Reginald Marsh

'A Morning in May' — Ashcan School Social Realism, New York City

1936

Reginald Marsh, 'Erie R.R. Locos Watering (Locomotives Watering)', etching, 1934, edition 100 (Whitney, 1969), Sasowsky 155. Unsigned as published; numbered '68/100' in pencil. A su...

Frederick K. Detwiller, 'The Sixth Avenue Spur, New York City', lithograph, 1924, edition 20. Signed, dated, titled, and annotated 'Lith 20' in pencil. Inscribed 'To my Friend Herbert L. Jones' in pencil. Signed and dated, in the stone, lower right; initialed and dated '1927' in the stone, lower left. A fine, richly-inked impression, on cream wove paper, with margins (7/8 to 1 1/4 inches); slight toning in the top left sheet edge, otherwise in good condition. Scarce. Image size 20 1/2 x 14 inches (521 x 356 mm); sheet size 22 1/2 x 16 inches (572 x 406 mm). Archivally matted to museum standards, unframed. ABOUT THE IMAGE The Sixth Avenue El was constructed in the late 1870s by the Gilbert Elevated Railway and reorganized as the Metropolitan Elevated Railway. By 1878, it was running from Rector Street to 58th Street. Soon after that, it was taken over by the Manhattan Railway Company, with three other Manhattan elevated train lines. The company built a connection, the ‘spur’ by which it turned west on 53rd Street to merge with the 9th Avenue El—paralleling the present-day route of the 6th Avenue subway. The Sixth Avenue El served the “Ladies Mile” shops (including the Siegel-Cooper emporium, whose building now houses Bed...

Glenn O. Coleman, 'Hurdy Gurdy Ballet', lithograph 1928, edition 50. Signed, dated, and numbered '14/50' in pencil. Titled in the bottom left margin, in an...

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...

Mario Grenville made this print for the publishing program of Associated American Artists. It was issued in 1945 making it a calm antidote to the ending of World War II, although it ...

Ukrainian-born, lower East Side based, Sarah Berman was active on the NYC-WPA and in artists' circles. Daniel in the Lions' Den is an etching, signed and ...

This Depression-era New York City subway scene says it all. The body language of all five passengers tells us where each of them is in his or her ...

Blanche Grambs, known to friends as 'Grambs' (1916-2010) was born in China. She came to New York as a very young woman to study at the Art Students Leag...