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American Modern Art

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Style: American Modern
Period: 1940s
Weegee "Distortion: Stripes"
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Innovative, provocative, inimitable - these are just a few of the words to describe America's boldest photographer. Arthur Fellig, better known as Weegee (1899-1968) was a ground-breaking, successful (and notorious) photojournalist. His images shot on the streets of New York City are iconic and influential. In the 1930s he became the first New York City press photographer to obtain permission to install a police radio in his car. This allowed him to follow the city's first responders and to document their duties; responding to fire, crime, debauchery and of course, murder. By the early 1940s Weegee was experiencing fatigue with crime reportage. Ironically, this was also the point when he finally began experiencing professional validation and acclaim, to the point of being a minor celebrity. Notably in 1941 he was included in The MoMA's seminal "50 Photographs by 50 Photographers" (curated by Edward Steichen). The museum would also acquire five Weegee photographs...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

'Circular Motion' original lithograph signed by Georges Schreiber
Located in Milwaukee, WI
In this lithograph, Georges Schreiber focused on the thrill of the circus, taking its circular composition from the central ring. Here, acrobats perform amazing feats of agility on t...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Kanani (Hawaii)— 1940s Polynesian Portrait
By John Melville Kelly 1
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
John Melville Kelly, 'Kanani (Hawaii)', drypoint, 1946. Signed, titled and annotated 'No 36' in pencil. A superb impression, in dark brown ink, on ...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Drypoint

Still Life — Mid-century Modern
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Charles Quest, 'Still Life', 1947, wood engraving, edition 8. Signed, dated, and numbered '3/8' in pencil. Titled and annotated 'wood engraving' in the bottom left margin. A fine impression, on off-white wove paper, with full margins (1 to 2 inches), in excellent condition. Scarce. Matted to museum standards, unframed. 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...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Woodcut

Reginald Marsh "Brooklyn Bridge" NYC Modernism WPA Mid-Century Watercolor Modern
Located in New York, NY
Reginald Marsh "Brooklyn Bridge" NYC Modernism WPA Mid-Century Watercolor Modern Reginald Marsh (American, 1898-1954) Brooklyn Bridge, 1940, Signed and dated Reginald Marsh May 1940 (lr), Watercolor over traces of pencil on paper , 15 x 22 inches sight. Reginald Marsh was born in Paris, France in 1898, the child of artist parents. He was born over a small cafe on Paris' Left Bank. He was brought to the United States in 1900 and was drawing before he was three. He studied art at Yale University and the Art Students League, during which time he worked primarily as an illustrator for New York newspapers and magazines. After studying in Paris in 1925 and 1926, he turned seriously to painting. In 1929 he was introduced to the egg-tempera medium, which he used extensively the rest of his life. Marsh's gusto for painting the bottom crust of society contrasted curiously with his background. His parents, both well-known artists, were steeped in academic traditions. He attended Lawrenceville Academy and Yale; perhaps this elite background made it possible to paint the earthy people he did with a journalist's objectivity. An admirer of Rubens and Delacroix, he disliked modernist art; indeed, his lifelong preoccupation was with people - enjoying themselves at beaches, at amusement parks, or on crowded city streets. Marsh was a second-generation Ash Can School painter and printmaker, best known as an urban regionalist. He spent his days sketching in small notebooks...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Comanche Portrait
Located in Santa Monica, CA
CHARLES BANKS WILSON (American 1918 - 2013) COMANCHE PORTRAIT, c. 1941 Lithograph signed in pencil. Edition 250 as published by Associated Artists. 10 1/4 x 14 1/2 inches. Sheet, 1...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Keep Em' Flying Hennies Bros Shows original vintage poster
Located in Spokane, WA
Keep 'em Flying Hennies Bros Show original vintage military, carnival, and amusement park poster. Created during World War Two when entertainment and enj...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Offset

Tamas The Power of Bad
Located in Santa Monica, CA
WILLY POGANY (1882 - 1955) TAMAS THE POWER OF BAD, c. 1940. Etching, signed and titled and numbered 50 in pencil. Image 12 x 9 inches. Sheet 14 7/8 x 10 3/4 inches. Generally goo...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Etching

Kaufmann House, Palm Springs
Located in New York, NY
Kaufmann House, Palm Springs Architect: Richard Neutra Kodak digital color print Print size: 20" x 24" (50.80 x 60.96) Image size: 15" x 20" (39.10 x ...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

