George Raab

Coal Boat, Milwaukee

1936

'Field' is an original linocut by Wisconsin-based artist Schomer Lichtner. The composition presents fields of flowers, trees and grasses below a cloudy sky, but rendered with Lichtner's quintessential abstract sensibilities. This print is one from a series that each depict abstracted subjects in black silhouette, taking pleasure in the materiality of the linocut technique. The free forms of the plants resemble the lyrical mid-century works of the French artist Henri Matisse, which combined with these material concerns demonstrate Lichter's modern sensibilities. The prints from this series are unusual because of how below the image, Lichtner also includes his Chinese seal and a linocut remarque of a cow, each of which act as an additional signature of the artist on the artwork. Linocut in black and red on Permalife white wove paper 4.5 x 6 inches, image 11.5 x 8.75 inches, sheet 16.5 x 13.63 inches, frame Signed in pencil, below image, lower right. Edition 1/100 in pencil, below image, lower left. Chinese signature stamp in red, below image, lower right. Remaque of a cow in red, below image, lower right. Permalife watermark to paper. Framed to conservation standards in a shadow-box style mounting, using 100 percent rag matting, museum glass, and housed in a silver-finish wood moulding. Overall excellent condition with no creases or discoloration. Milwaukee artist Schomer Lichtner was well known for his whimsical cows and ballerinas and abstract imagery. He and his late wife Ruth Grotenrath, both well-known Wisconsin artists, began their prolific careers as muralists for WPA projects, primarily post offices. Lichtner also painted murals for industry and private clients. Schomer was a printmaker and produced block prints, lithographs, and serigraph prints. His casein (paint made from dairy products) and acrylic paintings are of the rural Wisconsin landscape and farm animals. He became interested in cows when he and Ruth spent summers near Holy Hill in Washington County. According to David Gordon, director of the Milwaukee Art Museum, Schomer Lichtner had a tremendous joie de vivre and expressed it in his art. Schomer Lichtner was nationally known for his whimsical paintings and sculptures of black- and white-patterned Holstein cows...

This piece is an original linoleum block print created and printed by George Raab. The lower margin is titled and signed by the artist in graphite. The lower left has the title. The ...

There is a natural and raw understanding in Mukesh Sharma’s prints that both depict, and are influenced by, the Rajastani communities of his home town in rural India. In these Limited Edition fine-art prints, made over a period of twenty years, we are offered the colours of India’s ancient land, the textures, light and the patterns that are everywhere. In the patterns of the arable fields to the jali's (carved screens) in the architecture. This work is however not romantic nor nostalgic but shows a deeper rooted need to offer a visual heritage of place, of where the artist is from and the journey that he is taking. The results are both compelling and honest. Mukesh Sharma, Jetty 1, Lino-cut chin- coll’e on German Ivory paper Edition: 3 of 5, 2005 Image size: 50 x 33 cm / Sheet size: 79 x 55 cm Unframed ''What mesmerised me was the meeting of the sea and the mountain peak. Where the Jetty, a special curved wooden staircase leading to one end and the deep crystal clear sea at a distance. These scenes were amazing to me." Mukesh Sharma's work: It is often in childhood that paths are set for what we will become. Mukesh Sharma hails from a rural, agricultural village in Rajasthan, India. His Father is a craftsman who fixed and mended farm machinery and understood the working parts in the processes. Sharma followed in his Father’s footsteps, as is often the case in Indian families, but his was not the machines of the fields but the presses of the printing studio. Like his Father, Mukesh Sharma is fascinated with understanding how things work and how he can manipulate the metal in his hands. It is not surprising then that his medium of choice is printing. One of the most physically challenging of all the practices, it can often be physically challenging as well as technical and detailed. In his youth, Sharma would draw with stones on walls and floors. He was lucky his family encouraged this and he is grateful for his early art-training at the Jaipur School of Art but it was at the Baroda Art Department that he was introduced to the great printing traditions of Jyoti Bhatt...

Harold E. Keeler worked in Hollywood as a set designer. That seems especially important here because the Water Fall looks a little as though it could be a w...