Francesco Messina Art

Rodeo Queen, 1981 Edition 36/50 Signed lower left, Inscribed: for the "Rose" 82. Provenance: Print was a gift to Rozanne Charington, companion and model for "Rodeo Queen", "Rose Tattoo" and "Jimenez at Adeliza's Candy Store". Lithograph on paper 42 ½ × 29 in. (107.3 × 73.7 cm) Luis Alfonso Jimenez Born, 1940, El Paso, Texas, died 2006, Hondo, New Mexico. Statement: Luis Jimenez, in his work, celebrates the vitality of life. . . . Jimenez es un hijo de la frontera; he knows its people and the landscape. It is the transformation of these people into art that is his most important contribution to the art of this vast region which stretches between Mexico and the United States. His subject matter utilizes the popular images of the cultura del norte, and a large part of it is depicted and transformed in the rough and tumble world of la frontera. He is also a son of el norte, and so he uses its materials and explores its emerging, popular myths. The tension and attraction of Jimnez’s work is that he always creates within the space of his two worlds, the Mexicano and the Americano. He constantly shows us the irony of the two forces which repel, while showing us glimpses of the synthesis he seeks. What a gift it has been to us for this talented artist to reflect on the soul of our region. He gives meaning to our existence and history. Rudolfo Anaya (passage chosen by the artist), A View from La Frontera, Man on Fire: Luis Jimenez, pp. 1, 3, 6Biography: Luis Jimenez was born in Texas to parents who had emigrated from Mexico to the United States; he would later dedicate his 1989 sculpture Border Crossing to his father, who had entered the country illegally. The elder Jimenez was a neon sign designer in El Paso, and Luis worked with him as a youth. His experience working in the neon shop and his fascination with U.S. car culture would both become major influences on his art career. Jimenez studied architecture at the University of Texas, Austin (UTA), and also took art courses in which he first created sculptures with wood, steel, and fiberglass, choosing the latter because of its association with U.S. popular culture. He subsequently became one of the artists who made fiberglass an acceptable medium in the 1960s. In 1964 Jimenez received his B.S. in art from UTA, and he continued his studies at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in Mexico City. In 1966 he moved to New York City and worked as an assistant to sculptor Seymour Lipton. Jimenez began to exhibit his art while in New York and in 1972 moved to New Mexico to focus on creating public sculptures, even as he maintained his diverse output of drawings, prints, and lithographs. Drawing on his early experiences, Jimenez creates works that come from a border perspective, one that draws upon the hybridity bred by culture clashes. Often socially and politically informed, his works speak not only in regional terms, those germane to the southwestern United States, but to broader, more global issues as well. They exhibit a profoundly Chicano aesthetic and sensibility, one that is informed by Mexican and Mexican American traditions, North American popular culture, Chicano cultural icons, and images and themes unique to the Southwest. Death, sexuality, and the struggle of the common people are frequent themes. Inspired by authors who write in an autobiographical style, Jimenez creates works that function as personal narrative yet are also able to make statements about culture in more global terms. His use of bold colors and lines, a legacy from his fathers work as a neon sign maker, lends a dynamic sensuality to his work, one that is particularly evident in his monumental fiberglass and acrylic urethane sculptural works Many of Jimenez's works correspond to scholar Toms Ybarra-Fraustos definition of the Chicano aesthetic of rasquachismo, a lowbrow sensibility that appeals to the working class in that it applies to objects that subvert expressions of the mainstream or dominant culture. Creating art that speaks to the people, Jimenez is able to transform regional and culturally specific myths and symbols into globally recognized and relevant icons. Exhibitions: In addition to his personal work, Jimenez has been commissioned for numerous public art projects. In 1999 his sculpture Southwest Piet was designated a National Treasure by First Lady Hillary Clinton. The many exhibitions featuring his work have included Human Concern/Personal Torment (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1969). The First International Motorcycle Art Show (Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ, 1973). Three Texas Artists (Centre Cultural Americaine, USIS, Paris, 1977), Recent Trends in Collecting (Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, 1982). Committed to Print (Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1989) Printmaking in Texas: The 1980s (Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX. Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, 1990. The Whitney Biennial (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1991) Man On Fire: Luis Jimnez (Albuquerque Museum of Art, NM, 1994-95). 47th Annual Purchase Exhibition (American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, 1995). Traveling solo exhibition, Working Class Heroes: Images from the Popular Culture (1997-2000). Jiménez Collier Gallery has been in continuous operation for over 40 years. Originally located just off Main Street in downtown Scottsdale, Arizona, we have moved to Phoenix to accommodate and showcase our large inventory including: • Original works by Maynard Dixon, Lon Megargee, Ed Mell, Fritz Scholder, Bill Schenck, Bill Lesch, Luis Jimenez, Greg Singley, Dan Budnik, and other 20th century Western, WPA and Contemporary Southwestern artists. • The Fine Art Estate of Lon Megargee • Vintage rodeo...

