Daniel Celentano was born in New York, the fifth of 15 children of Neapolitan immigrants. He lived most of his life in the uptown Manhattan area known as Italian Harlem, and much of his work chronicles the events and people of that neighborhood. At the age of 12, Celentano became the first pupil of renowned American Scene painter Thomas Hart Benton and later assisted Benton in the execution of several murals. The two artists remained friends throughout their lives. By 16, Celentano had won several scholarships, one of which enabled him to study for three years at the Cape Cod School of Art under Charles W. Hawthorne. Other grants came from the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts, and the National Academy of Design. Celentano began showing his work in New York City in 1930 when he participated in an exhibition at Alfred Stieglitz's Opportunity Gallery. His success there was followed by exhibitions at other New York galleries and participation in major museum annuals, including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Carnegie Institute. Celentano showed six paintings at the Art Exhibition by the Staff Artists of the American Museum of Natural History. In 1936, the Carnegie Institute and the Chicago Art Institute bought works by Celentano exhibited at Walker Galleries. The Whitney Museum of American Art followed suit the next year, purchasing Celentano's entry First Born in the museum's biennial exhibition. The Walker Galleries gave Celentano his first one-man exhibition in 1938. Celentano joined the mural division of the WPA, where he created murals for the Queens Borough Public Library, Flushing Branch (Commerce, 1936), and P.S. 150 in Queens (Children in Constructive Recreation and Cultural Activity, 1940). In 1938, he won a commission through the Treasury Department to execute the mural, The Country Store and Post Office, for the U.S. Post Office in Vidalia, Georgia. With the outbreak of World War II, Celentano joined the art department of the Grumman Aircraft Corporation, Long Island, where he executed a mural entitled The Flight of Man, which depicts the advancement of transportation and communications from ancient times to present. The mural is now at the Cradle of Aviation Museum on Long Island. Daniel Celentano's work can be found in many museum collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and High Museum of Art.
Strike Breakers — social realism, Great Depression
By Daniel Ralph Celentano
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Daniel Ralph Celentano, Untitled (Strike Breakers) pencil, c. 1934. Signed, lower right. A fine, social-realist drawing, on cream wove paper, with margins (1 1/2 to 2 1/2 inches), in...
Pencil
$5,500
NYC Subway Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Realism WPA Modern 1930s
By Daniel Ralph Celentano
Located in New York, NY
NYC Subway Riders Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Realism WPA Modern 1930s Daniel Celentano (1902 - 1980) Subway Scene, 1930s 8 x 9 inches Ink and wash on paper Singed lower ...
Paper, Ink, Gouache
"Idle Hours" WPA Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Realism Modernism Ashcan
By Daniel Ralph Celentano
Located in New York, NY
"Idle Hours" WPA Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Realism Modernism Ashcan Daniel Celentano (1902–1980) Idle Hours (Study for a larger oil) Oil on masonite, c. 1930s 10 1/2 x ...
Oil, Masonite
"Going to the Festival" WPA Ashcan 20th Century American Scene Modern Realism
By Daniel Ralph Celentano
Located in New York, NY
"Going to the Festival" WPA Ashcan 20th Century American Scene Modern Realism Daniel Celentano (1902 - 1980) "Going to the Festival," 14 1/2 x 10 1/2. Watercolor on paper, c. 1930s....
Paper, Watercolor
FLIGHT American Futurism Modernism Scene WPA Mid-Century Oil Painting Realism
By Daniel Ralph Celentano
Located in New York, NY
FLIGHT American Futurism Modernism Scene WPA Mid-Century Oil Painting Realism Daniel Celentano (1902-1980) "Flight," 26 x 26 inches. Oil on canvas, c. 1940s. Signed lower right. Ori...
Canvas, Oil
$78,000
H 51 in W 33 in D 2 in
Summer Resort in Michigan -Modernist Mid-Century Saugatuck Oil Painting
By William Schwartz
Located in Marco Island, FL
Summer Resort in Michigan is an exceptional work painted by the Chicago Modernist, William Schwartz. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago shortly ...
Canvas, Oil
$2,300Sale Price|50% Off
H 24 in W 28 in D 2 in
God Bless Our Home, Social Realist Scene, Figurative Americana Interior Scene
Located in Doylestown, PA
"God Bless Our Home" is an interior and figurative scene of a woman sitting on her couch in serious and proper expression. The Americana style paint...
Canvas, Oil
$4,800
H 22 in W 26 in D 1 in
Interior J&L Works, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania American Industrial Scene Painting
Located in Marco Island, FL
An interior scene of industrial America where workers kept the production of steel going in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This detailed and atmospheric painting shows the hard work and ...
Oil, Board
$150,000
H 39 in W 61 in
"Hotel Chelsea" New York interior painting by Paul Oxborough
By Paul G. Oxborough
Located in Greenwich, CT
Signed lower right Unframed dimensions: 30 x 52 inches Framed dimensions: 39 x 61 inches Paul G. Oxborough studied at Minneapolis College of Art and Design and Atelier Lesueur, a 4...