C Print

STRIDENT MAN Carved Wood Sculpture Hollywood WPA Modernist Puppet Mid-Century
Located in New York, NY
This 18 x 9 x 4 inch carved wood sculpture is unsigned and comes directly from the artist's family. Louis 'Lou' Bunin (28 March 1904 – 17 February 1994) was an American puppeteer, artist, and pioneer of stop-motion animation in the latter half of the twentieth century. While working as a mural artist under Diego Rivera in Mexico City in 1926, Bunin created political puppet shows using marionettes...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Wood

"Country Haircut"
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Jim’s of Lambertville Fine Art Gallery is proud to offer this piece by Milton Avery (1885 – 1965). Milton Avery was a prominent Modernist painter whose work combined abstraction and...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Watercolor, Gouache, Paper

'Child Reaching' — 1940s American Modernism
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Will barnet, 'Child Reaching', woodcut, 1940, edition 25, Cole 82. Signed and titled in pencil. A fine, black impression, on fibrous Japan paper, with full margins (5/8 to 1 3/4 inch...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Woodcut

'Lobsterman's Wharf, Maine' original lithograph signed by "Zsissly" Albright
Located in Milwaukee, WI
'Lobsterman's Wharf, Maine' is an original lithograph signed by Malvin Marr "Zsissly" Albright. While Malvin Marr – along with his better-known identical twin Ivan Albright – was known for his meticulous and unsettling magic realist compositions, he and his brother were also prolific in capturing landscapes of the coast of Maine where the two spent several consecutive summers away from Chicago over their lives. Sometimes these Maine landscapes and views would be painterly and seemingly antithetical to the careful realism of his other work; but in this example, however, the wharf is treated with the same macabre decay as his human subjects. In the composition, the shack...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

City Scene I — Mid-Century Modernism, Precisionism
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Bernard Brussel-Smith, 'City Scene I', wood engraving, 1949, edition 100. Signed, titled, and numbered '93/100' in pencil. A superb, richly-inked impression, on white wove paper, wi...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Woodcut

Fetishes, 1940s Abstract Figurative Southwestern Mixed Media Painting, Red Gray
Located in Denver, CO
An original gouache and wax painting by New Mexico modernist, Howard Schleeter (1903-1976) signed and dated lower right from November 18, 1949. Presented in a custom frame created b...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Wax, Gouache, Archival Paper

Weegee "Sailor and Girl Kissing"
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Weegee (1899-1968) was equally fascinated and inspired by cinema and all of its tangents, from Hollywood movie stars to ordinary civilians going to the movies. While Weegee is typically associated with crime/disaster images, the broad theme of "entertainment" is a major component of his oeuvre. An interesting and provocative sub-genre of his cinema-related work are his images of couples (often heavy-petting) in movie theatres. Recent scholarship has established that many of Weegee's supposed clandestine images were actually staged or arranged with friends or co-operative strangers. Nevertheless, Weegee created these photographs in the dark with an array of clever techniques including infrared film, filtered flashbulb and triangular prism lens. Employed in shots such as this one, the prism lens would allow the artist to “see around corners,” useful at times when his subjects were in compromising locations. These images of kissing couples, Weegee wrote in 1959, were “his best seller, year in and year out.” "Sailor and GIrl at the Movies...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

'Going My Way?' — Mid-century American Surrealism
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Robert Vale Faro, 'Going My Way?', lithograph, 1946, edition 14. Signed in pen, recto. Titled, numbered '#118 14/14' and dated '5/5/46' in pen, verso. A fine, richly-inked impression, on heavy, off-white wove paper, with full margins (1 5/8 to 2 15/16 inches), in excellent condition. Image size 13 1/8 x 7 3/8 inches; sheet size 17 x 12 3/8 inches. Scarce. Matted to museum standards, unframed. An impression of this work is in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art. ABOUT THE ARTIST Robert Vale Faro (1902-1988) was a modernist architect and artist associated with the Chicago Bauhaus. He received his degree in architecture and design from the Armour Institute in Chicago and worked at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, from 1924-27, where he was influenced by Harry Kurt Bieg and Le Corbusier. Upon his return to Chicago, Faro worked with the important modernist Chicago architects George and William Keck under Louis Sullivan. Faro founded the avant-garde printmaking group Vanguard in 1945. The group counted Atelier 17 artists Stanley William Hayter, Sue Fuller...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

“The Green Necklace”
Located in Southampton, NY
Oil on canvas original painting by The Russian/ American artist, Nahum Tschacbasov. Signed lower left and dated 1943. Condition is very good. Framed in custom contemporary gold le...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

City Scene II — Mid-Century Modernism, Precisionism
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
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...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Woodcut

