American Modern Art

Original U. S. Marines enlistment antique poster. World War I recruitment poster by *Sidney H. Riesenberg* ranks among the most potent visual achievements of U.S. wartime art. Arch...

Floral Still Life, 1928 Oil on canvas, 18 1/4 x 24 inches (46.4 x 61 cm) Framed dimensions: 23 3/4 x 29 1/2 inches Signed and dated lower right: Blanche Lazzell 1928 Provenance By d...

Inga Lindgren and Poodles - Fashion Photograph New York Spring Street Photograph by Slim Aarons 16 x 20" print. Limited Edition Estate Stamped Print. Ed...

Peter Max was born in 1937. He is a very well listed and well collected American artist. He has been very prolific in his career, but nevertheless, he is highly sought after and collected, especially recently. This wonderful original acrylic on canvas was most likely painted in the late 1990s or early 2000. It is a favorite subject matter of his the blossoming lady or lady with blossoms. This painting is so vibrant exploding with colors. It measures 10 1/2 inches wide by 10 1/2 inches high. The frame measures 18“ x 18“. He has had Auction results over $70,000 but sells for much more privately and in galleries Once again, this is an original Peter Max acrylic...

This small exquisite "Bronze Sculpture II" is in excellent condition and a perfect example of Eugene Caples craftsmanship. This is mainly abstract with some graphic or architectural elements and is so delightful that mythical creatures demand to be considered. It cries out to be touched and held, looked at and caressed. The beautiful patina on the surface gives voice to the many hands that have done these things. Eugene Caples is a designer and craftsman who worked in Kansas City in the 1960s and later through the early 21st century. He attended the Kansas City Art Institute, earning his Bachelors of Fine Arts in Industrial Design in 1959. In 1963 he was accepted to Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The Cranbrook Academy of Art was designed by architect and faculty member, Eliel Saarinen who collaborated with Charles and Ray Eames on chair and furniture design. Numerous creative artists are alumni of Cranbrook and include: Harry Bertoia, Florence Knoll, Jack Lenor Larsen, Donald...

Vintage 1962 Seattle World's Fair Poster by Earl Duff – Linen Backed. Condition A-: upper right corner restored as shown in the last enlarged photo. Size 35.5” x 25”. Capture a piec...

An enchanting Southern landscape by the mother of the Charleston Renaissance. A native of Charleston, South Carolina, and educated under the tutelage of Thomas Anshutz at The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, O'Neill Verner was a teacher, a mother, an artist, an ardent preservationist, and a skilled autodidact. Having previously focused on painting, in the early 1920s she found herself deeply moved by printmaking as a media, and especially so by the simple, peaceful themes and tableaus she discovered in Japanese art. She embarked on a effort to teach herself Japanese printmaking techniques, and in the process, produced the charming images of every day life in Charleston and its environs that earned her recognition as a cultural icon in her day, and in more modern times, as the mother of the Charleston Renaissance, which flourished well into the 1930s. In 1923 she opened a studio in Charleston where she focused on documenting the local color and the architecture and landscape that distinguishes Charleston as one of the South's most beautiful cities, all the while applying the gentle and poetic thematic sensibilities of Japanese printmaking. O'Neill Verner soon found herself in high demand when municipalities and institutions throughout the country sought commissions from her to document the beauty of their grounds and historic buildings. She worked as far north as the campuses of Harvard and Princeton, and extensively across the South, including in Savannah, Georgia, where through sweeping commissions she was able to marry her love of southern preservation and art. O'Neill Verner was a lifelong learner, and continued a path of edification that led her to study etching at the Central School of Art in London, to travel extensively through Europe, and to visit Japan in 1937, where she studied sumi (brush and ink) painting. She was a founding member of the Charleston Etchers Club, and the Southern States Art League. Her works are represented in the permanent collections of leading museums across the American south, and in major national institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Boston's Museum of Fine Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. O'Neil Verner...

Elegant floral still life of a beautiful spring bouquet in an antique ivory soup tureen by Elizabeth Fitzgerald Forbes (Dallam) (American, 1875-1933). Exhibition placard on verso signed "Elizabeth Forbes...

An exceptional original etching with drypoint by renowned American printmaker Gene Kloss, titled Red Mountain Relic (View of Red Mountain, Colorado). This striking black-and-white co...

SCARCE EARLY WORK. BEN SHAHN Levana and our Lady's Sorrows. lithograph printed in sepia on Papier Ancien, 1931. 13 1/8x9 7/8 inches (sheets), full margins, loose as issued. One of o...

