Martin Snipper

Dystopian Scene Linoleum Block Print, 20th Century

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 woodland stage set -- to me...

The only mention I can find of Evelyn G. Schultz is that she was a charter member of the San Diego Watercolor Society. But the medium of the linocut (here on tan paper) was frequentl...

1950s modernist linoleum cut print titled 'Saturday Morning (Market, Taos Plaza, New Mexico) by New Mexican artist Barbara Latham. Depicting a busy Saturday morning at the market in Taos Pueblo with horse and cart, Native American figures, adobe buildings and mountains in the background. Presented in a custom frame with all archival materials, outer dimensions measure 16 x 17 ¾ inches. Image size is 8 ½ x 10 ½ inches. About the Artist: Beginning her career as a commercial artist, Barbara Latham travelled to Taos in 1925 seeking material for a greeting card. Serendipitously, she also found her life partner, Howard Cook, who was similarly looking for ideas for illustrations. Perhaps both were fueled in their quest by the tales of their mutual teacher, Andrew Dasburg, who knew of the energy and stimulation of this artist community. Observing local people and customs, Latham created genre scenes that offer a window into this now-vanished time and place. Her lively illustrations for numerous children's books are a significant contribution to that graphic art in the mid-20th century. Born in Walpole, Massachusetts, Latham's student days included Norwich Art School and Pratt Institute in Brooklyn; but it was contact with the charismatic Dasburg at the Art Students League in Woodstock that opened her world and her view of art. Getting work with companies like Norcross Publishing and Forum magazine, she eventually made her way to Taos. Among all the spirited young artists gathered there, she met Howard Cook, who was designing illustrations for Willa Cather's Death Comes to the Archbishop. The two married in Santa Fe and began a nomadic life together. The young couple made their way to Paris, a likely destination for modernist artists. Upon receiving a Guggenheim to study fresco painting in 1932, Cook, along with Latham, took an alternative direction and headed to Taxco, Mexico. At this time, Mexican muralists, such as Diego Rivera, were capturing the attention of progressive artists. During the Depression, both Cook and Latham aligned themselves with a populist ideal. Latham contributed work, such as "Fording the Stream" and "Bear Family," to the American Artists Group, which was founded to produce original prints at affordable prices. The couple also travelled in the Deep South to the Ozarks and to "Alabama's Black Belt." When Latham settled in Taos, she was committed to an art of and for the people. Rather than a romanticized re-creation, her choice of subjects was based in common everyday activities, favoring those which brought people together. Taos Pueblo was an ancient, indigenous community, and Latham's view extended that tradition into a contemporary, multi-ethnic village. Sharing some of the spirit of WPA photographs...

In this image, Howard Thomas presents the viewer with a domestic interior. The image is dominated by the figure of a black woman, resting her arm on an ironing board. To the right, the tool of her task dangles a chord above a checker tiled floor. Beyond, though a window, neighboring homes fill the landscape. The careful line-work of the linocut adds a sense of expressionism to the scene, but the image nonetheless falls into the Social Realism that captivated most American artists during the Great Depression. This print was published in 1936 as part of the Wisconsin Artists' Calendar for the year 1937, which included 52 original, hand-made prints – one for each week of the year. 6 x 5 inches, image 10 x 7.13 inches, sheet 12.37 x 12.43 inches, frame Entitled "Monday in Wick Haven" lower left (covered by matting) Inscribed "Linoleum Cut" lower center (covered by matting) Artist name "Howard Thomas" lower right (covered by matting) Framed to conservation standards using 100 percent rag matting and museum glass, all housed in a silver gilded moulding. Quaker-born in Ohio, Thomas trained in the Midwest at Ohio State University and the Chicago Art Institute. He taught in the Art Department of the Milwaukee State Teachers College (now University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) where he became good friends with Carl Holty, Edward Boerner, Robert von Neumann...

Biographical information on Maurice Robert Dey is hard to find. He was born on 1899 (or maybe 1900), in Switzerland. As an adult he lived and worked in Woodstock, the NY artists' c...

A signed impression from the artist's own collection. Kansas City: Miniature Print Society, 1946. Etching on antique cream laid paper, 3 5/15 x 1 7/8 inches (84 x 49 mm), full margi...