Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 10

Robert A. Birmelin
Horseman & Indian, American Modernist Abstract Etching

$650
£496.26
€568.39
CA$910.65
A$1,018.21
CHF 534.10
MX$12,333.03
NOK 6,741.91
SEK 6,369.48
DKK 4,242.46

About the Item

Born in Newark, New Jersey, Robert Birmelin became a professor of fine arts at Queens College in New York, and is known for paintings that magnify through texture the realism of nature. He earned his BA in 1956 and his MFA in 1960 from Yale School of Art and Architecture and also studied at Cooper Union and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. In 1960, he earned a Fulbright Scholarship, which took him to the Slade School of Art in London. His work has been acquired by 40 public collections including New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Museum of Modern Art and Washington’s Hirshorn Museum. Among the various art magazines and journals where articles on Mr. Birmelin’s work have appeared are Art In America, American Artists, and Art Forum. Additionally, he has received numerous grants and awards from such organizations as The American Academy in Rome, The National Endowment for the Arts, The American Institute of Arts and Letters, and the Joan Mitchell Foundation. From the 1970s to the mid-1990s, Mr. Birmelin found his principal inspiration in the streets of New York where he was fascinated by the energy and diversity of city life. His large paintings evoke movement, using focus and depth manipulations to suggest a close spatial and psychological relationship between the viewer and the world Birmelin has depicted. Hands often play an important role in these works, as exemplified by “The Twenty Dollars Bill.” From 1993 to 2000, he became absorbed by memory, its unreliability and contradictions. These paintings are of states of mind, structured as a series of “reversible compositions,” which initially present a credible depiction of a place, and then after a moment, reveal insoluble contradictions created by contrasting opposing images of equal visual weight. A new series of images of the life of the urban crowd was begun in 2001 and continues to the present. Many of these paintings have a sweeping sense of the choreography of masses of people in motion and reflect the tensions of contemporary urban reality. Selected Grants and Scholarships 1960-61 U.S. Government Grant (Fulbright) for study in the United Kingdom 1961-64 The American Academy in Rome 1955 National Institute of Arts and Letters 1973 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation 1976, 1982, 1990 National Endowment for the Arts 2005 The Joan Mitchell Foundation 1980, 1988, 1998, 2006 The New Jersey State Council on the Arts Selected Public Collections Boston Museum of Fine Art, Boston, MA Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY Hirschorn Museum, Washington, DC Hood Art Museum, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH Library of Congress, Washington, DC The Metropolitan Museum, New York, NY The Museum of the City of New York The Museum of Contemporary Art, Nagoaka, Japan The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY National Academy of Design, New York, NY New York Historical Society, New York, NY New York Public Library, New York, NY San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
  • Creator:
    Robert A. Birmelin (1933-2003, American)
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 13.4 in (34.04 cm)Width: 18.4 in (46.74 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
    Minor wear. See photos.
  • Gallery Location:
    Surfside, FL
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU38214764872

More From This Seller

View All
Horseman & Indian, American Modernist Abstract Etching
By Robert A. Birmelin
Located in Surfside, FL
Born in Newark, New Jersey, Robert Birmelin became a professor of fine arts at Queens College in New York, and is known for paintings that magnify through texture the realism of natu...
Category

20th Century American Modern Interior Prints

Materials

Etching

1916 German Expressionism Figurative Lithograph Man Two Horses Paul Kleinschmidt
By Paul Kleinschmidt
Located in Surfside, FL
Paul Kleinschmidt, (1883–1949) "Man & Two Horses" Lithograph 1916 Frame: 21" X 17" Image: 13.5" X 10.5" Rare Artist's Proof Provenance: bears labels from ACA Galleries and Richard ...
Category

1910s Abstract Figurative Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Speedometer, American Modernist Abstract Etching
By Robert A. Birmelin
Located in Surfside, FL
Born in Newark, New Jersey, Robert Birmelin became a professor of fine arts at Queens College in New York, and is known for paintings that magnify through texture the realism of natu...
Category

