International Fine Print Dealers Association Art

Original watercolor on paper, signed in pencil.

Unknown Artist, Thailand, 19th century Two Miniatures and text from the "Legend of Phra Malai" Ink and color on paper, c, 1900 Unsigned as usual Script: Aksar Chrieng or Khmer These texts are written in Khom script, a variant of Khmer script often used in Central Thai religious manuscripts. Phra Malai was a Budhist monk whose meditations permitted him to travel to heaven and hell. Condition: Good, with minor staining to text Sight (window) size: 11-1/8 x 27 inches Frame size: 19-3/4 x 35 x 3/4 inches Framed in solid cherry wood with archival, acid free materials The legend of Phra Malai, a Buddhist monk of the Theravada tradition said to have attained supernatural powers through his accumulated merit and meditation, is the main text in this 19th-century Thai samut khoi (folding book) held in the Thai, Lao, and Cambodian Collections of the British Library. Phra Malai figures prominently in Thai art...

Untitled (Plate 2) Engraving, sugar-lift, and aquatint , 1970 Signed and numbered in pencil (see photo) From: Variations (8 plates) Edition: 100 (100/100) (see photo) Printed by Lac...

Bando Mitsugoro as a Servant with a Sword Color woodcut, 1952 From The Series Shunsen Nigao-E Shu (Shunsen Portraits), Six Woodblock Prints Publisher: Watanabe Excellent condition Im...

On the Beach at Long Branch - The Children's Hour Wood engraving, 1874 Published in "Harper's Weekly" August 15, 1874 (p. 672) Image size: 9 1/4 x 13 5/8 inches Provenance: Wunderlic...

Unsigned Graphite and colored pencils on laid paper

Sally Gall has spent her career exploring the intricacies of the natural world in delicate black-and-white photos of dew on spider webs, reflections on water, formal gardens, insects...

Portrait de Paul Gauguin Woodcut, c. 1900 Initialed in pencil lower right Numbered in pencil lower left Edition: 100 (34/100) Annotated verso: “epreuve sur japon” Condition: Excellent Image size: 6 3/4 x 4 3/4 inches Sheet size: 11 x 8 5/8 inches Note: Born in New York, Monfreid studied in France at the Academy Julian. He was a friend of Gauiguin, Verlaine and Maillol. He formed a noted collection of works by Gauguin. In 1924, Monfreid published the manuscript for Paul Gauguin’s Noa Noa with 24 woodcuts inspired by Gauguin...

Untitled Signed in pencil lower right (see photo) Edition: 25 (9/25) (see photo) Engraving, drypoint & carborundum Printed by the artist Condition: Excellent, slight residue on rever...

Hardground Etching

Illustrated with 13 drawings by Leonard Baskin. Large Folio in cloth-backed portfolio in cardboard slipcase. New York: Medicina Rara, 1972. One of 2500 copies (there were 300 copi...

Color spitbite aquatint and sugarlift aquatint. Edition of 35

Sybil Andrews (1898-1992), Sails, linocut in colors, 1960, signed (twice), titled, and inscribed “TP” in pencil. Reference: White 50. In good condition, two sheets, each image 7 1/...

Cypresses Reductive color woodcut in colors, black, green & brown, 1982 Unsigned From: Tramp Picture series "The printer was Claude Jinchat at Imprimerie Arnéra, Vallauris. The set w...

Baggage Claim (Bag 1) Watercolor on Arches paper, 2020 Signed with the artist's initials Signed with the artist's "Yummy" blindstamp Exhibited: LA Art, 2020 Condition: Excellent Arc...

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Femme a la Barriere (Woman at the Gate), etching and drypoint, 1889, signed in pencil with the initials CP lower right (annotated “imprime par C.P.”), a...

Surrealist landscape with skull and red daisy Watercolor on paper, 1960-1970 Unsigned Stamped with the artist's estate stamp verso (see photo) Provenance: Estate of the artist Refere...

La Pierre aux Trois Croquis From: Douze lithographies originales de Pierre-Auguste Renoir Publisher: Ambrose Vollard Edition: 950 (signed in the stone) on wove paper as here (see pho...

Geef Het Boek Van PTT. Photomontage Poster adverstising the Het Boek van PTT. Leiden 1938. Extremely rare. Fine condition. A pioneer of modern typography...

