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Fletcher Martin Art

American, 1904-1979

Fletcher Martin was an American painter, illustrator, muralist and educator. He is best known for his images of military life during World War II and his sometimes brutal images of boxing and other sports. Martin was born in 1904 in Palisade, Colorado, one of seven children of newspaperman Clinton Martin and his wife Josephine. The family relocated to Idaho and later Washington. By the age of 12, he was working as a printer. He dropped out of high school and held odd jobs such as lumberjack and professional boxer. He served in the U.S. Navy, 1922–26. Martin's artistic skills were largely self-taught.

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Artist: Fletcher Martin
Darkness (portrait of a young woman)
By Fletcher Martin
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Fletcher Martin (1904-1979). Darkness, 1940. Oil on canvas, 18 x 22 inches; 28.5 x 32.5 inches framed. Signed and dated lower left. Presented in a carved chestnut Heydenryk custom frame of the period. Excellent condition with no damage or conservation. Biography: Birth place: Palisade, CO Death place: Guanajuato, Mexico Addresses: NYC; Woodstock, NY, 1947 and after; Guanajuato, Mexico in 1976 Profession: Painter, lithographer, block printer, muralist, illustrator, teacher Studied: Stickney Mem. Sch. Art Exhibited: Hatfield Gal., Los Angeles, 1932 (solo); LACMA, 1935 ( Van Rensselaer Wilbur Prize), 1939 (prize), 1944; FAP, 1937 (prize); PAFA Ann., 1939-54 frequently (prize 1947); 48 States Comp., 1939 (prize); WMAA, 1940-57; AIC, 1940-45; VMFA, 1941; CI, 1942-44; MoMA, 1942; NAD, 1943, 1949 (Altman Prize); Corcoran Gal. biennials, 1943-53 (6 times); Roberson Mem. Center, Binghamton, NY, 1968 (retrospective); Eve Loring Gal., Cedarhurst, NY & Rudolph Gals., Woodstock, NY, 1970s Member: A.N.A., 1969; Woodstock AA (chmn., 1953-55); Calif. WC Soc.; Am. Artists Cong.; Fnd. of Western Art; AEA (nat. committee,1949-55). Work: MMA; WMAA; MoMA; LOC; Cranbrook Acad. Art; William Rockhill Nelson Gal., Kansas City, KS; LACMA; Denver Art Mus.; Mus. FA, Houston; SFMA; PAFA. Commissions: true fresco, WPA, Hollywood H.S., 1935; oil on canvas, U.S. Secretary Fine Art, Fed. Bldg., San Pedro, CA, 1937; oil on canvas, U.S. Secretary Fine Art, Post Office Bldg., Lamesa, TX, 1938; bas relief sculpture, U.S. Secretary Fine Art, County Court House, Bonner's Ferry, ID, 1939; oil on canvas, U.S. Secretary Fine Art, Post Office Bldg., Kellogg, ID, 1940. Comments: Preferred media: oils, watercolors, print media. Specialty: Western subjects. Illustrator: Tales of the Gold Rush, 1944; Mutiny on the Bounty, 1947; The Sea Wolf, 1961; The Jungle, 1965; Of Mice and Men...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Realist Fletcher Martin Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Nude with Drape
By Fletcher Martin
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Nude with Drape, c. 1937, oil on board, 24 x 17 (oval), signed lower right, provenance: Frances Lee Kent Falcone Family Trust About the Painting Fletcher Martin’s Nude with Drape ...
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1930s American Modern Fletcher Martin Art

Materials

Oil

"Lunch Break” Fletcher Martin, Men Working, Bricklayers, WPA, American Scene
By Fletcher Martin
Located in New York, NY
Fletcher Martin Lunch Break, circa 1940 Signed lower right Oil on canvas 31 1/2 x 37 3/8 inches When Fletcher Martin died in 1979, the New York Times entitled his obituary “Artist o...
Category

1940s American Realist Fletcher Martin Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Portrait of a Black Woman, Maxine - Mid-Century WPA
By Fletcher Martin
Located in Miami, FL
A charming portrait of a Black woman with stylized hairstyle of the period - Midtown Galleries label on verso, Unframed Signed and date...
Category