A Large, Colorful, Modernist Art Deco Cubist Painting, "The Dancers" by Famed Chicago Painter and Printmaker, Charles Turzak (Am. 1899 - 1986). A large, vertical composition relating to the artist's notable 1930s woodcut of the same title. The painting is completed in a vividly textured Cubist style, with striking hues of rich greens and yellows, deep blues and rose pinks. The painting is oiI on canvas mounted to Masonite (artist's original mount), and offers a superb visual appeal. A perfect complement to any Mid-Century Modern home or collection. Artwork size: 38 x 24 inches (Framed size: 38 1/4 x 24 1/4 inches). Signed "Turzak" lower right. Provenance: Estate of the artist. Charles Turzak was one of Chicago’s greatest printmakers of the Art Deco-era. Son of a coal miner, Turzak was born in Streeter, IL in 1899. In 1920, Turzak won the first prize a cartoon contest sponsored by the Purina company and he used his prize money to enroll in the Art Institute of Chicago. Best known as a print maker, in the 1920s & 30s, he created woodcuts of many of Chicago’s most notable buildings, including the Merchandise Mart, Palmolive Building and the Old Water Tower, among others. In 1933, he was commissioned to create woodcuts of many of Chicago’s most iconic buildings to illustrate a guidebook called “All About Chicago” by John and Ruth Ashenhurst” that featured the upcoming Century of Progress Exhibition in Chicago. During the 1933 World’s Fair...

“The Big City, 1948” by Anna Elkan Meltzer (American, 1896-1974) One of Meltzer’s finest works, this painting encapsulates the organized chaos of Grand Central Terminal in NYC in th...

A large, dynamic Mid-Century Modern summer landscape painting with female bathers by notable Chicago artist, Rudolph Pen. A superb example of the artist's uniquely expressive figura...

"The VHS" by pop Artist Destro. We all remember those iconic nights at the video store. Pop artist DESTRO once again encapsulates one of our favorite past times in a fine art con...

Minimalist Acrylic Painting Inspired by Everyday Romance Escape the noise of modern life with this minimalist acrylic painting.” Inspired by the slow-living philosophy and the poeti...

his original 1957 still life painting by American artist Bernard Arnest presents a refined Mid-Century Modern interpretation of a classic subject. Executed in oil on canvas, the comp...

Palm Beach Idyll, 1955 - Relaxing by Palm Trees in Palm Beach by Atlantic Ocean by Slim Aarons 16 x 16" print. Limited Edition Estate Stamped Print. Edition of 150. Printed Later. ...

A vibrant, colorful, 1950s Mid-Century Modern painting of a matador and bull fight by notable Chicago artist, Francis Chapin. Oil on canvas, presented in a period, dark walnut brown...

A stylish, vintage, 1940s woman's fashion study featuring an elegant graphic design for a portfolio cover featuring ladies resort clothes by Hattie Carnegie. Artwork size: 11 x 8...

Lucky Luciano, 1950s - American Italian Mafia Mafioso Black and White Portrait by Slim Aarons 16 x 20" print. Limited Edition Estate Stamped C-Print. Edition of 150. Printed Later. ...

Artist: Gladys Rockmore Davis, American (1901 - 1967) Title: Summer Flowers Year: circa 1940 Medium: Oil on Canvas, Signed lower right Size: 24 x 20 inches Frame: 33 x 29 inches

Gino Hollander: 1924-2015. Well listed American artist with Auction results over $14,000. He lived in California, Colorado, and Spain. This fabulous mixed media measures 11 1/4 inche...

Von Pantz Pool, 1985 - Nude Swimmer Portrait Laura Hawk Swimming Pool Water by Slim Aarons 16 x 20" print. Limited Edition Estate Stamped C-Print. Edition of 150. Printed Later. Vo...

'Big Poppies', 2014 Donald Sultan Silkscreen print 60.5 x 60.5 in. / 153 x 153 cm. Edition of 30, Signed by the Artist ‘Big Poppies’ is a portfolio consisting of three striking prin...

A Mid-Century Modern, 1950s Cubist watercolor of a brightly-colored dock scene by Chicago and New York artist Rita Duis (Astley-Bell). Signed "Duis", lower left. Artwork size: 8 1/...

Benton Spruance, 'From the Sea' also 'From the Sea — Pieta', lithograph, editions 30, 35, 1943. A superb, richly inked impression, on off-white wove paper; the full sheet, with decke...