20th Century American Modern Interior Prints

Materials

Etching

Beat Artist "Witness" Lithograph Etching Lakeside Studio Chicago
Located in Surfside, FL
Will Petersen, a painter, master printer and a poet, was born in Chicago. (Amer. 1928-1994) created this limited edition Etching on Arches paper at the Lakeside Studio. The LITHOGRAPH PRINT is from a limited edition of 25 (Roman Numerals), printed in black on Arches Cover White (archival paper). with chopmarks and blindstamps. published by The Lakeside Studio (chopmark lower right). THE LITHOGRAPH IS SIGNED TITLED AND ANNOTATED BY THE ARTIST in pencil EXCELLENT condition. Will's formal art education began with classes at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. As a student at the city's Steinmetz High School, Petersen succeeded Hugh Hefner (of Playboy magazine fame) as the HS newspaper cartoonist, the Steinmetz Star. During this time, Petersen recovered from polio. In 1947 Petersen enrolled at Chicago's Wilbur Wright College. While there, he painted with oils for the first time. Two years later he enrolled at Michigan State University where he developed a strong interest in literature and writing and began printmaking. By 1951 he had begun to exhibit paintings and prints nationally. A year later he completed his master's degree. Petersen served in the United States Army from 1952-54, spending one year as an education specialist in Japan. This encounter with the Japanese culture affected his entire life. He became interested in calligraphy and Noh, classical Japanese Buddhist performance that combines elements of drama, music and poetry. Upon completion of his military service in Japan in 1955, Will Petersen settled in Oakland, California, where he met some of the most active poets of the Beat Generation: Gary Snyder, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Phil Whalen, Mike McClure and others. Petersen was attracted to the group by their intelligence and belief in Zen Buddhism. In 1956 in his small studio in Oakland, he printed the poems of Jack Kerouac. He attended for the first time, the reading of Ginsberg's Howl at Six Gallery. His relationship with Gary Snyder had begun when both were in Kyoto, Japan; later Snyder wrote for the Plucked Chicken. Petersen returned to Japan in 1957, pursuing painting, printmaking and writing for eight years while living in Kyoto. In 1965 he accepted a faculty appointment at Ohio State University, teaching drawing, painting and printmaking. Four years later Petersen took his teaching skills to West Virginia University in Morgantown, where he concentrated on printmaking. He taught there until 1977 when he began publishing Plucked Chicken, a journal of art and poetry. In 1978 in Morgantown, Petersen and his wife, Cynthia Archer, established Plucked Chicken Press, which they later moved to Chicago and then Evanston. Petersen operated the Press until his death on April 1, 1994. From 1955-57 Petersen along with Mel Strawn founded the Bay Printmakers Society. He resumed exhibiting: International Color Lithography, Cincinnati Art Museum; Gravures Americaines d’aujourd’hui, Paris; & received an MFA on the GI Bill (with Nathan Oliveira) from the California College of Arts and Crafts where Richard Diebenkorn was on the faculty. Petersen meets Kerouac, Gary Snyder, Phil Whalen, Allen Ginsberg, McClure, and Rexroth. Petersen’s now famous “Stone Garden” essay is published in Evergreen Review. 1956 In storefront studio in Oakland, California, creates serigraphs and lithographs. Prints poems of Jack Kerouac. 1961 Back in Japan, acquires a lithography press and stones and resumes printing lithographs. Exhibits regularly with Kyoto Printmakers. 1969 Resident lithographer at the Lakeside Studio, Lakeside, Michigan. Prints for the first time Richard Hunt lithographs. 1978 Establishes Plucked Chicken Press in Morgantown, West Virginia. Resident lithographer at Lakeside Studio in Michigan. 1980 Plucked Chicken Press moves to Chicago. Publishes lithographs by Don Crouch and Art Kleinman. 1982 Publishes Blossom, a lithograph/collage by Tom Nakashima. 1983 Series I of Plucked Chicken Press is published with work by Archer, Duckworth, Godfrey, Heagstedt, Himmelfarb, Hoff, Hunt, Martyl, Miller, Nakashima and Petersen. 1984 Plucked Chicken Press moves to Evanston. Series II of Plucked Chicken Press is published with works by Croydon, Ho, Archer, Torn, Osver, Middaugh, Roseberry, Petersen, Spiess-Ferris and Hoppock. 1985 Series III of Plucked Chicken Press is published with works by Driesbach, Hunt, Trupp, Gregor, Pattison, Conger, Evans, Weygandt, Archer, Ho and Petersen. Prints Suite I, Northern Illinois University Collectors Series, with lithographs by Renie Adams, David Bower, David Driesbach, Carl Hayano and Ben Mahmoud...
Category