'Kaf With' — Mid-century American Surrealism
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Robert Vale Faro, 'Kaf With', color lithograph, 1945, edition 15. Signed, dated, titled and numbered '84' and '6/15' in pen, recto. Titled, numbered '#84' and '6/15' and dated '7/22/...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

1940 Modernist Still Life with Flowers, Framed Floral Oil Painting, Red Yellow
Located in Denver, CO
An original modernist still life oil painting by John E. Thompson (1882-1945), table is draped in red cloth and flowers in vase are red, yellow, blue/purple and white with green stem...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

'Central Railroad' — Mid-Century African-American Artist
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Charles Elmer Harris (Beni E. Kosh), Untitled (Central Railroad), watercolor, c. 1945. Estate stamped verso, 'Beni E Kosh COLLECTION' and numbered '697' in ink. A fine, modernist re...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Watercolor, India Ink

'Sylvan Maze' — Mid-century American Surrealism
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Robert Vale Faro, 'Sylvan Maze', color lithograph, 1946, edition 20. Signed, dated, titled and numbered '112' and '11/20' in pencil. A fine, richly-inked impression with fresh colors, on heavy, off-white wove paper; full margins (1 to 1 1/2 inch), in excellent condition. Image size 13 11/16 x 9 11/16 inches; sheet size 16 1/8 x 12 5/16 inches. Scarce. Matted to museum standards, unframed. ABOUT THE ARTIST Robert Vale Faro (1902-1988) was a modernist architect and artist associated with the Chicago Bauhaus. He received his degree in architecture and design from the Armour Institute in Chicago and worked at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, from 1924-27, where he was influenced by Harry Kurt Bieg and Le Corbusier. Upon his return to Chicago, Faro worked with the important modernist Chicago architects George and William Keck under Louis Sullivan. Faro founded the avant-garde printmaking group Vanguard in 1945. The group counted Atelier 17 artists Stanley William Hayter, Sue Fuller...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Sousaphone Player in Marching Band, Modern Print by Byron Browne
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Byron Browne (after), American (1907 - 1961) Title: Sousaphone Player in Marching Band Year: circa 1940 Medium: Collotype, signed in the plate Image Size: 26.5 x 20.5 in. (67...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Offset

Weegee "A Trip to Mars"
Located in Toronto, Ontario
While many first associate Weegee (aka Arthur Fellig) with New York City crime scenes, perhaps a broader and more consistent theme is that of spectacle and/or urban entertainment. The origins of his nick-name and reputation date back to the 1930s when he became the first New York City press photographer to obtain permission to install a police radio in his car. Following the city's first responders and documenting their duties, Weegee had unprecedented access to New York’s fires, crimes, debaucheries and of course, murders. During the first decade of his career these unflinching urban tragedy or crime images paid Weegee's bills, but as he became more financially independent he was more inspired to pursue photographs on his own agenda. While his oeuvre is vast, Weegee was especially drawn to entertainment: nightlife, circuses, the theatre, showgirls, city thrills, the cinema etc. Some of Weegee's most dynamic and tender (and under-appreciated!) images are related to simply having fun (in a crowd). He was not confined to one neighbourhood or demographic. He captured action, faces and events from Coney Island to the Bowery and Greenwich Village, to Times Square and Harlem. In “A Trip To Mars,” Weegee depicts a multi-generational group crowding around a large telescope...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Sister Kate — Mid-century, Jazz-inspired Modernism
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
James Houston McConnell, 'Sister Kate', color serigraph, 1947, edition 24. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered '24' in pencil. Annotated '10.00 - 19 colors - 24 copies - #24' in pencil. A fine impression, with vibrant, fresh colors, on heavy tan wove paper, with full margins (11/16 to 1 1/2 inches). Tack holes in the four margin corners, well away from the image, otherwise in excellent condition. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Scarce. Another of McConnell's mid-century modernist, jazz-inspired serigraphs, 'Combo', is featured in the British Museum's 2008 publication (and traveling exhibition) 'The American Scene: Prints from Hopper to Pollock'. ABOUT THE IMAGE "I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate", often simply "Sister Kate", is an up-tempo jazz dance song, written by Armand J. Piron and published in 1922. The lyrics of the song are narrated in the first person by Kate's sister, who sings about Kate's impressive dancing skill and her wish to be able to emulate it. She laments that she's not quite "up to date", but believes that dancing like "Sister Kate" will rectify this, and she will be able to impress "all the boys in the neighborhood" like her sister. Over the years this song has been performed and recorded by many artists, including Frances Faye and Rusty Warren, a 1959 version by Shel Silverstein...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Screen