De Hirsh Margules (1899-1965). North on West Street , 1939. Watercolor on Arches wove paper. Signed and dated in pencil by artist lower margin. Sheet measures 15 x 22 inches. Framed measurement: 27 x 34 inched. Incredibly vibrant and saturated color with no fading or toning of sheet. Provenance: Babcock Galleries, NYC De Hirsh Margules (1899–1965) was a Romanian-American "abstract realist" painter who crossed paths with many major American artistic and intellectual figures of the first half of the 20th century. Elaine de Kooning said that he was "[w]idely recognized as one of the most gifted and erudite watercolorists in the country". The New York Times critic Howard Devree stated in 1938 that "Margules uses color in a breath-taking manner. A keen observer, he eliminates scrupulously without distortion of his material." Devree later called Margules "one of our most daring experimentalists in the medium" Margules was also a well-known participant in the bohemian culture of New York City's Greenwich Village, where he was widely known as the "Baron" of Greenwich Village.[1] The New York Times described him as "one of Greenwich Village's best-known personalities" and "one of the best known and most buoyant characters about Greenwich Village. Early Life De Hirsh Margules was born in 1899 in the Romanian city of Iași (also known as Iasse, Jassy, or Jasse). When Margules was 10 weeks old, his family immigrated to New York City. Both of his parents were active in the Yiddish theater, His father was Yekutiel "Edward" Margules, a "renowned Jewish actor-impresario and founder of the Yiddish stage." Margules' mother, Rosa, thirty-nine years younger than his father, was an actress in the Yiddish theater and later in vaudeville. Although Margules appeared as a child actor with the Adler Family[11] and Bertha Kalich, his sister, Annette Margules, somewhat dubiously continued in family theater and vaudeville tradition, creating the blackface role of the lightly-clad Tondelayo (a part later played on film Hedy Lamarr) in Earl Carroll's 1924 Broadway exoticist hit, White Cargo. Annette herself faced stereotyping as an exotic flower: writing about her publicist Charles Bouchert stated that "Romania produces a stormy, temperamental type of woman---a type admirably fitted to portray emotion." His brother Samuel became a noted magician who appeared under the name "Rami-Sami." Samuel later became a lawyer, representing magician Horace Goldin, among others. A family portrait including a young De Hirsh, a portrait of Rosa and Annette together, and individual photos of Rosa and Edward can be found on the Museum of the City of New York website. At around age 9 or 10, Margules took art classes with the Boys Club on East Tenth Street, and his first taste of exhibition was at a student art show presented by the club. By age 11, he had won a city-wide prize (a box camera) at a children's art show presented by the department store Wanamakers. As a young teenager, Margules was already displaying a characteristic kindness and loyalty. Upon hearing that two friends (one of them was author Alexander King), were in trouble for breaking a school microscope, the nearly broke Margules gave them five dollars to repair the microscope . Margules had to approach a wealthy man that Margules had once saved on the subway from a heart attack. Margules didn't reveal the source of the five dollars to King until twenty-five years later. In his late teens, Margules studied for a couple of months in Pittsburgh with Edwin Randby, a follower of Western painter Frederic Remington. Thereafter he pursued a two-year course of studies in architecture, design and decoration at the New York Evening School of Art and Design, while working as a clerk during the day at Stern's Department Store. He was encouraged in these artistic pursuits by his neighbor, the painter Benno Greenstein (who later went by the name of Benjamin Benno). Artistic career In 1922, Margules began work as a police reporter for the City News Association of New York .Margules then considered himself something of an expert on art, and the painter Myron Lechay is said to have responded to some unsolicited analysis of his work with the remark "Since you seem to know so much about it, why don't you paint yourself?" This led to study with Lechay and a flurry of painting. Margules' first show was in 1922 at Jane Heap's Little Review Gallery. Thereafter Margules began to participate in shows with a group including Stuart Davis, Jan Matulka, Buckminster Fuller (exhibiting depictions of his "Dymaxion house") in a gallery run by art-lover and restaurateur Romany Marie on the floor above her cafe. Jane Heap, left, with Mina Loy and Ezra Pound During the 1920s, Margules traveled outside of the country a number of times. In 1922, with the intent of reaching Bali, he took a job as a "'wiper on a tramp steamer where [he] played nursemaid to the engine." He reached Rotterdam before he turned back. He would return to Rotterdam shortly thereafter. In 1927, Margules took a lengthy leave of absence from his day job as a police reporter in order to travel to Paris, where he "set up a studio in Montmartre's Place du Tertre, on the top floor of an almost deserted hotel, a shabby establishment, lacking both heat and running water." He studied at the Louvre and traveled to paint landscapes in provincial France and North Africa. Margules also joined the "Noctambulist" movement and experimented with painting and showing his artwork in low light.Jonathan Cott wrote that: the painter De Hirsch Margulies sat on the quays of the Seine and painted pictures in the dark. In fact, the first exhibition of these paintings, which could be seen only in a darkened room, took place in [ Walter Lowenfels'] Paris