Charles William Smith Abstract Prints

Leonard Baskin (1922-2000) Death of the Laureate, `1957 Wood Engraving Framed: 18 1/2 x 18 in. Signed and inscribed bottom: Death of the Laureate, Ed. 20, For Walter [Rosenblum], Leo...

"Abstract in Gold and Black" is a well-balanced calm piece. The placement of the gold and white can be read as a distant landscape giving much imagined space to the heavier black area which contains a linear element and the color blue. Semivan is a Master Printmaker and sculptor. He often breaks his surfaces and extends beyond the perimeters in his sculptures. The particular placement of the black area in this piece suggests such a breakage beyond the edge where one imagines a continuation of the strokes or linear elements. This is an altogether extraordinary print. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Douglas Semivan...

JOSEF ALBERS, Bottrop 1888 - New Haven 1976 Homage to the Square (diptych), 1971 Original colored serigraph. Perfect copies published in 1971 by the Ives-Sillman Inc. edition, New Ha...

Edward Landon 'Exhortation (Priest)', color serigraph, 1957, edition 28, Ryan 72. Signed, titled, and numbered '21/28' in pencil. A superb, richly-inked impression, with strong color...

JUNE WAYNE (1918 - 2011) THE TUNNEL II, 1951 (B.69; G.14; Conway 67) Lithograph, signed, numbered, dated July 1951 and titled incorrectly The Target. Edition 35. 15 3/4 x 19 3/4 inc...

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...

From the estate of Jerry Opper and Ruth Opper Abstract Line Print c.1950's Stone Lithograph on Paper 25" x 19.5" Unframed Estate stamp lower left Came from ...

"Colors in Space II" (SF-95) Signed Printer's Proof Lithograph on Archival Paper Bright and playful abstract composition by Sam Francis (American, 1923-1994). Splashes of yellow, or...

Edward Landon, 'Time Silhouette', color serigraph, 1969, edition 30, Ryan 201. Signed, titled, and annotated 'Edition 30' in pencil. A fine impression, with fresh colors, on cream wo...

"Unicorn Moebius II" - Trial Proof Lithograph in Ink on Laid Paper High contrast, multi-layer etching by Bruce Weinberg (American, 1942-1994). A moebius strip is shown against a dar...

Lift ground and hard ground etching and engraving on Murillo white wove paper, 18 x 24 inches (455 x 608 mm), full margins. Signed, dated, titled and numbered 60/100 in pencil, lower margin. Printed and published by the artist. In very good condition with minor age tone and scattered light surface soiling on the verso. Framed handsomely in an original Kulicke welded aluminum frame with the embossed maker's mark. [Milton 61]. Milton revisited this image in 1974 during an experiment to explore collage and the process of contact printing a high resolution photo-transparency directly onto a copper plate. He printed a small detail transparency of Mornings with Judd onto the existing plate, alongside it's larger self, and broke through to a new photo-resist approach, which Milton described as "piquant and irresistible," in his essays appearing in Robert Flynn...

"Receiver I" is an abstract print of three diagonally placed lines. It is reminiscent of an early work by Georgia O'Keeffe, "Blue Lines X" in that both artists, Semivan and O'Keeffe, have achieved a beauty in the placement, width of, length and juxtapositions of simple lines to achieve a never ending balance and harmony for the viewer. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Douglas Semivan...