Ellis Ostrowska Art

Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork by: Vaclav Vytlacil (1892-1984) He was born to Czechoslovakian parents in 1892 in New York City. Living in Chicago as a youth, he took classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, returning to New York when he was 20. From 1913 to 1916, he enjoyed a scholarship from the Art Students League, and worked with John C. Johansen (a portraitist whose expressive style resembled that of John Singer Sargent), and Anders Zorn. He accepted a teaching position at the Minneapolis School of Art in 1916, remaining there until 1921. This enabled him to travel to Europe to study Cézanne’s paintings and works of the Old Masters. He traveled to Paris, Prague, Dresden, Berlin, and Munich seeking the works of Titian, Cranach, Rembrandt, Veronese, and Holbein, which gave him new perspective. Vytlacil studied at the Royal Academy of Art in Munich, settling there in 1921. Fellow students were Ernest Thurn and Worth Ryder, who introduced him to famous abstractionist Hans Hofmann. He worked with Hofmann from about 1922 to 1926, as a student and teaching assistant. During the summer of 1928, after returning to the United States, Vytlacil gave lectures at the University of California, Berkeley, on modern European art. Soon thereafter, he became a member of the Art Students League faculty. After one year, he returned to Europe and successfully persuaded Hofmann to teach at the League as well. He spent about six years in Europe, studying the works of Matisse, Picasso, and Dufy. In 1935, he returned to New York and became a co-founder of the American Abstract Artists group in 1936. He later had teaching posts at Queens College in New York; the College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California; Black Mountain College in North Carolina; and the Art Students League. His paintings exhibit a clear inclination toward modernism. His still lives and interiors from the 1920s indicate an understanding of the art of Cézanne. In the 1930s, his works displayed two very different kinds of art at the same time. His cityscapes and landscapes combine Cubist-inspired spatial concerns with an expressionistic approach to line and color. Vytlacil also used old wood, metal, cork, and string in constructions, influenced by his friend and former student, Rupert Turnbull. He eventually ceased creating constructions as he considered them too limiting. The spatial challenges of painting were still his preference. During the 1940s and 1950s, his works indicated a sense of spontaneity not felt in his earlier work. He married Elizabeth Foster in Florence, Italy, in 1927 and they lived and worked in Positano, Italy for extended periods of time. Later on, they divided their time between homes in Sparkill, New York and Chilmark, Massachusetts, where Vyt, as he was affectionately called, taught at the Martha's Vineyard Art...

Leslie Allen is a painter’s painter. She approaches the canvas without preconceived notions and allows the process to guide her through the painting. She immerses herself in the development of the painting as it occurs, responding to every mark with a keenly developed improvisational style. Allen relishes the pure color and movement of oil paint on the surface. She “listens” to the paint. She has worked out her own visual language through years of experimentation and exploration. These are sophisticated paintings with a keen sense of color, gesture and division of space. "Rain Showers...

Anne Harney is a representational painter beginning her work from observation and concluding with a mix of imagination. “I prefer to begin my work from life. My landscape paintings u...

Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork by: Josef Zenk (1904-2000) Josef Zenk was born in New York City in 1904. After graduating from high school, he studied for thre...

Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork by: Mercedes Matter (1913 - 2001) Best known as a painter of abstract still life and founder of the New York Studio School, M...

Jim's of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork by Solomon Ethe (1924 – 2019) Solomon Ethe was born on June 22, 1924. A native New Yorker, he rece...

Growing up in Yosemite Valley in the 50s, Charles Eckart was surrounded by majestic beauty in a place where long hikes and the change of seasons might well turn the creative mind inw...

Growing up in Yosemite Valley in the 50s, Charles Eckart was surrounded by majestic beauty in a place where long hikes and the change of seasons might well turn the creative mind inw...

Stamen on the Loose 36 X 36 Oil on Canvas Rose James considers herself as a botanical abstractionist. Her inspiration comes from years as a botanical artist teaching for the New Yo...

Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork by: Rex Ashlock (1918 – 1999) Born in Spokane, Washington in 1918 Rex Ashlock was known for his abstract, figurative expression...

Jim's of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork by Solomon Ethe (1924 – 2019) Solomon Ethe was born on June 22, 1924. A native New Yorker, he receiv...

Signed on verso Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork by: Rex Ashlock (1918 – 1999) Born in Spokane, Washington in 1918 Rex Ashlock was known for his abstract, figu...