apartment. Elaine de Kooning remarked that studying the works of the Noctambulists confirmed Margules' "direction toward the use of primary colors for perverse effects of heavy shadow." It was also in Paris that Margules initially conceived his idea of "Time Painting", where a painting is divided into sectors, each representing a different time of day, with color choices meant to evoke that time of day. In Paris, his social circle included Lowenfels, photographer Berenice Abbott, publisher Jane Heap, composer George Anthiel, sculptor Thelma Wood, painter André Favory, writer Norman Douglas, writer and editor George Davis, composer and writer Max Ewing, and writer Michael Fraenkel. Upon his return to New York in 1929, Margules attended an exhibition of John Marin's paintings. While at the exhibition, he "launched into an eloquent explanation of Marin to two nearby women", and was overheard by an impressed Alfred Stieglitz. The famous photographer and art promoter invited Margules to dine with his wife, the artist Georgia O'Keeffe, and his assistant, painter Emil Zoler. Stieglitz thereafter became a friend and mentor to Margules, becoming for him "what Socrates was to his friends." Alfred Stieglitz Stieglitz introduced Margules to John Marin, who quickly became the most important painterly influence upon Margules. Elaine de Kooning later noted that Margules was "indebted to Marin and through Marin to Cézanne for his initial conceptual approach - for his constructions of scenes with no negative elements, for skies that loom with the impact of mountains." Margules himself said that Marin was his "father and ... academy." The admiration was by no means unreciprocated: Marin said that Margules was "an art lover with abounding faith and sincerity, with much intelligence and quick seeing." Stieglitz also introduced Margules to many other artistic and intellectual figures in New York. With the encouragement of Alfred Stieglitz, Margules in 1936 opened a two-room gallery at 43 West 8th Street called "Another Place." Over the following two years there were fourteen solo exhibitions by Margules and others, and the gallery was well-respected by the press. It was in this gallery that the painter James Lechay, Myron's brother, exhibited his first painting. In 1936, Margules first saw recognition by major art museums when both the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston purchased his works. In 1942, Margules gave up working as a police reporter, and apparently dedicated himself thereafter solely to an artistic vocation. "The Baron of Greenwich Village"[edit] Margules made his mark not only as an artist, but also as an outsized personality known throughout Greenwich Village and beyond. To local residents, Margules was known as the "Baron", after Baron Maurice de Hirsch, a prominent German Jewish philanthropist. Margules was easily recognizable by the beret he routinely wore over his long hair. Writer Charles Norman said that he "dressed with a flair for sloppiness." He was said to "know everybody" in Greenwich Village, to the extent that when the novelist and poet Maxwell Bodenheim was murdered, Margules was the first one the police sought to identify the body. Margules' letters show him interacting with art world figures such as Sacha Kolin, John Marin and Alfred Stieglitz, as well as with prominent figures outside the art world such as polymath Buckminster Fuller and writer Henry Miller. Most of his friends and acquaintances found Margules a generous and voluble man, given to broadly emotionally expressive gestures and acts of kindness and loyalty. In 1929, he exhibited an example of this loyalty and fellow-feeling when he appeared in court to fight what the wrongful commitment of his friend, writer and sculptor Alfred Dreyfuss, who appeared to have been a victim of an illicit attempt to block an inheritance. The Greenwich Village chronicler Charles Norman described the bone-crushing hugs that Margules would routinely bestow on his friends and acquaintances, and speaks of the "persuasive theatricality" that Margules seemed to have inherited from his actor parents. Norman also wrote about Margules' routine acts of kindness, taking in homeless artists, constantly feeding his friends and providing the salvatory loan where needed. Norman also notes that Margules was blessed with a loud and good voice, and was apt to sing an operatic air without provocation. The writer and television personality Alexander King said I think the outstanding characteristics of my friend's personality are affirmation, emphasis, and overemphasis. He chooses to express himself predominantly in superlatives and the gestures which accompany his utterances are sometimes dangerous to life and limb. Of the bystanders, I mean. King also spoke with affectionate amusement about Margules' pride in his cooking, speaking of how "if he should ever invite you to dinner, he may serve you a hamburger with onions, in his kitchen-living room, with such an air of gastronomic protocol, such mysterious hints and ogliing innuendoes, as if César Ritz and Brillat-Savarin had sneaked out, only a moment before, with his secret recipe in their pockets." Margules was such a memorable New York personality that comic book writer Alvin Schwartz imagined him at the Sixth Avenue Cafeteria in a risible yet poignant debate with Clark Kent about whether Superman had the ability to stop Hitler. Margules' entrenchment in the Greenwich Village milieu can be seen in a photograph from Fred McDarrah's "Beat Generation Album" of a January 13, 1961 writers' and poets' meeting to discuss "The Funeral of the Beat Generation", in Robert Cordier [fr]'s railroad flat at 85 Christopher Street. Among the people in the same photograph are Shel Silverstein...