Linen, Oil
Landscape
By Marcel Emile Cailliet
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Landscape, 1940, oil on canvas, 24 x 20 inches, signed, dated and titled verso: “Marcel Cailliet ’40 – S.C.” and “Marcel Cailliet Landscape”; likely exhibited at the annual juried st...
Canvas, Oil
Untitled (Collapsed Shacks)
By Karl Fortress
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Untitled (Collapsed Shacks), c. 1940s, oil on canvas, signed lower left, 20 ½ x 26 ½ inches, presented in a period frame This work is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: ...
Canvas, Oil
$36,000
H 20 in W 30.25 in D 2 in
Late Afternoon - Modernist Mid-Century Midwest Oil Painting
By William Schwartz
Located in Marco Island, FL
A quintessential American Scene landscape painted by the Chicago Modernist, William Schwartz. Workers in tilled fields surrounding a farmstead under dramatic skies. Painted in 1935...
Canvas, Oil
$20,000
H 33.5 in W 39.5 in D 2 in
"Canoncito" c. 1923 by Howard Ashman Patterson New Mexico Modernist Landscape
Located in Yardley, PA
About this work: A striking rediscovery from Howard Ashman Patterson’s years in the Southwest, this painting captures New Mexico at a time when its landscape was one of the great lab...
Canvas, Oil
$4,900
H 20 in W 17 in
42nd Street NYC 1923 Deco WPA Ashcan American Modern Cityscape Realism Broadway
By Louis Wolchonok
Located in New York, NY
42nd Street NYC 1923 Deco WPA Ashcan American Modern Cityscape Realism Broadway. 10 x 7 1/2 inches. Graphite on paper. Signed, titled "42nd Street" and dated July 26, 1923, lower l...
Paper, Pencil
Gracie Mansion
By Isabella Banks Markell
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Gracie Mansion, c. 1944, oil on canvas, signed lower right, 25 x 30 inches, presented in a newer frame Isabella Markell was a painter, etcher, and sculptor, who is best known for ...
Canvas, Oil
Harbor Village
By Frederick Leo Hunter
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork "Village Harbor" c.1910 is a watercolor on paper by noted American artist Frederick Leo Hunter, 1858-1943 It is signed at the lower right corner by the artist. The artwork size is 8 x 15 inches, framed is 17 x 23.75 inches. It is framed in a custom wooden gold frame, with gold color spacer and fabric matting. It is in very good condition. About the artist. Frederick Leo Hunter was born in New York City in 1858. He was known for street scene paintings and etchings of New York...
Watercolor
$6,000
H 16 in W 20 in
"Cubist Landscape" Albert Heckman, American Modernism, Woodstock, Earth Tones
By Albert Heckman
Located in New York, NY
Albert Heckman Cubist Landscape Oil on canvas 16 x 20 inches Albert Heckman was born in Meadville, Western Pennsylvania, 1893. He went to New York City to try his hand at the art w...
Canvas, Oil
$25,000
H 28.5 in W 35.5 in D 1.5 in
"Dilworth Street" 1940 by Allan Rohan Crite Watercolor Boston African American
By Allan Rohan Crite
Located in Yardley, PA
About this work: A superb example from Crite’s celebrated Neighborhood Series, this work is both a vibrant portrait of everyday life and an irreplaceable record of a vanished Boston ...
Watercolor, Board, Graphite
$478
H 19.69 in W 13.78 in
Circa 1660 Italian Baroque Architectural Drawing for San Michele in Bosco
Located in Firenze, IT
ARTIST - Attributed to Domenico Santi, Called Il Mengazzino (1621–1694) // PERIOD - Circa 1660–1670, 17th Century // ORIGIN - Bologna, Italy // MEDIUM - Pen and Brown Ink, Grey Wash ...
