Abstract Expressionist Alfonso Ossorio grappled with themes of childhood, birth, sexuality, mythology and religion in his vivid art. Before becoming close friends with artists Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner and Jean Dubuffet, he inherited a sugar fortune and amassed an art collection that became part of the Fogg Museum at Harvard University. It includes works by artist Thomas Derrick, sculptor Eric Gill, wood engraver Philip Hagreen, illustrator Denis Tegetmeier and artist and poet David Jones.
Born in 1916, Ossorio grew up in Manila in the Philippines. He later attended a Catholic boarding school in England and settled in the United States in 1930. He enrolled at Harvard in 1934 and, in 1937, launched an art career with cover designs for publications of work by poet Arthur Rimbaud. He received a bachelor’s degree in 1938 and complemented his art history studies with studio art classes at the Rhode Island School of Design. After his first solo exhibition at the Wakefield Gallery in 1941, Ossorio served the American Armed Forces until 1946. He met his lifelong partner, Ted Dragon, in 1948, as well as Pollock who guided his exploration of Abstract Expressionism.
Ossorio’s major works included a mural commissioned for the Chapel of St. Joseph the Worker in the Philippines. His return to his home country fueled a search inwards as a source of inspiration.
Ossorio bought an East Hampton, New York, estate, known as the Creeks, in which he housed Dubuffet’s entire Compagnie de l’Art Brut collection. By the late 1950s, Ossorio was heavily involved in curating and organizing exhibitions including shows featuring Pollock, Dubuffet, Willem de Kooning, Hans Hofmann, Mark Rothko and David Smith.
In the 1960s, Ossorio created his best known works. These “congregations,” as he called them, are assemblage sculptures of shells, pearls, feathers and driftwood playing on the connections between life and decay, and the raw and the refined.
Ossorio’s art is in collections around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. International exhibitions featuring his work have been held at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Scotland and the National Museum of Modern Art in Japan as well as the L’Art Brut Museum in Switzerland and the 2019 Singapore Biennale.
On 1stDibs, find a collection of Alfonso Ossorio prints and multiples.
Amordie, Abstract Expressionist Etching by Alfonso Ossorio
By Alfonso Ossorio
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Alfonso Ossorio (Filipino, 1916-1990) Title: Amordie Year: 1983 Medium: Etching, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 36 Image Size: 11 x 7 inches Paper Size: 18 x 12 in. ...
Etching
Untitled VII, Abstract Expressionist Etching by Alfonso Ossorio
By Alfonso Ossorio
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Alfonso Ossorio (Filipino, 1916-1990) Title: Untitled VII Year: 1984/1990 Medium: Etching, signed in pencil Edition: P.P. Image Size: 23.5 x 17.75 inches Paper Size: 30.75 x ...
Etching
Untitled VI, Abstract Etching by Alfonso Ossorio
By Alfonso Ossorio
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Alfonso Ossorio (Filipino, 1916-1990) Title: Untitled VII Year: 1984 Medium: Etching, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: PP Image Size: 24 x 17.75 inches Paper Size...
Etching
Nets – Mid-Century Modernism, Atelier 17
By Sigismond Kolos-Vari
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Sigismond Kolos-Vari, 'Nets', color etching with soft-ground and aquatint, edition 200 (1 of 60 artist's proofs), 1952. Signed and dated in pencil. Numbered L/LX in pencil. A superb, richly-inked impression, on heavy, off-white, Arches wove paper; the full sheet with margins (1 3/8 to 3 1/2 inches), in excellent condition. Published by the Guide de la Gravure, Switzerland, with their blindstamp in the bottom left sheet corner. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Image size 11 3/4 x 15 5/8 inches (298 x 397 mm); sheet size 15 x 22 1/4 inches (381 x 565 mm). ABOUT THE ARTIST Sigismund Kolos-Vari was born in Hungary and attended the School of Applied Arts in Budapest from 1915 to 1918 and then the School of Decorative Arts until 1925. The artist settled in Paris, and his first one-person show in 1928 at Galerie Miromesnil, which was highly successful, led to numerous subsequent exhibitions, including with the prestigious Galerie Bonaparte in 1929 and Galerie Povolosky in 1930. Kolos-Vari’s early success was abruptly interrupted by the outbreak of WWII when he was arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned in the Gurs internment camp. During this period, he created a sketchbook for a little girl, which is now preserved at the Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine at the Mémorial de la Shoah in Paris. He managed to escape after two years, crossing the border into Switzerland. After the war, he returned to Paris with a renewed dedication to his painting, producing increasingly powerful compositions. His work was highly acclaimed when shown at an important 1946 exhibition at the Musée National d’Art Moderne de Paris, organized by Jean Cassou. The artist was then approached by the eminent art dealer Jean Bucher, who gave Kolos-Vary a major one-person show at his gallery in 1948. During this post-war period, Kolos-Vary participated in the radical Salon de Mai, 1949-1958, the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, 1956-1961, and the Salon des Comparaisons, 1960-1962. Supported by his association with Stanley William Hayter and the landmark printmaking workshop Atelier 17...
Etching, Aquatint
$4,850
H 30 in W 22 in D 1 in
"Femme Au Collant Rose", Rufino Tamayo, Figurative Abstraction, Etching, 30x22
By Rufino Tamayo
Located in Dallas, TX
"Femme Au Collant Rose" by Rufino Tamayo is a Figurative Abstraction lithograph limited edition measuring 30x22 in. The piece is framed beautifully with a white mat in a gold and bla...