Charles Quest, 'Underwater', 1948, chiaroscuro wood engraving, edition 12. Signed, titled, dated and numbered '3/12' in pencil. A fine, richly-inked impression, in dark brown and warm black, on off-white wove paper, with full margins (5/8 to 1 1/2 inch), in excellent condition. Scarce. ABOUT THE ARTIST Charles Quest, painter, printmaker, and fine art instructor, worked in various mediums, including mosaic, stained glass, mural painting, and sculpture. Quest grew up in St. Louis, his talent evident as a teenager when he began copying the works of masters such as Michelangelo on his bedroom walls. He studied at the Washington University School of Fine Arts, where he later taught from 1944 to 1971. He traveled to Europe after his graduation in 1929 and studied at La Grande Chaumière and Academie Colarossi, Paris, continuing to draw inspiration from the works of the Old Masters. After returning to St. Louis, Quest received several commissions to paint murals in public buildings, schools, and churches, including one from Joseph Cardinal Ritter, to paint a replica of Velasquez's Crucifixion over the main altar of the Old Cathedral in St. Louis. Quest soon became interested in the woodcut medium, which he learned through his study of J. J. Lankes' A Woodcut Manual (1932) and Paul Landacre's articles in American Artist magazine ‘since no artists in St. Louis were working in wood’ at that time. Quest also revealed that for him, wood cutting and engraving were ‘more enjoyable than any other means of expression.’ In the late 1940s, his graphic works began attracting critical attention—several of his woodcuts won prizes and were acquired by major American and European museums. His wood engraving entitled ‘Lovers’ was included in the American Federation of Art's traveling print exhibition in 1947. Two years later, Quest's two prize-winning prints, ‘Still Life with Grindstone’ and ‘Break Forth into Singing’, were exhibited in major American museums in a traveling show organized by the Philadelphia Print Club. His work was included in the Chicago Art Institute's exhibition, ‘Woodcut Through Six Centuries’, and the print ‘Still Life with Vise’ was purchased by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 1951 he was invited by artist-Curator Jacob Kainen to exhibit thirty wood engravings and color woodcuts in a one-person show at the Smithsonian's National Museum (now known as the American History Museum). Kainen's press release praised the ‘technical refinement’ of Quest's work: ‘He obtains a great variety of textural effects through the use of the graver, and these dense or transparent grays are set off against whites or blacks to achieve sparkling results. His work has the handsome qualities characteristic of the craftsman and designer.’ At the time of the Smithsonian exhibition, Quest's work was represented by three New York galleries in addition to one in his home town. He had won 38 prizes, and his prints were in the collections of the Library of Congress, the Chicago Art Institute, the Metropolitan Museum, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In cooperation with the Art in Embassies program, his color woodcuts were displayed at the American Embassy in Paris in 1951. Recognition at home came in 1955 with his first solo exhibition in St. Louis. Press coverage of the show heralded the ‘growth of graphic arts toward rivaling painting and sculpture as a major independent medium’. An exhibition of his prints at the Bethesda Art Gallery in 1983 attracted Curator Emeritus Joseph A. Haller, S.J., who began purchasing his work for Georgetown University's collection. In 1990 Georgetown University Library's Special Collections Division was the recipient of a large body of Quest's work, including prints, drawings, paintings, sculpture, stained glass, and his archive of correspondence and professional memorabilia. These extensive holdings, including some 260 of his fine prints, provide a rich opportunity for further study and appreciation of this versatile and not-to-be-forgotten mid-Western American artist...

