Bagpipe Prints and Multiples

Abstract figurative woodblock print of a beach landscape with a boat. The print is stamped by the artist and titled and editioned in pencil. This print is editioned 47 of 86 and the print is not currently framed. Artist Biography: Born in Gastonia, North Carolina in 1924, John Biggers studied at Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) under Viktor Lowenfeld and muralist Charles White. In 1943, Biggers' mural, Dying Soldier, was included in the exhibition curated by Lowenfeld, Young Negro Art, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. After serving in the United States Navy, Biggers transferred to Pennsylvania State University where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees as well as his doctorate in art education. In 1949, Biggers accepted a faculty position at Texas State University for Negroes (now Texas Southern University) in Houston, where he founded and chaired the art department until his retirement. In the early 50s, he won prizes for his work at annual exhibitions held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Dallas Museum of Art. In 1957, he traveled to Africa on a UNESCO fellowship to study Western African cultural traditions, becoming one of the first black artists to study the culture first-hand rather than through library research. His work was profoundly influenced by his experiences in Africa. He was known for his murals, but also for his drawings, paintings, and lithographs, and was honored by a major traveling retrospective exhibition from 1995 to 1997. He created archetypal imagery that spoke positively to the rich and varied ethnic heritage of African Americans, long before the Civil Rights era drew...

Henri Matisse: Colour Lithographs after the Cut-Outs, Framed Print, 1958 In 1941 Matisse underwent abdominal surgery after which he found painting to be physically taxing. Increasi...

Detroit-born Leo Meissner lived in New York and was respected as a painter, draftsman, and illustrator, but is most known for his wood engravings. His ski...

Lou Barlow (Louis Breslow), 'On the Beach' (Coney Island) wood engraving, c. 1937, edition c. 25. Signed and titled in pencil. Stamped 'FEDERAL ART PROJECT NYC WPA' in the bottom left margin. A fine, richly-inked impression, with all the fine lines printing clearly, on cream wove paper, with full margins (1 1/2 to 3 inches), in excellent condition. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Scarce. Image size 11 x 8 1/8 inches; sheet size 16 x 11 3/8 inches. Created during the Great Depression for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), Federal Art Project, New York City. Impressions of this work are in the permanent collections of the Amon Carter Museum of Art, Illinois State Museum, and the New York Public Library. ABOUT THE IMAGE Due to Coney Island's proximity to Manhattan, Brooklyn, and other New York boroughs, it began attracting vacationers in the 1830s and 1840s. Most of the vacationers were wealthy and went by carriage roads and steamship services that reduced travel time from a formerly half-day journey to two hours. By the late 1870s, the development of Coney Island's amusement park attractions and hotels drew people from all social classes. When the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company electrified the steam railroads and connected Brooklyn to Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge at the beginning of the 20th century, Coney Island turned rapidly from a resort to an accessible location for day-trippers seeking to escape the summer heat in New York City's tenements. In 1915, the Sea Beach Line was upgraded to a subway line, and the opening of the Stillwell Avenue station in 1919 ushered in Coney Island's busiest era. On the peak summer days, over a million people would travel to Coney Island. In 1937, New York City purchased a 400-foot-wide strip of land along the shoreline to allow the boardwalk to be moved 300 feet inland. At this point, Coney Island was so crowded on summer weekends that parks commissioner Robert Moses...

Beatles Yellow Submarine Movie poster after Peter Max Peter Max is a German-American artist known for his colourful, psychedelic pop art, whi...

In the 1950s woodcuts started to get bigger and bigger as they competed with paintings for a space on the wall. This California print by Joseph Zirke...

Dan Burne Jones is widely know as the author of the Rockwell Kent print catalogue raisonne. It's so interesting to see that he is a gifted wood engraver as well. Jones's own prints a...

Henri Matisse: Colour Lithographs after the Cut-Outs, Framed Print, 1958 In 1941 Matisse underwent abdominal surgery after which he found painting to be physically taxing. Increasi...

SAM FRANCIS: Limited Signed Deluxe Edition (Hand signed and numbered by Sam Francis), 1982 Deluxe limited edition hardback monograph with cloth boards, held in special slipcase of ts...

Marching on a Butterbur Leaf

This artwork from the suite "La Passion" 1932, published 1939 is a wood engraving by French artist Georges Rouault, 1871-1958. (Block engraved by Georges Aubert) It is signed and dat...

The print 'Jones Island' is something of a self portrait. In the image, an artist stands before and easel, depicting the docks and buildings on the coast. The title indicates that this is Jones Island in Milwaukee, the peninsula along Lake Michigan that today is home to largely industrial buildings. The buildings and figures in the print suggest that this might be a view of the last of the Kashubian or German immigrant settlements on the peninsula before they were evicted in the 1940s to make way for the development of the harbor. The artist in the image thus acts as a documentarian of these peoples. The careful line-work of the woodblock engraving adds a sense of expressionism to the scene, leaving the figures and buildings looking distraught and dirty, though the image nonetheless falls into the Social Realist category that dominated 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 13.43 x 12.43 inches, frame Signed "GS" in the print block,upper left Entitled "Jones Island" lower left (covered by matting) Inscribed "Wood Engraving" lower center (covered by matting) Artist name "Gerrit V. Sinclair" lower right (covered by matting) Framed to conservation standards using 100 percent rag matting and museum glass, all housed in a silver gilded moulding. Gerrit Sinclair studied at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1910 - 1915, under Vanderpoel, Norton, and Walcott. In World War I, he served in the Army Ambulance Corps and later recorded his experiences in a series of oil paintings. He taught in Minneapolis before arriving in Milwaukee in 1920 to become a member of the original faculty of the Layton School of Art. He was also a member of the Wisconsin Painters & Sculptors. Sinclair's paintings and drawings were executed in a lyrical, representational style, usually expressing a mood rather than a narrative. His paintings reveal a great sensitivity for color and atmosphere. His subject matter focused on cityscapes, industrial valleys, and working-class neighborhoods, captured from eye-level. A decade before the popularity of Regionalism, Sinclair's strong interest in the community was reflected not only in his paintings, but also in his encouragement to students to return to their communities as artists and teachers. Joseph Friebert...