This elegant Ben Shahn lithograph entitled “Levana” was created in 1966. It was printed by Gemini G. E. L., Los Angeles, California, in an editi...

Troxler, Niklaus. A tribute to the music of Thelonios Munk, Willisau 1986. Poster. P 166. Offset lithograph. 50 3/8 x 35 5/8" Niklaus Troxler's jazz poster, 'A Tribute to the Music of Thelonious Monk' elegantly combines typography and color to create a portrait of the great jazz pianist and his music. The typography outlines the recognizable silhouette of Monk's head in text of blue, red, and yellow, the colors of of his home state North Carolina. The rhythm that is created by the changing color of the words as they pulse around the profile evokes the tempo of his playing, while the deep blue background suggests the roots of his music. Niklaus Troxler is an internationally renowned Swiss graphic designer who specializes in poster design, corporate design, illustration and architectural murals...

Hans Sebald Beham (1500-1550), an engraving after Beham’s Two Fools (or Fool and Foolish Woman), engraving, c 1540, a copy or impression in reverse of Pauli 215, Bartsch 213, the cop...

Thon, William (American, 1906-2000).; UNTITLED (DRAWING OF A BOAT #1; LIKELY IN ITALY). Ink and wash on paper. Not dated. Unsigned. 14 x 17 inches. In excellent condition. From a ske...

Henri Matisse Nu au fauteuil sur fond moucharabieh 1925 Lithograph on Arches vellum paper, Edition of 50 Paper size: 65.5 x 50 cms (25 3/4 x 19 5/8 ins) Image size: 54 x 44 cms (21 1...

Things Kept Color lithograph, 1970 Signed & titled in pencil (see photos) Annotated: "Artists Proof" Printed on RIVES wove paper Condition: Excellent Sheet has aging consistent with ...

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Grand-mere (effet de lumiere), etching and drypoint, 1889, signed in pencil lower right, titled lower left, inscribed “No 3 – ...

Jugentud (Youth) Color lithograph, 1975 Signed, numbered and titled in pencil (see photos) Edition: 250 (67/250) Signed, titled and numbered in pencil Published by Circle Gallery Ltd...

E Watercolor on Yupo paper, 2018 Signed with the artist's initials (see photo) Condition: Excellent Archival framing with OP3 Acrylic Sheet/Image size: 30 x 38 inch...

872 BRU Series: Steep/Stepped Parade. [Bruges, Belgium]. Contemporary artist Thomas Roese, inspired by the industrial landscape of steel mills, rail yards, architectural details, a...

Cassatt, Mary. WOMAN WITH OPERA GLASSES (STUDY FOR "IN THE LOGE"). Drawing, Pencil, circa 1878. 5 x 8 1/2 inches (sheet). With the estate stamp "Mary Cassatt - Collection Mathilde....

Conte crayon on paper, c. 1905-1909 Signed lower right Archival frame by Graham Gallery, New York, hand carved frame with silk matting and gold fillet (see photo of corner) Provenanc...

Marsh, Reginald GIRL WALKING - PILLAR - SOLDIER. S. 219. Engraving, 1942. State II of II. One of two proofs in this State, annotated "State II, 1/2" and signed by Marsh in pencil. Sa...

The Death of Lazarus Engraving, 1593 Feria VI. Post Domin IIII From: Evangelicae Historiae Imagines, Plate 76 Condition: Excellent Sheet size: 9 7/8 x 6 1/8 inches Reference: Referen...

Plate CCXIII, Puffin, posthumous reproduction after John James Audubon from The Birds of America, the Amsterdam Edition, printed in Amsterdam, 1971-73. Original multicolored photo-offset print. "G Schut and Zonen" watermark at lower edge of paper. A facsimile from the double-elephant folio...

Johns, Joan. STERLING HARBOUR. Etching, not dated, but probably 1950s-60s. titled, inscribed "Artist's Proof," and signed in pencil. Printed on heavy wove paper. 19 1/4 x 23 5/8 inch...

(A charming lady chatting with a lady perfect in every possible way) Signed in the plate. No pencil signed impressions are existent. Edition: 368 (including 50 imps on japan) includi...

