the Klosses returned to Taos and built a house north of town. Though her artwork continued to grow in popularity, she remained faithful to Taos’ Gallery A, where she insisted that owner Mary Sanchez keep the prices of her work reasonable regardless of its market value. Kloss continued to etch until 1985, when declining health made printmaking too difficult. From her first exhibition at San Francisco’s exclusive Gump’s in 1937 to her 1972 election to full membership in the National Academy of Design, Kloss experienced a selective fame. She received numerous awards, and though she is not as well known as members of the Taos Society of Artists...