Paper, Ink, Watercolor, Pen
Six O'Clock
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Six O-Clock, c. 1942, oil on canvas, 30 x 20 inches, signed and titled several times verso of frame and stretcher (perhaps by another hand), marked “Rehn” several times on frame (for the Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries in New York City, who represented Craig at the time); Exhibited: 1) 18th Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Oil Paintings from March 21 to May 2, 1943 at The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. #87, original price $450 (per catalog) (exhibition label verso), 2) Craig’s one-man show at the Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries, New York City, from October 26 to November 14, 1942, #10 (original price listed as $350); and 3) Exhibition of thirty paintings sponsored by the Harrisburg Art Association at the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg in March, 1944 (concerning this exhibit, Penelope Redd of The Evening News (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) wrote: “Other paintings that have overtones of superrealism inherent in the subjects include Tom Craig’s California nocturne, ‘Six O’Clock,’ two figures moving through the twilight . . . .” March 6, 1944, p. 13); another label verso from The Museum of Art of Toledo (Ohio): original frame: Provenance includes George Stern Gallery, Los Angeles, CA About the Painting Long before Chris Burden’s iconic installation outside of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Urban Light, another artist, Tom Craig, made Southern California streetlights the subject of one of his early 1940s paintings. Consisting of dozens of recycled streetlights from the 1920s and 1930s forming a classical colonnade at the museum’s entrance, Burden’s Urban Light has become a symbol of Los Angeles. For Burden, the streetlights represent what constitutes an advanced society, something “safe after dark and beautiful to behold.” It seems that Craig is playing on the same theme in Six O-Clock. Although we see two hunched figures trudging along the sidewalk at the end of a long day, the real stars of this painting are the streetlights which brighten the twilight and silhouette another iconic symbol of Los Angeles, the palm trees in the distance. Mountains in the background and the distant view of a suburban neighborhood join the streetlights and palm trees as classic subject matter for a California Scene painting, but Craig gives us a twist by depicting the scene not as a sun-drenched natural expanse. Rather, Craig uses thin layers of oil paint, mimicking the watercolor technique for which he is most famous, to show us the twinkling beauty of manmade light and the safety it affords. Although Southern California is a land of natural wonders, the interventions of humanity are already everywhere in Los Angeles and as one critic noted, the resulting painting has an air of “superrealism.” About the Artist Thomas Theodore Craig was a well-known fixture in the Southern California art scene. He was born in Upland California. Craig graduated with a degree in botany from Pomona College and studied painting at Pamona and the Chouinard Art School with Stanton MacDonald-Wright and Barse Miller among others. He became close friends with fellow artist Milford Zornes...
Canvas, Oil
Self Portrait
By Daniel Ralph Celentano
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Self Portrait, c. 1940s, oil on canvas, 14 ¼ x 12 1/4 inches, signed lower left, presented in a newer frame This work is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1940s. Daniel Celentano was an American Scene painter who is well known for depictions of his Italian neighborhood in East Harlem. The son of Italian immigrants, Celentano was born into a large family. As a child, he suffered from polio which impacted the use of his right leg. During this time of struggle and with the support of his parents, Celentano began to focus on art. Once recovered, he began to study painting at the age of twelve with Thomas Hart Benton. In 1918 Celentano won the first of several scholarships to study art at Charles Hawthorne's Cape Cod School of Art in Provincetown, the New York School of Fine and Applied Art in Greenwich Village, and the National Academy of Design. During the Great Depression, Celentano worked as an artist for Federal public works projects, receiving a commission in 1938 from the Treasury Department's Section of Painting and Sculpture for a mural entitled The Country Store and Post Office for the post office in Vidalia, Georgia. He also painted murals for two high schools, Andrew Jackson (1940) and St. Albans (1941), both in Queens, and a large mural called Children in Constructive Recreation and Cultural Activity in Public School 150 in Long Island City, as well as assisting William C...
Canvas, Oil
Sold
H 16 in W 18 in D 2 in
Long Beach WPA Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Realism Modernism Ashcan
By Daniel Ralph Celentano
Located in New York, NY
Long Beach WPA Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Realism Modernism Ashcan Daniel Ralph Celantano (1902-1980) "Long Beach" 8 x 10 inches Oil on artist board Signed lower left:...
Oil, Board
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H 14 in W 16 in
"A Marro" WPA Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Realism Modernism Ashcan
By Daniel Ralph Celentano
Located in New York, NY
"A Marro" WPA Mid 20th Century American Scene Social Realism Modernism Ashcan. Signed lower right. Verso, label of Walker Galleries New York and signed in pencil and titled, A Marro....
Oil, Board
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H 15 in W 17 in D 1 in
"Houseboat" WPA Depression Era American Scene Modernism Realism Work on Paper
By Daniel Ralph Celentano
Located in New York, NY
"Houseboat" WPA Depression Era American Scene Modernism Realism Work on Paper . Daniel Celentano (1902-1980) "Houseboat," 7 x 10 inches. Ink on paper, c. 1930s. Provenance: Janet Ma...
Paper, Ink
Subway
By Daniel Ralph Celentano
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Daniel Ralph Celentano, Untitled (Subway) pencil, c. 1935. Signed, lower right. A fine, social realist drawing, on cream wove paper, with margins (1 1/8 to 1 1/2 inches); attached wi...
Pencil
Sold
H 16 in W 16 in D 1 in
"Riviters" WPA modernism Mid-Century Workers Modern American Industrial Drawing
By Daniel Ralph Celentano
Located in New York, NY
"Riviters" WPA modernism Mid-Century Workers Modern American Industrial Drawing Daniel Celentano (American 1902 – 1980) "Riveters," 10 x 10 ink on paper. Circa 1940s. WPA modern A...
Paper, Ink