Sea and Land Abstraction, 1936, oil on canvas board, 16 x 20 inches, signed and dated lower left, exhibited at the 18th Annual Paintings and Sculpture Exhibit at the Los Angeles Muse...

A Moody, Captivating 1920s Modern Paris Nocturne Scene of Notre Dame Cathedral by Notable Florida WPA Era Artist, George Snow Hill. Oil on panel, dating circa 1928. Artwork size: ...

A vibrant and yet romantic sailing scene which was a favorite series by Della-Volpe. His compelling colorist approach has made his works desirable as he was one of the few artists post-war to be representative in style like Milton Avery and Wolf Kahn. Head to Sea has the hallmark intense and lovely coloration for which Della-Volpe is known. He came out of Abstract Expressionism in the New York school but then pivoted, like Milton Avery to representational, colorist work. The frame is a silvered gold leaf float frame of quality and has a rubbed, antiqued surface...

Etching and aquatint on hand made F.J. Head & Co watermarked cream laid paper, full margins. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right margin. From the edition of 160 (from a total of ...

A striking 1930s American Modern portrait figure study watercolor of a distinguished, young African American male model by notable Chicago Institute of Design artist, Eugene Dana. W...

Barbados Bliss - Ava Marshall American Socialite Barbados Portrait Bougainvillea by Slim Aarons 16 x 20" print. Limited Edition Estate Stamped C-Print. Edition of 150. Printed Later...

This original oil painting on board by Mary Cane Robinson depicts a scenic view of the Colorado Springs mountain landscape. The composition reflects t...

Howard Cook, 'Soaring New York', aquatint, soft-ground etching, roulette, 1931-32, edition 25, Duffy 165. Signed, dated, and annotated 'imp' in pencil. A superb, richly-inked, atmosp...

Orignal NEW ORLEANS GREYHOUND vintage travel poster; larger format size. Excellent condition that has acid-free archival linen backing; ready to frame. This image is from the old French Quarter section of New Orleans. It features two women entering into the courtyard and in the background, the old stairs leading to the upstairs area. A bright and colorful image that would compliment any room or office. A great New Orleans vintage poster...

A demonstration print executed in front of a live audience in New York City in 1933. Etching on cream laid paper, 6 7/8 x 4 7/8 inches (178 x 127 mm); sheet 11 7/8 x 8 3/16 inches (...

A striking 1940s modernist gouache painting by Frederick Shane titled Artists Sketching (California), depicting three artists working outdoors against a sweeping mountainous landscap...

A contemporary photograph of the "Top Gun" soundtrack. This is s the first release in the much anticipated series "The Music" by pop Artists Destro These iconic tapes have become mor...

Original 1989 Louis Vuitton Automobile Classiques Poster –Hand Signed, Archival Linen-Backed. This poster was created for the Concours d’Elegance ...

A compelling WPA-era lithograph by Arnold Rönnebeck, this 1930s composition presents a modernist interpretation of Central City, Colorado—one of the state’s most historically signifi...

James Lesesne Wells, 'Sisters', linocut, edition not stated but small, 1928. Signed, titled, and annotated 'imp' in pencil. A fine impression on off-white wove Japan paper, with wide margins (1 7/8 to 3 3/4 inches), in excellent condition. Printed by the artist. Very scarce. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Image size 8 3/16 x 6 3/4 inches (208 x 171 mm); sheet size 13 1/2 x 10 3/4 inches (343 x 273 mm). Exhibition and Literature: 'Narratives of African American Art and Identity: The David C. Driskell Collection,' The Art Gallery at the University of Maryland, extensive touring exhibition, 1998-2000. Collections: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution (Anacostia Community Museum). ABOUT THE ARTIST “Wells is more than an artist with a deep concern for his fellow man. He carries many of his themes a step further into an apocalyptic world, a world of revelation and shifting lights. … He works on large blocks in a bold free style. … His work has a vigor, therefore, that is not often used in the medium today.” —Jacob Kainen (painter, critic, and collector) from Richard J. Powell’s 1986 essay Phoenix Ascending: The Art of James Lesesne Wells. James Lesesne Wells was an American painter, printmaker, educator, and pioneering figure of the Harlem Renaissance, whose work established a vital connection between African heritage, modernist form, and African American cultural identity. Known for his innovative use of linoleum and woodblock printing, Wells played a key role in shaping 20th-century African American art and inspired countless students throughout his lengthy career as a teacher at Howard University. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Wells' early exposure to the arts came through church and community, where African American cultural traditions were central. He pursued formal artistic training at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania (earning a B.A. in 1924), followed by studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Barnes Foundation, where he encountered European modernists as well as traditional African sculpture, which profoundly influenced his style. Wells moved to New York in the late 1920s, swiftly immersing himself in the lively artistic and intellectual scene of Harlem. There, he became associated with artists, writers, and thinkers of the Harlem Renaissance, contributing to the growth of Black cultural identity. Considered a mentor to many famed artists of the Harlem Renaissance, Wells served as director of a summer art workshop in Harlem where his assistants included Charles Alston, Jacob Lawrence, and Palmer Hayden...

A Finely Drawn, 1930s Art Deco Modern Figure Study of a Kneeling Male Nude Model by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An early graphite drawing by Haydon demon...