Born in Bronx, NY, Ida Applebroog attended NY State Institute of Applied Arts and Sciences and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She received a MacArthur Foundation Fellows...

Engraving of Veduta della Piazza di S. Marco, verso L'Horologio by Pierre van der Aa. Printed in 1722. Unsigned. Unframed. Image size, 11 x 13 5/8 in. Has the original center crease.

Berenice Color woodcut, 1900-1910 Signed with the artist's red ink stamp (see photo) Edition: 50 (46/50) Signed with the artist's red ink initials stamp, Lugt 1771, Sup. Condition: E...

Suzanne McClelland fuses painterly marks with linguistic elements, creating rhythmic canvases that explore both visual and written languages. McClelland often begins with poetic verses, names, or numbers that she weaves into the space of her canvas, though she is rooted firmly in a tradition of abstraction, placing her in conversation with figures such as Louise Fishman...

The Great Pylon at Edfou, Upper Egypt Original gold toned albumin photograph, c. 1862 Unsigned as is usual From: Upper Egypt and Ethiopia, c. 1862, Vol 1, (36 plates) Published by Wi...

Jansem, Jean. MOTHER AND CHILD. Lithograph, not dated. Artist's proof aside from an edition of likely 75 or 100. Inscibed "E.A." (Epreuve d'Artiste) and signed in pencil. In very goo...

Color 3-D lithograph in Plexiglas box, Edition 75 Red Grooms and Master printer Bud Shark began their many print collaborations in 1981 with "Mountaintime", followed in 1982 by their first three-dimensional lithograph, "Ruckus Taxi...

Seven Screen print, 1968 Unsigned (as issued) Edition: 2500 From: Number (10 plates), with poems by Robert Creeley Printer: Domberger KG, Stuttgart Publisher: Edition Domberger Stutt...

Louisa Chase was born in Panama City, Panama. Seven years later, her family moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She studied painting and sculpture at Syracuse University and at the Yal...

HELL GATE / OYSTER BAY AND HUNTINGTON / HUNTINGTON BAY. This aquatint and line engraved map was published according to Act of Parliament Novr. 19th, 1778. T...

Next Door Neighbor Oil pastel and ink on handmade paper, 2012 Signed vertically lower left in image (see photo) Series: 99% Exhibited: Swarthmore College, List Gallery, Hiden in Pla...

Screenprint

Born in Bronx, NY, Ida Applebroog attended NY State Institute of Applied Arts and Sciences and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She received a MacArthur Foundation Fellows...

Ashton, Ethel V. UNTITLED. Pastel on paper, circa 1930. Unsigned, but with the estate stamp, verso, as is typical for similar works by her. The image shows an African-American coupl...

Kouri, Pentti LOTHAR BAUMGARTEN: Carbon. 142 pages. Oblong folio, cloth. Los Angeles, The Museum of Contemporary Art, 1991. Signed by Baumgarten. Issued with additional booklet la...

Color lithograph, Edition 30. Hung Liu grew up in China and came of age during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. She spent four years in the countryside as a laborer, studied paint...

Ragtime Piano Collage, 1969 Signed and dated '69 lower right Address stamp verso Provenance: Acquired from the artist Joseph M. Erdelac, friend and patron of the artist Stephen Longs...

Thon, William (American, 1906-2000).; UNTITLED (DRAWING OF A BOAT #3; LIKELY IN ITALY). Ink and wash on paper. Not dated. Unsigned. 14 x 17 inches. In excellent condition. From a ske...

Anders Zorn (1860-1920), At the Piano, etching, 1900, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Asplund 160, Hjert and Hjert 108, second state (of 2), from th...