20th Century Abstract Expressionist Abstract Prints

Materials

Etching, Lithograph

Skowhegan Exterior, American Modernist Abstract Etching
By Robert A. Birmelin
Located in Surfside, FL
Born in Newark, New Jersey, Robert Birmelin became a professor of fine arts at Queens College in New York, and is known for paintings that magnify through texture the realism of natu...
Category

20th Century American Modern Interior Prints

Materials

Etching

Skowhegan Exterior, American Modernist Abstract Etching
By Robert A. Birmelin
Located in Surfside, FL
Born in Newark, New Jersey, Robert Birmelin became a professor of fine arts at Queens College in New York, and is known for paintings that magnify through texture the realism of natu...
Category

20th Century American Modern Interior Prints

Materials

Etching

You May Also Like

'Man and Horse' by Harold Stevenson, Lithograph
Located in Oklahoma City, OK
This 28" x 32" lithograph was produced by Harold Stevenson in 1988. This print features a skeletal figure and horse. The skeleton, with elongated and angular features, is centrally p...
Category

1980s Abstract Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

1971 The Tarahumara Indians - Figurative Etching on Paper
Located in Soquel, CA
1971 The Tarahumara Indians - Figurative Etching on Paper Black and white etching of The Tarahumara Indians by Kelly English (American). The figures are outlined in thick black ink ...
Category

1970s Abstract Expressionist Figurative Prints

Materials

Paper, Ink

Figures - Etching by Mino Maccari - Mid-20th Century
By Mino Maccari
Located in Roma, IT
Figures is an Etching realized by Mino Maccari in the Mid-20th Century. Hand-signed in the lower right part. Good conditions. Mino Maccari (Siena, 1924-Rome, June 16, 1989) was...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Figurative Prints

Materials

Paper, Etching

Women and Horses - Original Etching on Paper by Alfredo Brasioli - 1970s
By Alfredo Brasioli
Located in Roma, IT
A Woman and a Horse is a Contemporary artwork realized in the 1970s by the Italian artist Alfredo Brasioli (Verona, 1935 - Rome, 2016). Original Etching on paper. Hand-signed in pe...
Category

1970s Modern Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

The Arrival of The Horserider, 1975 - Original Handsigned Etching
By Lars Bo
Located in Paris, IDF
Lars BO The Arrival of The Horserider (Le Rêve de Jean Valjean 5/8), 1975 Original etching Handsigned in pencil On vellum, 36 x 45 cm (c. 14,1 x 17,7 inch) Edition limited to 100 un...
Category

1970s Surrealist Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

Untitled, Etching on Paper by Modern Indian Artist Ganesh Pyne "In Stock"
By Ganesh Pyne
Located in Kolkata, West Bengal
Ganesh Pyne - Untitled AP - 6/32 Etching on Paper 11 x 10.5 inches, 1985 ( Unframed & Delivered ) Style : Initially, Pyne painted watercolors and sketches of misty mornings and ways...
Category

1980s Modern Figurative Prints

Materials

Paper, Etching