Robert A. Birmelin

Chinese Man In Tree, American Modernist Abstract Etching

Gaiety Burlesque Etching, 1930 Unsigned (as usual for the Whitney edition); Numbered in pencil lower left; Blind stamp of the Whitney Museum (WM) lower right Edition: 114, regular ed...

William P. Hicks has drawn everything about the circus that will fit in the plate. The main figure is an aerial act with a woman balancing on rope held by a figure on the floor. Ther...

This extravagant subject is a clear exception in the oeuvre of Bernard Sanders. Signed in pencil; interestingly signed in the plate at the upper right ...

This is such an interesting image. Are there 'Four women'? Is the head on the upper right from a hat store or is she another person in the scene. And what a...

For a print that's nearly one hundred years old it feels very contemporary. Signed and titled in pencil. Besides the etching I think there is some false biting that adds tone here.

Sanders was very careful to make sure this subject was at his home at 2020 Grand Avenue in the Bronx. Signed in pencil.

Sander's figures are captivating. Here a women stands facing right, just touching, and holding still, a globe shape, on a flat surface. It was difficult getting the color to show p...

Clearly Sanders (1906-1967) was a master at these minimalist figurative prints. It's all about atmosphere and tension. Perhaps reflecting the print here, (Lovers), he, in fact, w...

Clearly Sanders was looking at ancient Mesopotamian figures. Even the elaborate feathered wings can be found there -- made about 5000 years ago! There's an initial 'S' in the plate...

Interiors I: Family Reunion 1984 Resist ground etching and engraving on BFK Rives wove paper, 20 x 36 inches (501 x 913 mm), full margins. Signed, titled, dated and numbered 49/175 in pencil, lower margin. In excellent condition with minor mat tone. A luminous, rich, and well-inked impression of this haunting image, with astonishing detail and depth. Framed handsomely under museum grade glass with archival materials in a solid wood frame with silver finish. [Milton 107] Intended to be a stand alone image in its inception, Family Reunion ended up spawning seven additional images, and became a sort of Primo Pensiero in the sprawling, masterpiece suite now known as Interiors. The suite took eight years to complete, and consists of works of varying format, psychological intensity, and subject matter. The thematic darkness in the eight images waxes and wanes, and Milton intentionally included several interlude works to lighten the tension he felt while composing several of the darker images. The first two in the series, Family Reunion, and Hotel Paradise Café, were meant to be companion pieces. The equilibrium of each composition is anchored on a central brooding figure; a man (perhaps based on a Thomas Eakins portrait of the American anthropologist Frank Hamilton...