The River Barge Pen and ink on paper on laid paper, mounted in English drum mount , c. 1810 Unsigned Condition: Slight sun staining to sheet and mount in the window (see photo) Image/sheet size: 5 1/4 x 6 11/16 inches Sight: : 5-3/4 x 7-1/4" Frame: 13-3/8 x 14-3/8" Provenance: Colnaghi, London (see photo of label) David Cox (29 April 1783 – 7 June 1859) was an English landscape painter, one of the most important members of the Birmingham School of landscape artists and an early precursor of Impressionism. He is considered one of the greatest English landscape painters, and a major figure of the Golden age of English watercolour. Although most popularly known for his works in watercolour, he also painted over 300 works in oil towards the end of his career, now considered "one of the greatest, but least recognised, achievements of any British painter. His son, known as David Cox the Younger (1809-1885), was also a successful artist. Early life in Birmingham, 1783–1804 Cox's birthplace in Deritend, Birmingham, illustrated by Samuel Lines Cox was born on 29 April 1783 on Heath Mill Lane in Deritend, then an industrial suburb of Birmingham. His father was a blacksmith and whitesmith about whom little is known, except that he supplied components such as bayonets and barrels to the Birmingham gun trade. Cox's mother was the daughter of a farmer and miller from Small Heath to the east of Birmingham. Early biographers record that "she had had a better education than his father, and was a woman of superior intelligence and force of character." Cox was initially expected to follow his father into the metal trade and take over his forge, but his lack of physical strength led his family to seek opportunities for him to develop his interest in art, which is said to have first become apparent when the young Cox started painting paper kites while recovering from a broken leg. By the late 18th century Birmingham had developed a network of private academies teaching drawing and painting, established to support the needs of the town's manufacturers of luxury metal goods, but also encouraging education in fine art, and nurturing the distinctive tradition of landscape art of the Birmingham School. Cox initially enrolled in the academy of Joseph Barber in Great Charles Street, where fellow students included the artist Charles Barber and the engraver William Radclyffe, both of whom would become important lifelong friends. At the age of about 15 Cox was apprenticed to the Birmingham painter Albert Fielder, who produced portrait miniatures and paintings for the tops of snuffboxes from his workshop at 10 Parade in the northwest of the town. Early biographers of Cox record that he left his apprenticeship after Fielder's suicide, with one reporting that Cox himself discovered his master's hanging body, but this is probably a myth as Fielder is recorded at his address in Parade as late as 1825. At some time during mid-1800 Cox was given work by William Macready the elder at the Birmingham Theatre, initially as an assistant grinding colours and preparing canvases for the scene painters, but from 1801 painting scenery himself and by 1802 leading his own team of assistants and being credited in plays' publicity. London, 1804–1814 In 1804 Cox was promised work by the theatre impresario Philip Astley and moved to London, taking lodgings in 16 Bridge Row, Lambeth. Although he was unable to get employment at Astley's Amphitheatre it is likely that he had already decided to try to establish himself as a professional artist, and apart from a few private commissions for painting scenery his focus over the next few years was to be on painting and exhibiting watercolours. While living in London, Cox married his landlord's daughter, Mary Agg and the couple moved to Dulwich in 1808. David Cox Travellers on a Path, pencil and brown wash. In 1805 he made his first of many trips to Wales, with Charles Barber, his earliest dated watercolours are from this year. Throughout his lifetime he made numerous sketching tours to the Home Counties, North Wales, Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Devon. Cox exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy from 1805. His paintings never reached high prices, so he earned his living mainly as a drawing master. His first pupil, Colonel the Hon.H. Windsor (the future Earl of Plymouth) engaged him in 1808, Cox went on to acquire several other aristocratic and titled pupils. He also went on to write several books, including: Ackermanns' New Drawing Book (1809); A Series of Progressive Lessons (1811); Treatise on Landscape Painting (1813); and Progressive Lessons on Landscape (1816). The ninth and last edition of his series Progressive Lessons, was published in 1845. By 1810 he was elected President of the Associated Artists in Water