Jacques Duval-Brasseur 1

Jacques Duval-Brasseur, Shrub Sculpture, Signed, France, 1979

1979

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...

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...

Extremely rare set of chase Equestrian bookends sculpture designed by Walter Von Nessen in 1932. Industrial Design incorporated with the latest materials and machine age approach. Th...

Stephen Glassborow was born in Hammersmith, England and studied sculpture at the Brighton College of Art, before becoming a permanent resident of Australia in 1983. He is now one of ...

A bronze sculpture that depicts a girl sitting with her arms resting on her legs. The sculpture has a conceptual and figurative style, which means that it represents a real-life subj...

Dudley Vaill Talcott (American, 1899-1986), The Gate, 1930s. From the estate of the artist. In fine condition. This large aluminum gate is decorated with the...