1940s Art Deco Fletcher Martin Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Untitled (Joe Louis knocking out Max Schmeling in 1938 rematch)
By Fletcher Martin
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled (Joe Louis knocking out Max Schmeling in 1938 rematch) Pen and ink with wash on heavy wove sketchbook paper, 1938 Signed lower right: Fletcher Martin Directly related to Martin's famous painting of 1942 entitled "Lullaby", which was also used in the lithograph of the same name. (see photo) The drawing depicts the third and final knockdown of Max Schmeling in their rematch of 1938. Condition: Mat staining at the edges of the sketchbook page edges Toning to verso from previous framing. Does not affect framed presentation "It was here that Louis first used sport to bridge America's cavernous racial divide. With Hitler on the march in Europe and using Schmeling's victory over Louis as proof of “Aryan supremacy,” anti-Nazi sentiment ran high in the States. Louis had long grown accustomed to the pressures of representing his race but here the burdens were broader and deeper. Now he was shouldering the hopes of an entire nation. A few weeks before the match Louis visited the White House and U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose tenure lasted even longer than Louis' would, told him, “Joe, we need muscles like yours to beat Germany.” Those muscles certainly beat Schmeling on fight night...
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1930s American Realist Fletcher Martin Art

Materials

Ink

original lithograph
By Fletcher Martin
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: original lithograph. This lithograph is from the rare 1951 "Improvisations" portfolio, published by the Artists Equity Association of New York on the occasion of the 1951 Spr...
Category

1950s Fletcher Martin Art

Materials

Lithograph

High Wide and Handsome by Fletcher Martin 1953, Original Stone Lithograph
By Fletcher Martin
Located in Phoenix, AZ
Fletcher Martin Size: 16 x12 inches Stone lithograph Frame 25 x 21 inches High, Wide and Handsome- - 1953, Lithograph. Edition 250. Signed in pencil. Shipping is included Image...
Category

1950s Contemporary Fletcher Martin Art

Materials

Lithograph

Quarrelling Gulls - Flock of Birds
By Fletcher Martin
Located in Miami, FL
This beautiful semi-abstract harbor scene of a flock of birds is rendered in Martin's signature style
Category

1950s Abstract Geometric Fletcher Martin Art

Materials

Oil

"Arab Children, " Portrait of Two Figures Lithograph signed by Fletcher Martin
By Fletcher Martin
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Arab Children" is an original lithograph by Fletcher Martin. The artist signed the piece lower right. This piece features two young children--a boy and a girl--with downcast eyes in draped fabric clothes in an interior. 12" x 8" art 22" x 18" frame Fletcher Martin was an American painter, illustrator, muralist and educator. He is best known for his images of soldier life during World War II and his sometimes brutal images of boxing and other sports. His artistic skills were largely self-taught. He worked as a printer in Los Angeles in the late 1920s, and as an assistant to Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros in the early 1930s. He taught at local art schools such as Otis Art Institute. He won commissions to paint murals for the New Deal's Section of Painting and Sculpture, including Mail Transportation (1938), painted for the San Pedro Federal Building and Post Office in Los Angeles. Under the WPA he painted a mural study for the Kellogg, Idaho post office titled Mine Rescue (1939). Local industrialists objected that it depicted the dangers of mining, while officials of the Mine & Smelt Workers Union praised it. The industrialists prevailed and Martin painted an uncontroversial mural, Discovery (1941), depicting the prospector who founded the town. The rejected mural study is now in the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Perhaps his most ambitious mural, also done under the WPA, was painted for North Hollywood High School in Los Angeles. Legends of Fernandino and Gabrileno Indians (1937) depicts overlapping scenes of Native American life and ritual, and the world being carried on the backs of giants. As an artist-correspondent for Life Magazine during World War II, he made hundreds of sketches of U.S. soldier life. Fourteen of his paintings from the North African campaign were published in the December 27, 1943 issue of Life, and brought him national recognition. Among these was Boy Picking Flowers...
Category