Etching
Winter Garden
By Leonard Edmondson
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Leonard Edmondson, 'Winter Garden', color etching, edition 50, 1957. Signed, titled, dated, and numbered '50/50' in pencil. A superb, richly-inked impre...
Etching
$2,600
H 6.88 in W 8.44 in
'Flight to Tomorrow' — Mid-Century American Modernism — Atelier 17
By Minna Citron
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Minna Citron, 'Flight to Tomorrow', aquatint and engraving, edition unknown but small, 1948. Signed, titled, dated, and annotated 'engr & aqua' in pencil. A superb, richly-inked impression with selectively wiped plate tone, on heavy cream wove paper, the full sheet with margins (1 3/4 to 3 1/2 inches), in excellent condition. Image size 6 7/8 x 8 7/16 inches (175 x 214 mm); sheet size 11 1/8 x 14 7/8 inches (283 x 378 mm). Matted to museum standards, unframed. Literature: The Women of Atelier 17, Modernist Printmaking in MidCentury New York, Christina Weyl, Yale University Press, 2019, p. 186. Collections: Davis Museum (Wellesley), Five Colleges and Historic Deerfield Museum Consortium, Harvard Art Museums, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Palmer Museum of Art (Penn State...
Engraving, Aquatint
$18,500
H 34 in W 26 in D 1 in
"Torso", Rufino Tamayo, Figurative Abstraction, Mixographia, 34X26 in.
By Rufino Tamayo
Located in Dallas, TX
"Torso" by Rufino Tamayo is a Figurative Abstraction Mixographia limited edition measuring 34X26 in. The piece is mounted onto a piece of black board and floated between two pieces o...
Etching, Mixed Media
Untitled, 1985
By Sam Francis
Located in Palo Alto, CA
This aquatint is hand-signed by Sam Francis (California, 1923- California, 1994) in pencil in the lower right and is a unique color trial proof aside from the edition of 30. Francis...
Aquatint
$5,700
H 22 in W 30 in D 1 in
"Manos en Rojo", Rufino Tamayo, Red Hands, Abstraction, Etching, 22x30 in.
By Rufino Tamayo
Located in Dallas, TX
"Manos en Rojo" by Rufino Tamayo is a Figurative Abstraction lithograph limited edition measuring 22x30 in. The piece is framed beautifully with a white mat in a silver and black fr...
Etching
$7,600
H 30 in W 22 in D 1 in
"Torre Blanca", Rufino Tamayo, Figurative Abstraction, Etching, 30x22 in.
By Rufino Tamayo
Located in Dallas, TX
"Torre Blanca" by Rufino Tamayo is a Figurative Abstraction etching limited edition measuring 30x22 in. The piece is framed beautifully with a white matt and light silver frame. Rufi...
Etching
The Funeral (Dome) From Moby Dick Domes, 1992
By Frank Stella
Located in Palo Alto, CA
Frank Stella challenges the narrative possibilities of abstraction in this tribute to the literary work “Moby-Dick”. Rather than plainly depicting scenes of the novel, Stella instead...
Engraving, Etching, Aquatint
$7,650
H 30 in W 22 in D 1 in
"Cabeza en Gris", Rufino Tamayo, Figurative Abstraction, Lithograph, 30x22 in.
By Rufino Tamayo
Located in Dallas, TX
"Cabeza en Gris" by Rufino Tamayo is a Figurative Abstraction lithograph limited edition measuring 30x22 in. The piece is framed beautifully with a white mat with a silver liner and ...
Etching
$1,149
H 39.38 in W 27.56 in
IRIS 2. Limited edition Lyrical abstraction Spanish Contemporary Blue Strokes
By Jose Manuel Broto
Located in Madrid, Madrid
IRIS 2 Date of creation: 2006 Medium: Etching on Paper Edition: 50 Size: 100 x 70 cm Condition: In very good conditions and never framed Observations: Etching on paper signed by the ...
Etching
Untitled 148
By Gino Scarpa
Located in Austin, TX
Artist: Gino Scarpa, Italian/Norwegian (1924 - ) Title: Untitled 148 Year: circa 1970 Medium: Aquatint Etching and Carborundum Intaglio print Signed and numbered in pencil, Numbe...
Etching, Aquatint, Intaglio
Abstract Expressionist etching by Alphonso Ossorio
By Alfonso Ossorio
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Alfonso Ossorio (Filipino, 1916-1990) Title: Quem Quaeritis Year: 1984 Medium: Etching, signed in pencil Edition: 20/36 Image Size: 23.5 x 17.5 inches Paper Size: 31 x 24 inches
Etching
Abstract Expressionist etching by Alphonso Ossorio
By Alfonso Ossorio
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Alfonso Ossorio (Filipino, 1916-1990) Title: Quod, dixi, dixi Year: 1984 Medium: Etching, signed in pencil Edition: P.P. Image Size: 23.5 x 17.5 inches Paper Size: 31 x 21 in...
Etching
Untitled IV
By Alfonso Ossorio
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Alfonso Ossorio (Filipino, 1916-1990) Title: Untitled IV Year: 1984 Medium: Etching, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: PP Image Size: 8 inches in diameter Paper Si...
Etching
Untitled III, Abstract Print by Alfonso Ossorio
By Alfonso Ossorio
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Alfonso Ossorio (Filipino, 1916-1990) Title: Untitled III Year: 1984 Medium: Etching, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: PP Image Size: 24 x 17.5 inches Paper Size:...
Etching