Edward Marecak was an American painter who was born in 1919. Growing up in the farming community of Brunswick, Ohio, he showed early artistic promise, hired by the National Youth Administration to document historic barns. In 1946, Marecak came to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center for a year and after a semester interlude at Cranbrook returned to study lithography with Lawrence Barrett. There he also met his future wife and sometime collaborator, ceramicist Theresa Madonna Fortin. Given the opportunity to teach a summer course at the University of Colorado, he decided to obtain a teaching certificate at the University of Denver and subsequently embarked on his 25-year career in the Denver Public School system. Rather than pursue fame, Edward Marecak directed his zeal toward fostering younger generations in the principles of art as well as his simple philosophies. Moreover, his teaching salary allowed him to ply his prodigious talent at whatever he pleased, instead of bending to the dictates of trends and sales. Having inherited his faith in education from his Slovakian immigrant parents, Marecak could add the shaping of lives to his mastery of art forms, including lithographs, monoprints, drawings, hooked rugs, ceramics, paintings, wood sculptures, stained-glass windows and jewelry. While exhibiting in his lifetime, he was, in his wife’s words, “his own greatest collector”, but shows and his popularity at the Kirkland Museum have positioned Marecak posthumously among Colorado’s pre-eminent modernists. As a child, Marecak was enthralled by the Carpathian tales of magic and supernatural beings told by his grandmother. As with other artists with roots in Eastern Europe, his artistic turn to folk tradition would free him from learned practices of perspective and modeling in favor of flat patterns within patterns and brilliant, throbbing color. While others ventured further into abstraction, Marecak stylized figurative elements into crowded compositions that appeared like a mosaic or stained glass. As he matured, he could declare, “I am still very much a Byzantine designer and my joy with what color can do grows all the time”. The traceries of strong outlines and bold shapes provide compartments for vibrant colors, contrasts and rough textures that can scarcely be contained. The Kirkland Museum staged a retrospective of Edward and Donna Marecak in 2007.
$3,250
1987 Figurative Harvest Scene Oil Painting “Autumn Harvest” by Edward Marecak
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Painted in 1987, “Autumn Harvest” is a vibrant figurative oil painting by American modernist Edward Marecak (1919–1993). The composition depicts seven women gathered within a richly ...
Oil
$2,800
H 36 in W 50 in D 2 in
A Large, Dynamic Mid-Century Modern Figurative Landscape Painting by Rudolph Pen
Located in Chicago, IL
A large, dynamic Mid-Century Modern summer landscape painting with standing female bathers by notable Chicago artist, Rudolph T. Pen. A wonderful example of the artist's uniquely ex...
Canvas, Oil
$1,600
H 20 in W 24 in D 1.25 in
A Serene 1940's Vermont Landscape Painting by Harold Haydon
By Harold Haydon
Located in Chicago, IL
A scenic, American Modern 1940s Vermont summer landscape painting, depicting evergreen trees overlooking a placid lake by notable Chicago artist, Harold Haydon. Oil on canvas, measu...
Canvas, Oil
Coastal Scene, 20th Century Seascape, Cleveland School Artist
By George Adomeit
Located in Beachwood, OH
George Gustav Adomeit (American, 1879-1967) Coastal Scene Oil on canvas Signed lower left 19 x 23 inches 21.5 x 25.5 inches, framed A major painter of American scene subjects, Georg...
Oil
$12,000
H 30.125 in W 24 in
Ninth Avenue El (New York City), Mid 20th Century Cityscape Oil painting
By John Opper
Located in Beachwood, OH
John Opper (American, 1908-1994) Ninth Avenue El (New York City), c. 1935 Oil on canvas Signed lower left and verso 30.125 x 24 inches The Ninth Avenue El was the first elevated rai...