Samuel Chamberlain, 'Manhattan Old and New', drypoint, 1929, edition 100, Chamberlain and Kingsland 81. Signed, titled, and numbered '81/100' in pencil. Titled and annotated '30.00' in pencil, in the artist's hand, bottom margin. Matted to museum standards, unframed. A superb, finely-detailed impression, with selectively wiped plate tone, on heavy Rives cream wove paper; full margins (1 1/2 to 2 1/4 inches), in excellent condition. The subject of the print is the lower Manhattan cityscape just before the Depression. Image size 8 3/4 x 6 13/16 inches (222 x 173 mm); sheet size 12 3/4 x 10 inches (324 x 254 mm). Impressions of this work are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Art and the Zimmerli Art Museum. ABOUT THE ARTIST 'There is something about the atmospheric vibrancy of an etching which imparts a peculiar and irresistible life to architectural drawing...A copper plate offers receptive ground to the meticulously detailed drawing which so often appeals to the architect'. —Samuel Chamberlain, from the Catalogue Raisonné of his prints. Samuel V. Chamberlain (1896 - 1975), printmaker, photographer, author, and teacher, was born in Iowa. His family moved to Aberdeen, Washington in 1901, and in 1913, Chamberlain enrolled in the University of Washington in Seattle, where he studied architecture under Carl Gould. By 1915, he was enrolled in the School of Architecture of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. With the United States' involvement in the First World War, Chamberlain sailed to France, where he volunteered in the American Field Service. In 1918, he was transferred to the United States Army to complete his tour of duty. After the war, he returned to Boston and resumed his architectural studies, which he eventually discontinued, working for a few years as a commercial artist. Chamberlain received the American Field Service Scholarship in 1923, which he used to travel to Spain, North Africa, and Italy. In 1924 he was living in Paris, where he studied lithography with Gaston Dorfinant and etching and drypoint with Edouard Léon, publishing his first etching the following year. In 1927, he studied drypoint with Malcolm Osborne...

Original watercolor on archival paper of a Rocky Mountain Meadow by the well known American artist, Werner Drewes. Signed lower right. Titled and dated 1956 on verso of sheet. Con...

Bernard Brussel-Smith, 'City Scene II', wood engraving, 1949, artist's proof, edition 100. Signed, titled, and annotated 'A.P.' in pencil. A superb, richly-inked impression, on whit...

Mark Citret, American, b. 1949. "Third Story Arches", Fort Point, 1998 Silver gelatin print hand signed and editioned 1/45 in pencil along lower edge. Published: "Along the Way" Mark...