Toe to Toe, Boxing Lithograph by Fletcher Martin 1942
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Fletcher Martin (American, 1904-1979) Title: Toe to Toe Year: 1942 Medium: Lithograph, signed in pencil Edition: 250 Image Size: 12.5 x 9.5 in. (31.75 x 24.13 cm) Frame: 25 x...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Work Bench — Mid-century Modern
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Charles Quest, 'Work Bench', 1949, wood engraving, edition 40. Signed, dated and numbered 9/40 in pencil. Titled and annotated 'wood engraving 1949' in pencil, in the artist’s hand, lower right margin. A fine, richly-inked impression, on off-white wove Japan, with full margins (1 3/4 to 2 inches), in excellent condition. Matted to museum standards, unframed. ABOUT THE ARTIST Charles Quest, a successful artist, and fine art instructor, worked in a variety of mediums including mosaic, stained glass, mural painting, and sculpture, but remains best known as a printmaker. 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 apparently 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 a lot of 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 the Graphic Arts Division of the Smithsonian's National Museum (now known as the American History Museum). This one-man exhibition was a remarkable achievement for Quest, who had been working in the medium for only about ten years. In the press release for the show, Kainen 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 also 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’. Charles Quest retired from teaching in 1971 and made relatively few prints in his later years, as the rigors of the medium were too demanding. He moved to Tryon, North Carolina, with his wife Dorothy, an artist and portrait painter, and remained active as a painter until his death in 1993. An exhibition of his prints at the Bethesda Art Gallery in 1983 attracted the interest of Curator Emeritus Joseph A. Haller, S.J., who began purchasing his work for the University's collection. In 1990 Georgetown University Library's Special Collections Division became the grateful recipient of a large body of Quest's work including prints, drawings, paintings, sculpture, and stained glass, as well as 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...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Woodcut

Modernist Cityscape
By Esther Rollick
Located in Buffalo, NY
An original modernist oil painting by American female artist Esther Rollick.
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

"Radio City Rockette"
Located in Southampton, NY
Watercolor on paper of a Radio City Music Hall Rockette done in the late 1940's or early 1950's. Ruth Adele Mysel grew up in Boston and attended the New Eng...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Watercolor

From the Sea (From the Sea—Pieta)
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
A superb, richly inked impression, on off-white wove paper; the full sheet, with deckel all around (margins 1 to 2 inches) in excellent condition. Signed, dated, titled and annotated...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

'Dialogue Erudite' — Mid-century American Surrealism
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Robert Vale Faro, 'Dialogue Erudite', color lithograph, 1945, edition 16. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered '98' and '4/16' in pen. A fine, richly-inked impression with fresh colors, on heavy, off-white wove paper; full margins (1/2 to 1 1/4 inch), in excellent condition. Image size 20 1/2 x 14 3/8 inches; sheet size 22 1/2 x 17 inches. Scarce. Matted to museum standards, unframed. ABOUT THE ARTIST Robert Vale Faro (1902-1988) was a modernist architect and artist associated with the Chicago Bauhaus. He received his degree in architecture and design from the Armour Institute in Chicago and worked at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, from 1924-27, where he was influenced by Harry Kurt Bieg and Le Corbusier. Upon his return to Chicago, Faro worked with the important modernist Chicago architects George and William Keck under Louis Sullivan. Faro founded the avant-garde printmaking group Vanguard in 1945. The group counted Atelier 17 artists Stanley William Hayter, Sue Fuller...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

"Victoria" original lithograph signed by Malvin Marr "Zsissly" Albright
Located in Milwaukee, WI
The present print, "Victoria," is the most iconic example of the printmaking of Malvin Marr Albright, called Zsissly. The composition for the image comes from Albright's painting from about 1935, done while he was studying at the Art Institute of Chicago. We can see clearly in the image how he possesses the same skill for unsettling, magic realist images as his more famous twin brother Ivan Le Lorraine: The lady Victoria sits at a dining room table, surrounded by luxurious still-life objects. All the textures and surfaces of the image express a horror vacui as seen in his painted works, such as "The Trail of Time is Dust" at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. The door in this print recalls one of the more famous works by his brother, "That Which I Should Have Done I Did Not Do (The Door)" at the Art Institute of Chicago. 1947, after ca. 1935 original painting 8 1/2 x 13 inches, image 12 x 16 inches, sheet 16 1/4 x 20 1/2 frame Signed in pencil, lower right Title in pencil, lower left Published by Associated American Artists Inc. Unnumbered from the edition of 250 A painter and sculptor, Malvin Albright was born in Chicago, one of twin sons of Adam Emory Albright, famous Chicago figure painter of juvenile subjects, who often used Malvin and his brother Ivan Le Lorraine as models. Malvin's middle name, Marr, was after Wisconsin artist Carl von Marr...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Skyscrapers.
Located in Storrs, CT
Skyscrapers. c. 1950. Pastel. 29 3/4 x 19 7/8 (framed 37 x 27). Provenance: The New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut. Signed, lower right. Housed in a stunn...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Pastel