Oil
$2,800
H 25 in W 31 in D 1.5 in
A Serene 1940s, Modern Western Landscape Painting with Horses by Francis Chapin
By Francis Chapin
Located in Chicago, IL
A serene, 1940s Modern Western landscape painting with horses by famed Chicago artist, Francis Chapin. Accompanied with a handsome walnut brown stained wooden frame. Canvas size: 22 x 28 inches. Framed size: 25 x 31 inches. Estate stamped on reverse. Provenance: Estate of the artist. Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “Dean of Chicago Painters” by his colleagues, was one of the city’s most popular and celebrated painters in his day. Born at the dawn of the 20th Century in Bristolville, Ohio, Chapin graduated from Washington and Jefferson College near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania before enrolling at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1922. He would set down deep roots at the Art Institute of Chicago, exhibiting there over 31 times between 1926 and 1951. In 1927 Chapin won the prestigious Bryan Lathrop Fellowship from the Art Institute – a prize that funded the artist’s yearlong study trip to Europe. Upon his return to the United States, Chapin decided to remain in Chicago, noting the freedom Chicago artists have in developing independently of the pressure to conform to pre-existing molds (as was experienced by artists in New York, for example). Chapin became a popular instructor at the Art Institute, teaching there from 1929 to 1947 and at the Art Institute’s summer art school in Saugatuck, Michigan (now called Oxbow) between 1934 – 1938 (he was the director of the school from 1941-1945). Chapin’s contemporaries among Chicago’s artists included such luminaries as Ivan Le Lorraine Albright...
Canvas, Oil
$5,000
H 26 in W 28 in
"Spring" Milton Derr, Lyrical Modernist Landscape, Bright Green and Blue Hues
Located in New York, NY
Milton Derr Spring, 1982 Signed lower right; titled and dated verso Oil on canvas 26 x 28 inches Provenance Acquired by descent from the artist to the present owner Milton Derr wa...
Canvas, Oil
$950
H 13.75 in W 21.25 in D 1.5 in
Early Mexican City Scene by Chicago Artist Francis Chapin, San Miguel de Allende
By Francis Chapin
Located in Chicago, IL
A charming, vibrant, early Mexican city street scene by famed Chicago Modern artist Francis Chapin (Am. 1899-1965). Depicting a quiet, picturesque view of the rooftops and cathedral...
Oil, Masonite
$6,250
H 27.5 in W 31.5 in
House in Hudson, Ohio, Late 19th Century Painting by Cleveland School Artist
Located in Beachwood, OH
Ora Coltman (American, 1858-1940) House in Hudson, OH Oil on canvas Signed lower left 22 x 26 inches 27.5 x 31.5 inches, framed 21 Aurora Street is locally known as the Isham-Beebe ...
Oil
$1,800Sale Price|28% Off
H 22 in W 27 in D 2 in
A Colorful, Vintage 1950s Mid-Century Modern Martha's Vineyard Harbor Scene
By Francis Chapin
Located in Chicago, IL
A vibrant, colorful harbor scene of Martha's Vineyard by notable Chicago Modern artist, Francis Chapin (Am. 1899-1965). Depicting a blustery dockside view with fishing and sailboats...
Canvas, Oil
$850
H 9.5 in W 10.75 in
A Charming, Diminutive 1945 Street Scene Painting of Navy Sailors in Hanover, NH
By Harold Haydon
Located in Chicago, IL
A charming, diminutive 1945 city street scene painting of Navy sailors standing beside a store front in Hanover, NH by famed Chicago artist Harold Haydon. Image size: 4 1/2" x 6". ...
Oil, Board
$1,200
H 13.5 in W 16.25 in D 1.25 in
A Colorful, Modern 1950's Painting of Martha's Vineyard, Breakfast on the Porch
By Francis Chapin
Located in Chicago, IL
A Vibrant, Colorful 1950s Mid-Century Modern Painting of Martha's Vineyard by Famed Chicago Artist, Francis Chapin (Am. 1899-1965). Titled "Breakfast on the Porch at the Vineyard Ho...
Masonite, Oil
$35,000
H 20 in W 22 in
"6th Avenue El" American Scene Social Realism Mid-20th Century New York City
By Ernest Fiene
Located in New York, NY
"6th Avenue El" American Scene Social Realism Mid-20th Century New York City Ernest Fiene (1894-1965) "6th Avenue El" 12 1/4 x 14 1/4 Oil on canvas board, c. 1940s Signed lower righ...
Oil, Board
Sold
H 30 in W 26 in D 0.75 in
Sunny Day, 1960s Mid Mod Semi-Abstract Polychromatic Landscape Oil Painting
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Oil painting on burlap titled "Sunny Day" by Edward Marecak of a semi abstracted landscape with trees, houses, and a pond from 1962. Presented in a vintage frame, outer dimensions me...
Oil