Anonymus

Sun God Ra / - The Light of Knowledge -

c. 1935

Bruno Zach (1891 Zhitomir - 1945 Vienna), Gladiator ready for battle, c. 1930. Blackish patinated bronze with silver-plated helmet, shield rim and shield pommel mounted on a fluted m...

Hans Harders (1875 Mörel - 1955 Berlin), Boy playing the shawm, around 1930. Dark patinated bronze with round plinth on a black marble base (2 cm high), t...

Hermann Volz (1847 Karlsruhe - 1914 ibid.), Naked warrior with short sword, c. 1935. Partially (?) patinated bronze with cast plinth mounted on a black marble base (6.8 cm high). 32....

Franz Iffland (1862 Tempelhof - 1935 Berlin), Javelin thrower, after 1910. Olive-black patinated bronze with cast plinth mounted on a white-veined black marble base (7 cm high). Tota...

This sculpture is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1930s Music (attributed), brass and wire construction, c. 1936, 28 x 14 x 5 inches; perhaps exhibited at Hollywood Riviera Gallery, 1936 (third prize); provenance includes Estate of Jon Spencer Helfen (Los Angeles, CA About the Sculpture In 1935, Philip Paval bought a box of metal in a “blind auction.” Paval, a painter, sculptor, and jeweler, had hoped the box contained silver. To his dismay, it was brass. Seeing an opportunity, Paval started to make sculptures from the brass sheets. His subjects included Cinema, Hollywood, Radio, Dance, Aviation and Music. The works were well-received with the Hollywood crowd and critically acclaimed. Actor and comedian, Ben Bard, purchased four of them for his theater, and novelist and screenwriter, Vicki Baum ordered four more for her drawing room. Movie director King Vidor also purchased them. Los Angeles Times art critic, Arthur Millier, described Paval’s “contraptions” as “ingenious, decorative, different.” Paval exhibited these works for several years in the late 1930s, including at the American Artists’ Congress Gallery in Los Angeles in an exhibition called Formalism and Abstraction in 1938 and at a solo show at Stendahl Galleries in 1939. The appeal of these works must have been irresistible, as a 1936 Los Angeles Times article noted, “Two feet of brass art has been stolen from the Hollywood Riviera Galleries. The work is an abstraction. It portrays the spirit of music and rested on the grand piano in the main hall. The work of Philip Paval, it won third prize in the current gallery exhibition at the gallery.” One can only wonder whether this is the “contraption” which was pilfered from the gallery nearly one hundred years ago. Given the description of the work, its subject matter and size, it seems likely. About the Artist Philip Paval was a sculptor, painter, and jeweler. Born in Denmark, Paval was apprenticed to a silversmith and studied art in Denmark. He immigrated to the US in 1919 and first worked as a merchant seaman in New York. The following year, Paval settled in Los Angeles where he later opened his own jewelry shop featuring works he designed and produced. Paval became a favorite in the entertainment world, making a good living selling silver...

Sculpture of male head, silvered plated brass. Inscribed on the bottom, "Werkstätte Hagenauer Wien" Austria, c. 1930s 16"h x 10.5"w x 3.5"d

Philip Paval was a sculptor and silversmith who worked primarily in Los Angeles. He was known as a Hollywood Artist, as he affiliated with many of the Hol...

Leo Berger (Swiss, 1885-1973) "Skater" Patinated Bronze Sculpture, early 20th century, possibly depicting the Swedish ice skater Gillis Grafstrom, on a marble plinth, signed "L Berge...