Survivor
Located in New Orleans, LA
Caroline Durieux's "Survivor" is a pencil-signed lithograph created in 1947 in an edition of 20. It is illustrated in Carl Zigrosser's book on the artist published in 1949. Durieux on Survivor "An extra-terrestrial spotlight falls on this battered subhuman figure; he does not look directly into the light but away from it, raising his hand to it like a beggar. The worn pads on his hands and knees shows that he has walked on them, like an animal, for a long time. There is nothing to suggest that he can stand. The beam of light looks cold, machine like, impersonal. Scornful satire marks the limit of comedy for '. . . there is nothing funny about scorn which comes round again almost to the attitude of divine comedy.' Caroline Durieux (American, 1896 – 1989) Printmaker, painter, satirist, innovator, social activist, Caroline Durieux was born in New Orleans and was already making sketches by the age of four. Her formal art training was at Newcomb College (1912-1917) and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (1918-1920). Carl Zigrosser of the Philadelphia Museum of Art encouraged Durieux to try lithography. While living in Mexico, she learned lithography from Emilio Amero...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

"Backstage, Ambassador" Broadway Theatre NYC Mid-century Modern Modernist Cubist
By Sam Norkin
Located in New York, NY
"Backstage, Ambassador" Broadway Theatre NYC Mid-century Modern Modernist CubistSigned lower left, titled on the stretcher. Norkin was a Brooklyn, Ne...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

'Easter Sunday' — Mid-century American Surrealism
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Robert Vale Faro, 'Easter Sunday', color lithograph, 1946, edition 31. Signed, dated, titled and numbered '116' and '17/31' in pen. A fine impression, with fresh colors, on heavy, off-white wove paper; full margins (1 1/4 to 2 inches), in excellent condition. Image size 21 x 13 1/2 inches; sheet size 24 3/4 x 16 1/4 inches. Scarce. Matted to museum standards, unframed. ABOUT THE ARTIST Robert Vale Faro (1902-1988) was a well-known modernist architect and artist associated with the Chicago Bauhaus. He received his degree in architecture and design from the Armour Institute in Chicago and worked at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, from 1924-27, where he was influenced by Harry Kurt Bieg and Le Corbusier. Upon his return to Chicago, Faro worked with the important modernist Chicago architects George and William Keck under Louis Sullivan. Faro founded the avant-garde printmaking group Vanguard in 1945. The group counted Atelier 17 artists Stanley William Hayter, Sue Fuller...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Landscape, Modern Painting by Philip Pearlstein
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Philip Pearlstein, American (1924 - ) Title: Landscape Year: circa 1940 Medium: Oil on Board Size: 12 in. x 26 in. (30.48 cm x 66.04 cm) Frame Size: 16.5 x 20.5 inches
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Oil

'Petrouchka's Predicament' — Mid-century American Surrealism
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Robert Vale Faro, 'Petrouchka's Predicament', color lithograph, 1946, edition 20. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered '115' and '14/20' in pen. A fine, richly-inked impression, with fresh colors, on heavy, off-white wove paper; full margins (1 1/4 to 2 1/2 inches), in excellent condition. Image size 21 3/4 x 13 3/4 inches; sheet size 24 3/4 x 16 1/4 inches. Scarce. Matted to museum standards, unframed. 'Petrouchka', a ballet with music by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky and choreography by Michel Fokine, is based on the legend of Russian folklore. 'Petrouchka', a puppet made of straw with a bag of sawdust as his body, comes to life and has the capacity to love, a story conceptually resembling that of Pinocchio. ABOUT THE ARTIST Robert Vale Faro (1902-1988) was a well-known modernist architect and artist associated with the Chicago Bauhaus. He received his degree in architecture and design from the Armour Institute in Chicago and worked at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, from 1924-27, where he was influenced by Harry Kurt Bieg and Le Corbusier. Upon his return to Chicago, Faro worked with the important modernist Chicago architects George and William Keck under Louis Sullivan. Faro founded the avant-garde printmaking group Vanguard in 1945. The group counted Atelier 17 artists Stanley William Hayter, Sue Fuller...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Colorado Hill Town with Storm Clouds, 1940s Modernist Landscape, Green Blue
Located in Denver, CO
WPA era signed framed modernist oil painting of houses and trees in summer with a stormy cloud in Colorado by Paul K. Smith in shades of green, ...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Oil