This artwork titled "Left Bank Cafe, Paris" 1987 is an original color serigraph by noted American artist LeRoy Neiman, 1921-2012. It is hand signed and numbered H.C 166/175 in pencil by the artist. The image size is 26 x 38 inches, sheet size is 32.25 x 44 inches. With the blind stamp of the printer Styria Studio at the lower left corner margin. It is in excellent condition, two small pieces of hanging tape remain on the back. About the artist: Mr. Neiman's kinetic, quickly executed paintings and drawings, many of them published in Playboy, offered his fans gaudily colored visual reports on heavyweight boxing matches, Super Bowl games and Olympic contests, as well as social panoramas like the horse races at Deauville, France, and the Cannes Film Festival. Quite consciously, he cast himself in the mold of French Impressionists like Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir and Degas, chroniclers of public life who found rich social material at racetracks, dance halls and cafes. Mr. Neiman often painted or sketched on live television. With the camera recording his progress at the sketchpad or easel, he interpreted the drama of Olympic Games and Super Bowls for an audience of millions. When Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky faced off in Reykjavik, Iceland, to decide the world chess championship, Mr. Neiman was there, sketching. He was on hand to capture Federico Fellini directing "8 ½" and the Kirov Ballet performing in the Soviet Union. In popularity, Mr. Neiman rivaled American favorites like Norman Rockwell, Grandma Moses and Andrew Wyeth. A prolific one-man industry, he generated hundreds of paintings, drawings, watercolors, limited-edition serigraph prints and coffee-table books yearly, earning gross annual revenue in the tens of millions of dollars. Although he exhibited constantly and his work was included in the collections of dozens of museums around the world, critical respect eluded him. Mainstream art critics either ignored him completely or, if forced to consider his work, dismissed it with contempt as garish and superficial — magazine illustration with pretensions. Mr. Neiman professed not to care. Maybe the critics are right," he told American Artist magazine in 1995. "But what am I supposed to do about it — stop painting, change my work completely? I go back into the studio, and there I am at the easel again. I enjoy what I'm doing and feel good working. Other thoughts are just crowded out." His image suggested an artist well beyond the reach of criticism. A dandy and bon vivant, he cut an arresting figure with his luxuriant ear-to-ear mustache, white suits, flashy hats and Cuban cigars. "He quite intentionally invented himself as a flamboyant artist not unlike Salvador Dalí, in much the same way that I became Mr. Playboy in the late '50s," Hugh Hefner told Cigar Aficionado magazine in 1995. LeRoy Runquist was born on June 8, 1921, in St. Paul. His father, a railroad worker, deserted the family when LeRoy was quite young, and the boy took the surname of his stepfather. He showed a flair for art at an early age. While attending a local Roman Catholic school, he impressed schoolmates by drawing ink tattoos on their arms during recess. As a teenager, he earned money doing illustrations for local grocery stores. "I'd sketch a turkey, a cow, a fish, with the prices," he told Cigar Aficionado. "And then I had the good sense to draw the guy who owned the store. This gave me tremendous power as a kid." After being drafted into the Army in 1942, he served as a cook in the European theater but in his spare time painted risqué murals on the walls of kitchens and mess halls. The Army's Special Services Division, recognizing his talent, put him to work painting stage sets for Red Cross shows when he was stationed in Germany after the war. On leaving the military, he studied briefly at the St. Paul School of Art (now the Minnesota Museum of American Art) before enrolling in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where, after four years of study, he taught figure drawing and fashion illustration throughout the 1950s. When the janitor of the apartment building next door to his threw out half-empty cans of enamel house paint, Mr. Neiman found his métier. Experimenting with the new medium, he embraced a rapid style of applying paint to canvas imposed by the free-flowing quality of the house paint. While doing freelance fashion illustration for the Carson Pirie Scott department store in Chicago in the early 1950s, he became friendly with Mr. Hefner, a copywriter there who was on the verge of publishing the first issue of a men's magazine. In 1954, after five issues of Playboy had appeared, Mr. Neiman ran into Mr. Hefner and invited him to his apartment to see his paintings of boxers, strip clubs and restaurants. Mr. Hefner, impressed, showed the work to Playboy's art director, Art Paul, who commissioned an illustration for "Black Country," a story by Charles Beaumont about a jazz musician. Thus began a relationship that endured for more than half a century and established Mr. Neiman's reputation. In 1955, when Mr. Hefner decided that the party-jokes page needed visual interest, Mr. Neiman came up with the Femlin, a curvaceous brunette who cavorted across the page in thigh-high stockings, high-heeled shoes, opera gloves and nothing else. She appeared in every issue of the magazine thereafter. Three years later, Mr. Neiman devised a running feature, "Man at His Leisure." For the next 15 years, he went on assignment to glamour spots around the world, sending back visual reports on subjects as varied as the races at Royal Ascot, the dining room of the Tour d'Argent in Paris, the nude beaches of the Dalmatian coast, the running of the bulls at Pamplona and Carnaby Street in swinging London. He later produced more than 100 paintings and 2 murals for 18 of the Playboy clubs that opened around the world. "Playboy made the good life a reality for me and made it the subject matter of my paintings — not affluence and luxury as such, but joie de vivre itself," Mr. Neiman told V.I.P. magazine in 1962. Working in the same copywriting department at Carson Pirie Scott as Mr. Hefner was Janet Byrne, a student at the Art Institute. She and Mr. Neiman married in 1957. She survives him. A prolific artist, he generated dozens of paintings each year that routinely commanded five-figure prices. When Christie's auctioned off the Playboy archives in 2003, his 1969 painting Man at His Leisure: Le Mans sold for $107,550. Sales of the signed, limited-edition print versions of his paintings, published in editions of 250 to 500, became a lucrative business in itself after Knoedler Publishing, a wholesale operation, was created in 1975 to publish and distribute his serigraphs, etchings, books and posters. Mr. Neiman's most famous images came from the world of sports. His long association with the Olympics began with the Winter Games in Squaw Valley in 1960, and he went on to cover the games, on live television, in Munich in 1972, Montreal in 1976, Lake Placid in 1980, and Sarajevo and Los Angeles in 1984, using watercolor, ink or felt-tip marker to produce images with the dispatch of a courtroom sketch artist. At the 1978 and 1979 Super Bowls, he used a computerized electronic pen to portray the action for CBS. Although he was best known for scenes filled with people and incident, he also painted many portraits. Athletes predominated, with Muhammad Ali and Joe Namath among his more famous subjects, but he also painted Leonard Bernstein, the ballet dancer Suzanne Farrell...

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