1940s American Realist Fletcher Martin Art

Materials

Lithograph

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BullFight Picador Horsemen Matador. Bullfighting scene where horse is impaled
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Sun Women ( two women on a beach / one with her guitar)
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Two women sitting on a beach, one with a guitar. This edition was published by Associated American Artists Born in Palisade, Colorado, a small western town where his father ran the newspaper, Fletcher Martin was a self-taught artist, best known for his painting of western subjects. He worked as a painter, muralist, and illustrator. Martin grew up in a family that moved to towns throughout the West. He showed an early interest in art, primarily from circus posters and amateur painters. At age 12, he began working as a printer, and after dropping out of high school, had various jobs including lumberjack and professional boxer. In Seattle, where he worked for Western Show Print, he specialized in big, gaudy outdoor posters. From 1922 to 1926, he served in the Navy and then settled in Los Angeles where he had a job with Earl Hays printers. He had a long-time interest in boxing and did many paintings of that activity. He also assisted Mexican painter Siqueiros with a large mural and created a design for a Post Office mural in Kellogg, Idaho that citizens found objectionable because it depicted a mining accident. His revised work was a frontiersman and a prospector, but he featured an ass in the prominent part of the composition over the postmaster's door. In 1938, he began a thirty-year career as visiting teacher in art schools in California including Mills College, Otis Art Institute, and Claremont College. In 1943, he traveled to North Africa as artist-correspondent for Life magazine. Holdings: Metropolitan Museum; Museum of Modern Art; Whitney Museum of American Art; Library of Congress; Rockhill Nelson Gallery in Kansas City; Los Angeles Museum; Florida Gulf Coast Art...
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Late 20th Century American Modern Fletcher Martin Art

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Silk, Screen

Reclining Nude
By Fletcher Martin
Located in Los Angeles, CA
FLETCHER MARTIN "RECLINING NUDE" OIL ON PANEL, SIGNED AMERICAN, C.1940 15.5 X 24 INCHES Fletcher Martin 1904-1979 Born Palisade, Colorado, April 29, 1904. Learned printing trade as a boy. Joined U.S. Navy in 1922, served four years. Worked at printing trade until 1935, painting in spare time. Artist war correspondent for Life Magazine, covered African campaign, 1943; Normandie campaign, 1944. First Exhibit at Dalzell Hatfield Galleries in 1933. First museum one-man show at San Diego Fine Arts Gallery in 1934. Holdings: Metropolitan Museum; Museum of Modern Art; Whitney Museum of American Art; Library of Congress; Rockhill Nelson Gallery in Kansas City; Los Angeles Museum; Florida Gulf Coast Art...
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1930s Art Deco Fletcher Martin Art

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Oil, Panel

IN THE SUN
By Fletcher Martin
Located in Aventura, FL
Hand signed on front by the artist. Original acrylic and oil on masonite painting. Framed. Artwork is in excellent condition. Certificate of authenticity included. All reasonable ...
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1960s Contemporary Fletcher Martin Art

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Masonite, Oil, Acrylic

AMERICANA # 2
By Fletcher Martin
Located in Santa Monica, CA
FLETCHER MARTIN (1904 – 1979) AMERICANA #5 c. 1940 Lithograph, probably a very rare small edition. Possibly a study or detail of a mural. 13 5/8” x 10 ¾”. M...
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1940s American Modern Fletcher Martin Art

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Mother and Child
By Fletcher Martin
Located in Miami, FL
Fletcher Martin was assistant to Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros in the early 193o's. This warm study of a Mexica mother playing with a child reflexes that influence in subj...
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The Set Up
By Fletcher Martin
Located in Denver, CO
Framed dimensions are 29 x 32.5 inches. Provenance: Estate of the Artist About the Artist: Born in Palisade, Colorado, Fletcher Martin was given instruction in printmaking ...
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1930s American Modern Fletcher Martin Art

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Lithograph

Los Angeles Harbor from the Roof of the Federal Building-San Pedro, circa 1935
By Fletcher Martin
Located in Denver, CO
Provenence: Estate of the Artist Ink and graphite on paper. Housed in a custom frame with all archival materials. Outer dimensions are 23 x 39.75 x 1.5 inches; image measures 13...
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1930s American Realist Fletcher Martin Art

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Mixed Media

Abstraction
By Fletcher Martin
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Provenance: Estate of the artist, by descent to son Donovan Martin
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1940s Fletcher Martin Art

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Mixed Media

Fletcher Martin art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Fletcher Martin available for sale on 1stDibs. If you’re browsing the collection of art to introduce a pop of color in a neutral corner of your living room or bedroom, you can find work that includes elements of blue and other colors. You can also browse by medium to find art by Fletcher Martin in paint, oil paint, canvas and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the modern style. Not every interior allows for large Fletcher Martin, so small editions measuring 6 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Anthony Ackrill, Ernest Hamlin Baker, and Raymond Logan. Fletcher Martin prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $75 and tops out at $20,000, while the average work can sell for $4,800.

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