Kris Dancer, Bali
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Al Hirschfeld, 'Kris Dancer, Bali', color lithograph, 1941, edition 1,000. Signed in the stone, lower right. A fine, clean impression, with fresh colors, on cream wove paper, the ful...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Arching Elms, Lithograph by Gordon Grant
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Gordon Grant, American (1875 - 1962) Title: Arching Elms Year: circa 1940 Medium: Lithograph, signed in pencil Image Size: 9 x 11 inches Size: 11 in. x 16 in. (27.94 cm x 40....
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Girl in Green
Located in Dallas, TX
Donald Vogel’s paintings reflect his interest in seeking beauty in life and in sharing pleasure with his viewers. Vogel entreats us to "rejoice and celebrate each new day, knowing it...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Oil, Linen

"The Flight (Duck Flying), " Silkscreen signed by Schomer Lichtner
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"The Flight (Duck Flying) is an original color silkscreen by Schomer Lichtner. The artist initialed the piece lower right. This piece features a duck in flight through red hatched lines. 4 3/4" x 6 3/4" art 13" x 15" frame Milwaukee artist, Schomer Lichtner passed away on May 9, 2006 at the age of 101. He continued to amaze and create with his whimsical paintings of ballerinas and cows. He and his late wife Ruth Grotenrath, both well-known Wisconsin artists, began their prolific careers as muralists for WPA projects, primarily post offices. Schomer Lichtner was well known for his whimsical cows and ballerinas, such as his "Ballerina Dancing on Cow" sculpture below. The late James Auer, art critic for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel referred to Lichtner as the artist laureate of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was the official artist of the Milwaukee Ballet. Lichtner also painted murals for industry and private clients. Schomer was a printmaker and produced block prints, lithographs, and serigraph prints. His casein (paint made from dairy products) and acrylic paintings are of the rural Wisconsin landscape and farm animals. He became interested in cows when he and Ruth spent summers near Holy Hill in Washington County. According to David Gordon, director of the Milwaukee Art Museum, Schomer Lichtner had a tremendous joie de vivre, " joy of life," and expressed it in his art. Schomer Lichtner was nationally known for his whimsical paintings and sculptures of black- and white-patterned Holstein cows...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Screen

Handsome Couple in Sailboat - Collier's Magazine Illustration
Located in Miami, FL
Collier's Magazine Illustration From the Estate of Charles Martignette. Work is framed in a period wood frame Watercolor on board
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Board, Watercolor

"THE PITCHER" Mid Century Modern Texas Painting Oil
Located in San Antonio, TX
Michael Frary "THE PITCHER" Mid Century Modern (1918 - 2005) Austin Artist Image Size: 20 x 16 Frame Size: 27 x 23 Medium: Oil Circa 1940s "The Pitcher" Biography Michael Frary (1...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Oil

MARCH WITH BABUSHKA (HEAD OF MARCH).
Located in Portland, ME
Avery, Milton. MARCH WITH BABUSHKA (HEAD OF MARCH). Drypoint, 1948. Edition of 100, published by Collectors of American Art. Unsigned, as called for (prints from this edition were not signed). 7 x 6 5/8 inches (plate size, measured along the edges), 9 3/4 x 9 5/8 (image, measured on the diagonal, as oriented), 11 1/4 x 11 inches (sheet). In excellent condition. Three of the four corners of the plate have been trimmed to about one inch from the platemark. A spare and elegant portrait of the artist's daughter, the artist March Avery.
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Drypoint