Colour. In 1812, following the demise of the Associated Artists, he was elected as associate of the Society of Painters in Water Colour (the old Water Colour Society). He was elected a Member of the Society in 1813, and exhibited there every year (except 1815 and 1817) until his death. Hereford, 1814–1827 In the summer of 1813 Cox was appointed as the drawing master of the Royal Military College in Farnham, Surrey, but he resigned shortly afterwards, finding little sympathy with the atmosphere of a military institution. Soon after that he applied to a newspaper advertisement for a position as drawing master for Miss Crouchers' School for Young Ladies in Hereford and in Autumn 1814 moved to the town with his family. Cox taught at the school in Widemarsh Street until 1819, his substantial salary of £100 per year requiring only two-day's work per week, allowing time for painting and the taking of private pupils. Cox's reputation as both a painter and a teacher had been building over previous years, as indicated by his election as a member of the Society of Painters in Water Colours and his inclusion in John Hassell's 1813 book Aqua Pictura, which claimed to present works by "all of the most approved water coloured draftsmen". The depression that accompanied the end of the Napoleonic Wars had caused a contraction in the art market, however, and by 1814 Cox had been very short of money, requiring a loan from one of his pupils to pay even for the move to Hereford. Despite its financial advantages and its proximity to the scenery of North Wales and the Wye Valley, the move to Hereford marked a retreat in terms of his career as a painter: he sent few works to the annual exhibition of the Society of Painters in Water Colours during his first years away from London and not until 1823 would he again contribute more than 20 pictures. Between 1823 and 1826 he had Joseph Murray Ince as a pupil. London, 1827–1841 He made his first trip to the Continent, to Belgium and the Netherlands in 1826 and subsequently moved to London the following year. He exhibited for the first time with the Birmingham Society of Artists in 1829, and with the Liverpool Academy in 1831. In 1839, two of Cox's watercolours were bought from the Old Water Colour Society exhibition by the Marquis of Conynha for Queen Victoria. Birmingham, 1841–1859 Greenfield House in Harborne, Birmingham – where Cox lived from 1841 until his death in 1859 . In May 1840 Cox wrote to one of his Birmingham friends: "I am making preparations to sketch in oil, and also to paint, and it is my intention to spend most of my time in Birmingham for the purpose of practice". Cox had been considering a return to painting in oils since 1836 and in 1839 had taken lessons in oil painting from William James Müller, to whom he had been introduced by mutual friend George Arthur Fripp. Hostility between the Society of Painters in Water Colours and the Royal Academy made it difficult for an artist to be recognised for work in both watercolour and oil in London, however, and it is likely that Cox would have preferred to explore this new medium in the more supportive environment of his home town. By the early 1840s his income from sales of his watercolours was sufficient to allow him to abandon his work as a drawing master, and in June 1841 he moved with his wife to Greenfield House in Harborne, then a village on Birmingham's south western outskirts. It was this move that would enable the higher levels of freedom and experimentation that were to characterise his later work. The elderly Cox pictured by Samuel Bellin in 1855. In Harborne, Cox established a steady routine – working in watercolour in the morning and oils in the afternoon. He would visit London every spring to attend the major exhibitions, followed by one or more sketching excursions, continuing the pattern that he had established in the 1830s. From 1844 these tours evolved into a yearly trip to Betws-y-Coed in North Wales to work outdoors in both oil and watercolour, gradually becoming the focus for an annual summer artists colony that continued until 1856 with Cox as its "presiding genius". Cox's experience of trying to exhibit his oils in London was short and unsuccessful: in 1842 he made his only submission to the Society of British Artists; one oil painting was exhibited at each of the British Institution and the Royal Academy in 1843; and two oil paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1844 – the last that would be exhibited in London during his lifetime. Cox showed regularly at the Birmingham Society of Arts and its successor, the Birmingham Society of Artists, becoming a member in 1842. Cox suffered a stroke on 12 June 1853 that temporarily paralysed him, and permanently affected his eyesight, memory and coordination. By 1857 however, his