'China Spring' — Mid-Century Floral Abstraction
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Mary Van Blarcom, 'China Spring', color serigraph, c. 1945, edition not stated but small. Signed in pencil in the image, lower right. Titled in pencil, bottom left sheet edge. A rich, painterly impression, with fresh colors, on cream laid paper; with full margins (9/16 to 1 5/16 inches), in excellent condition. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Image size 10 3/4 x 10 3/4 inches; sheet size 11 15/16 x 12 5/8 inches. ABOUT THE ARTIST Painter, printmaker, and craftsperson, Mary Van Blarcom was born in Newark, New Jersey, and studied at Wellesley College. She was a member of the National Serigraph Society where she served on the board of trustees from 1945 through 1952 and was 1st vice-president from 1949-51. She was also a member of the National Association of Women Artists, the Artists Equity Association, the American Color Print Society, the New Jersey Artists Association (Director), and Artists of Today. Van Blarcom exhibited actively throughout the 1940s at many prominent art organizations including: Montclair Art Museum, 1941-45 and 1947-51 (prize, 1948); Society of Independent Artists, 1942-44; Artists of Today, 1942-46; Elisabeth Ney Museum, 1943; Northwest Printmakers, 1944, 1946-49; Laguna Beach Art Association, 1945-47, 1949; National Association of Women Artists, 1945-50, (prize, 1946); Library of Congress, 1946-47; Museum of Modern Art Traveling Exhibition, 1945-47; Carnegie Institute, 1947; Serigraph Gallery, 1946, 1951 (solo); American Color Print Society, 1947-52; Newark Museum, 1947-48, 1951; California State Library, 1947, 1949; National Serigraph Society, 1949 (prize), 1950 (prize); University of Chile, 1950; New Jersey State Museum, 1950; Philadelphia Art Alliance, 1951; and the Main Gallery, NY, 1952. Van Blarcom’s work is in the collections of the Newark Public Library, U.S. Library of Congress; the American Association of University Women; New York Public Library; Tel-Aviv Museum, Alabama Polytechnic Institute, Princeton Print Club...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Screen

"Skiing Near Holy Hill, " Original Silkscreen Landscape by Schomer Lichtner
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Skiing Near Holy Hill" is an original silkscreen print by Schomer Lichtner. The artist initials are lower right, and the title is along the lower edge. This print depicts people skiing near Holy Hill, Wisconsin. The artist used a muted blue, a deep and dark purple, and accents of red to create this piece. 4 7/8" x 6 7/8" art 11 7/8" x 13 7/8" frame Milwaukee artist, Schomer Lichtner passed away on May 9, 2006 at the age of 101. He continued to amaze and create with his whimsical paintings of ballerinas and cows. He and his late wife Ruth Grotenrath, both well-known Wisconsin artists, began their prolific careers as muralists for WPA projects, primarily post offices. Schomer Lichtner was well known for his whimsical cows and ballerinas, such as his "Ballerina Dancing on Cow" sculpture below. The late James Auer, art critic for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel referred to Lichtner as the artist laureate of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was the official artist of the Milwaukee Ballet. Lichtner also painted murals for industry and private clients. Schomer was a printmaker and produced block prints, lithographs, and serigraph prints. His casein (paint made from dairy products) and acrylic paintings are of the rural Wisconsin landscape and farm animals. He became interested in cows when he and Ruth spent summers near Holy Hill in Washington County. According to David Gordon, director of the Milwaukee Art Museum, Schomer Lichtner had a tremendous joie de vivre, " joy of life," and expressed it in his art. Schomer Lichtner was nationally known for his whimsical paintings and sculptures of black- and white-patterned Holstein cows and elegant ballerina dancers. Lichtner also painted all sorts of combinations of beautiful women, flowers and country landscapes. James Auer, former Milwaukee Journal Sentinel art critic, said that his art eventually "exploded into expressionistic design elements with bold, flat areas of color and high energy that anticipated Pop Art." Auer went on to describe Lichtner’s work as full of "wit, vigor and virtuosity." As early as 1930, Lichtner’s work was shown at the prestigious Carnegie International Exhibition in New York and at museums throughout the Midwest. As a student, he was a protégé of another icon of 20th century American art, Gustave Moeller...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Screen

Set Pieces: Vanity of Trust
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
'Set Pieces: Vanity of Trust', color lithograph, 1949, edition 40, Fine and Looney 279. Signed, titled, dated and numbered '23/40' in pencil. A fine, impression with fresh colors, on...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

Old Coaster, Lithograph by Gordon Grant
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Gordon Grant, American (1875 - 1962) Title: Old Coaster Year: circa 1940 Medium: Lithograph, signed in pencil Image Size: 9 x 11 inches Size: 11 in. x 16 in. (27.94 cm x 40.6...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Lithograph

'Gardenias' — Mid-Century Floral Abstraction
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Mary Van Blarcom, 'Gardenias', color serigraph, c. 1945, edition small. Signed 'Van B' in pencil in the image, lower right. Titled in pencil, bottom left sheet corner. A rich, painterly impression, with fresh colors, on cream wove paper; the full sheet with margins (5/16 to 1 1/16 inches), in excellent condition. Image size 6 x 8 3/8 inches; sheet size 6 7/8 x 10 1/4 inches. Matted to museum standards, unframed. ABOUT THE ARTIST Painter, printmaker and craftsperson, Mary Van Blarcom was born in Newark, New Jersey and studied at Wellesley College. She was a member of the National Serigraph Society where she served on the board of trustees from 1945 through 1952 and was 1st vice-president from 1949-51. She was also a member of the National Association of Women Artists, the Artists Equity Association, the American Color Print Society, the New Jersey Artists Association (Director), and Artists of Today. Van Blarcom exhibited actively throughout the 1940’s at many prominent art organizations including: Montclair Art Museum, 1941-45 and 1947-51 (prize, 1948); Society of Independent Artists, 1942-44; Artists of Today, 1942-46; Elisabeth Ney Museum, 1943; Northwest Printmakers, 1944, 1946-49; Laguna Beach Art Association, 1945-47, 1949; National Association of Women Artists, 1945-50, (prize, 1946); Library of Congress, 1946-47; Museum of Modern Art travelling exhibition, 1945-47; Carnegie Institute, 1947; Serigraph Gallery, 1946, 1951 (solo); American Color Print Society, 1947-52; Newark Museum, 1947-48, 1951; California State Library, 1947, 1949; National Serigraph Society, 1949 (prize), 1950 (prize); University of Chile, 1950; New Jersey State Museum, 1950; Philadelphia Art Alliance, 1951; and the Main Gallery, NY, 1952. Van Blarcom’s work is in the collections of the Newark Public Library, U.S. Library of Congress; the American Association of University Women; New York Public Library; Tel-Aviv Museum, Alabama Polytechnic Institute, Princeton Print Club...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Screen

"Memories"
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork by: Gershon Benjamin (1899-1985) An American Modernist of portraits, landscapes, still lives, and the urban scene, Gershon Benj...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

"Garden Splendor"
Located in Southampton, NY
Oil on canvas painting by the Russian/American artist, Nicolai Cikovsky. Signed lower left. In good unrestored condition. Housed in custom made wood and lemon gold gilt frame. Overal...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

A Man's Mother, Saturday Evening Post Original Watercolor Illustration 1940
Located in Long Island City, NY
An original watercolor illustration by Nicholas Riley, American (1900 - 1944) for the Saturday Evening Post 10/19/1940. The painting...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Watercolor

Artists Sketching, California, 1940s Large Modernist Gouache Landscape Painting
Located in Denver, CO
"Artists Sketching (California)" is an American Modernist scene of three artists working with mountains in the background. Gouache on paper, signed, titled, and dated by the artist in the lower margin. Housed in a custom frame with all archival materials measuring 25.5 x 37.5 x 1.5 inches; image dimensions measure 20.25 x 29.75 inches. Provenance: Estate of the Artist, Frederick Shane About the artist: Painter and printmaker, Missouri regionalist Frederick E. Shane specialized in genre scenes, landscapes, seascapes and portraits executed in a variety of media: oil, watercolor, mixed media, gouache, tempera and lithography. Fundamentally a realist, his work also contains some abstraction, expressionism and surrealism used in treating his subject matter. In the summers of 1925-26 Shane studied with Randall Davey at the recently-founded Broadmoor Academy in Colorado Springs. The Academy was established in 1919 by Spencer and Julie Penrose, prominent philanthropists and art patrons, who donated their family residence for the creation of a local art institution. In the 1940s and early 1950s Shane maintained his contact with Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center (the successor institution to the Broadmoor Academy in 1936). He participated in a number of its annual Artists West of the Mississippi exhibitions and also became a close friend of Boardman Robinson, the Center’s director, and visiting artist Adolph Dehn...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Gouache

Wake on the Ferry.
Located in Storrs, CT
Wake on the Ferry. 1949. Etching. Morse catalog 313. state v. 5 x 7 (sheet 8 3/4 x 11 7/8). Edition of 350: 200 for the Art Students League and 150 for the artist. A fine impression ...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Etching

LOTUS FLOWER - Provincetown Style
Located in Santa Monica, CA
MARY TRAVIS (1893-1976)) LOTUS FLOWER c. 1935-40 White line color woodcut. Signed and titled in pencil. Small edition. 9 ¾” x 7 7/8”. Full sheet. Some creasing in the margins. Travis worked in Berkeley, California and was probably a follower of William S...
Category

1940s American Modern Art

Materials

Woodcut

American Modern art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic American Modern art available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add art created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, orange, purple, red and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Slim Aarons, Destro, Howard Schatz, and John Taylor Arms. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Oil Paint and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large American Modern art, so small editions measuring 0.25 inches across are also available.

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