eyesight had deteriorated. An exhibition of his work was arranged in 1858 by the Conversazione Society Hampstead, and in 1859 a retrospective exhibition was held at the German Gallery Bond Street, London. Cox died several months later. He was buried in the churchyard of St Peters, Harborne, Birmingham, under a chestnut tree, alongside his wife Mary. Work Early work In the spring of 1811 Cox made a small number of notable works in oils during a visit to Hastings with his family. It is not known why he didn't continue working in this medium at the time, but the five known surviving examples were described in 1969 as "surely some of the most brilliant examples of the genre in England". Mature work Cox reached artistic maturity after his move to Hereford in 1814. Although only two major watercolours can confidently be traced to the period between Cox's arrival in the town and the end of the decade, both of these – Butcher's Row, Hereford of 1815 and Lugg Meadows, near Hereford of 1817 – mark advances on his earlier work. Later work Cox's later work produced after his move to Birmingham in 1841 was marked by simplification, abstraction and a stripping down of detail. His art of the period combined the breadth and weight characteristic of the earlier English watercolour school, together with a boldness and freedom of expression comparable to later impressionism. His concern with capturing the fleeting nature of weather, atmosphere and light was similar to that of John Constable, but Cox stood apart from the older painter's focus on capturing material detail, instead employing a high degree of generalisation and a focus on overall effect. The quest for character over precision in representing nature was an established characteristic of the Birmingham School of landscape artists with which Cox had been associated early in his life, and as early as 1810 Cox's work had been criticised for its "sketchiness of finish" and "cloudy confusion of objects", which were held to betray "the coarseness of scene-painting". During the 1840s and 1850s Cox took this "peculiar manner" to new extremes, incorporating the techniques of the sketch into his finished works to a far greater degree. Cox's watercolour technique of the 1840s was sufficiently different from his earlier methods to need explanation to his son in 1842, despite the fact that his son had been helping him teach and paint since 1827. The materials used for his later works in watercolour also differed from his earlier periods: he used black chalk instead of graphite pencil as his primary drawing medium, and the rough and absorbent "Scotch" wrapping paper for which he became well-known – both of these were related to his development of a rougher and freer style. Influence and legacy By the 1840s Cox, alongside Peter De Wint and Copley Fielding, had become recognised as one of the leading figures of the English landscape watercolour style of the first half of the 19th century. This judgement was complicated by reaction to the rougher and bolder style of Cox's later Birmingham work, which was widely ignored or condemned. While by this time De Wint and Fielding were essentially continuing in a long-established tradition, Cox was creating a new one. A group of young artists working in Cox's watercolour style emerged well before his death, including William Bennett, David Hall McKewan and Cox's son David Cox Jr. By 1850 Bennett in particular had become recognised as "perhaps the most distinguished among the landscape painters" for his Cox-like vigorous and decisive style. Such early followers concentrated on the example of Cox's more moderate earlier work and steered clear of what were then seen as the excesses of Cox's later years. During a period dominated by sleek and detailed picturesque landscape, however, they were still condemned by publications such as The Spectator as "the 'blottesque' school", and failed to establish themselves as a cohesive movement. John Ruskin in 1857 condemned the work of the Society of Painters in Water-colours as "a kind of potted art, of an agreeable flavour, suppliable and taxable as a patented commodity", excluding only the late work of Cox, about which he wrote "there is not any other landscape which comes near these works of David Cox in simplicity or seriousness". An 1881 book, A Biography of David Cox: With Remarks on His Works and Genius, was based on a manuscript by Cox's friend William Hall, edited and expanded by John Thackray Bunce, editor of the Birmingham Daily Post. There are two Blue Plaque memorials commemorating him at 116 Greenfield Road, Harborne, Birmingham, and at 34 Foxley Road, Kennington, London, SW9, where he lived from 1827. It can also be seen at the David Cox exhibition in Birmingham. His pupils included Birmingham architectural artist, Allen Edward...

Marsh, Reginald. TWO MODELS ON A BED. Lithograph, 1928 (Sasowsky 9). 9 1/16" x 10 5/8." Signed in pencil and annotated "15 proofs." Only state. Excellent co...

Honore Daumier (1808-1879), Monsieur – Here’s Your Handkerchief, lithograph, 1842. Daumier Register 670, third state (of 3), sur blanc, plate 47 from the series Moeurs Conjugales, pu...

Shoshannah (Susanna) Siporin Hoffman (American, 1921-1989). SPIN A TALE. Oil on masonite panel. Signed, "Shoshana," lower left, and with the title and the artist's name and address on the paper backing of the frame, verso. 16 x 12 inches (panel), 20 x 16 inches (frame). In very good condittion. Siporin was born in Detroit, MI in 1921. Her brother was the painter Mitchell Siporin...

Plum Branches and Flowers watercolor on wove paper, 1985 Signed and dated in pencil lower right corner From the artist's 1985 sketchbook Inspired by O'Sickey's love of Japanese and Chinese art and calligraphy. Provenance: Estate of the artist Condition: Excellent Image/Sheet size: 13 5/8 x 17 inches Joseph B. O’Sickey, Painter 1974 CLEVELAND ARTS PRIZE FOR VISUAL ARTS The title conferred on him by Plain Dealer art critic Steve Litt in a 1994 article, “the dean of painting in northeast Ohio,” must have pleased Joseph O'Sickey. It was more than 30 years since he had burst onto the local (and national) art scene. O’Sickey was already in his 40s in that spring of 1962 when he had his first one-man show at the Akron Art Museum and was signed by New York’s prestigious Seligmann Galleries, founded in 1888. In the decade and a half that followed, he would have seven one-man shows at Seligmann, which had showed the work of such trailblazing figures as Seurat, Vuilliard, Bonnard, Leger and Picasso, and appear in all of the group shows. O’Sickey took the Best Painting award in the 1962 May Show at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA). He and would capture the same honor in back-to-back May Shows in 1964 and ’65, and again in 1967. The remarkable thing, noted the Plain Dealer’s Helen Borsick, was that he accomplished this sweep in a variety of painterly styles, even using that most hackneyed of subjects, flowers. “The subject doesn’t matter,” he told her, “what the artist brings to it is the important thing.” O’Sickey’s garden and landscape paintings were big and bold, eschewing delicate detail in favor of vitality and impact. The great art collector and CMA benefactor Katherine C. White, standing before one of O’Sickey’s vivid garden paintings, compared the sensation to “being pelted with flowers.” Though he might represent an entire blossom with one or two smudged brush strokes or a stem with a simple sweep of green, O’Sickey rejected the moniker of Impressionist—or Pointillist or Abstract painter or Expressionist. “My work,” he said, “is a direct response to the subject. I believe in fervor and poetic metaphor. I try to make each color and shape visible and identifiable within the context of surrounding colors and shapes. A yellow must hold its unique quality from any another yellow or surrounding color, and yet read as a lemon or an object, by inference. It does not require shading or modeling—the poetic evocation is part of the whole.” “The subject,” O’Sickey used to tell his students at Kent State University, where he taught painting from 1964 to 1989, “has to be seen as a whole and the painting has to be structured to be seen as a whole.” He liked to think of it as “a process of controlled rapture.” When, in the 1960s, fond childhood memories drew him to the zoo, he found himself responding to the caged animals in their lonely dignity (or indignity) with sharp-edged, almost silhouette-like forms that evoked Matisse’s paintings and cut-paper assemblages. One observer was left with the impression that the artist had “looked at these animals, past daylight and into dusk when they lose their details in shadow and become pure shapes, with eyes that are seeing the viewer rather than the other way around. This is a world of shape and essence,” wrote Helen Borsick. “All is simplification.” O’Sickey attributed his ability to capture his subjects with just a few strokes—in an almost iconographic way—to a rigorous exercise he had imposed upon himself over a period of several months. Limiting his tools to a large No. 6 bristle brush and black ink, he set himself the task of drawing his pet parakeet and the other small objects in its cage (cuttlebone, feeding dish, tinkling bell) hundreds of times. The exercise gave him “invaluable insights into painting. . . . Because of the crudity of the medium, every part of these drawings had to be an invention and every mark had to have its room and clarity.” Then he began adding one color at a time—“still with the same brush and striving for the same clarity”—and headed off to the zoo where “the world opened up to me. I learned how little it took to express the subject.” Born in Detroit at the close of the First World War, O’Sickey grew up in St. Stanislaus parish near East 65th and Fleet on Cleveland’s southeast side. (The apostrophe was inserted into the family’s proud Polish name by a clerk at Ellis Island.) An early interest in drawing and painting may have been kindled by the presence on the walls of Charles Dickens Elementary School, one of only three grade schools in the district with a special focus on the arts, of masterful watercolors by such Cleveland masters as Paul Travis, Frank N. Wilcox and Bill Coombes. As a youngster O’Sickey took drawing classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art, and he and his brother spent hours copying famous paintings; while a student at East Tech High School in the mid-’30s, he attended free evening classes in life drawing with Travis and Ralph Stoll at the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Institute, and Saturday classes at the Cleveland School (later the Cleveland Institute) of Art, where he earned his degree in 1940 under the tutelage of Travis, Stoll and such other legendary figures as Henry Keller, Carl Gaertner, William Eastman, Kenneth Bates...