Jack Vettriano (1951-) is renowned for his film noir oil paintings and 1930s glam style. Uniquely Vettriano, ‘Young Hearts’ is set by the seaside inviting narratives about the figures in his work: relationships, anticipation, power and suggestion. Vettriano grew up by the Fife Scottish coast. He began painting beach scenes as a young adult, later developing his particular recognizable style and thematic imagery. His work was embraced by celebrities such as Madonna and Jack Nicholson and he has become hugely successful. His most famous painting, ‘The Singing Butler...

Artist: Yue Minjun Title: Untitled (Smile-ism No. 20) Year: 2006 Medium: Lithograph on Rives BFK paper Edition: 45; signed and numbered in pencil Sheet: 43.50 x 35.25 in. (110.5 x 8...

Marc Chagall, Original Lithograph depicting an instant of the Bible. Technique: Original lithograph in colours Year: 1956 Sizes: 35,5 x 26 cm / 14" x 10.2" (sheet) Published by: Édit...

Leonor Fini - Servants - Original Handsigned Lithograph Les Elus de la Nuit 1986 Conditions: excellent Handsigned and Numbered Edition: 230 Dimensions: 38 x 28 cm Editions: Trinckve...

after Henri Matisse - Acrobat Edition of 200 with the printed signature, as issued 76 x 56 With stamp of the Succession Matisse References : Artvalue - Succession Matisse

after Henri Matisse - Nude With Oranges Edition of 200 printed signature, as issued 76 x 56 cm Posthumous edition after the original drawing with the stamp of the Succession Matisse ...

Nelson Mandela, Hand of Africa, Signed Limited Edition Lithograph Many people are unaware that Nelson Mandela turned his hand to art in his 80's as a way of leaving a legacy for his ...

Bronze life-size male head with a dark brown patina. Sculpted in Florence Italy and casted in bronze just outside of the city. This is an earlier piece that holds a distinctly differ...

Jean Cocteau - Marine Mountains - Original Lithograph Dimensions: 38 x 28 cm Edition: 200 In Rives From: COCTEAU. — VERDET (André). Montagnes marines. S. l. (Paris), Les Messagers du...

Leonor Fini - Pregnant - Original Handsigned Lithograph Circa 1982 On colored paper Handsigned and Numbered Edition: 275 Dimensions: 69 x 52.5 cm Leonor Fini is considered one of the most important women artists of the mid-twentieth century, along with Leonora Carrington, Frida Kahlo, Meret Oppenheim, Remedios Varo, and Dorothea Tanning – most of whom Fini knew well. Her career, which spanned some six decades, included painting, graphic design, book illustration, product design (the renowned torso-shaped perfume bottle for Schiaparelli’s Shocking), and set and costume design for theatre, ballet, opera, and film. In this compellingly readable, exhaustively researched account, author Peter Webb brings Fini’s provocative art and unconventional personal life, as well as the vibrant avant-garde world in which she revolved, vividly in life. Born in Buenos Aires in 1907 (August 30 – January 18, 1996, Paris) to Italian and Argentine parents, Leonor grew up in Trieste, Italy, raised by her strong-willed, independent mother, Malvina. She was a virtually self-taught artist, learing anatomy directly from studying cadavers in the local morgue and absorbing composition and technique from the Old Masters through books and visits to museums. Fini’s fledging attempts at painting in Trieste let her to Milan, where she participated in her first group exhibition in 1929, and then to Paris in 1931. Her vivacious personality and flamboyant attire instantly garnered her a spotlight in the Parisian art world and she soon developed close relationships with the leading surrealist writers and painters, including Paul Eluard, Salvador Dali, Man Ray, and Max Ernst, who became her lover for a time. The only surrealist she could not abide because of his misogyny was André Breton. Although she repeatedly exhibited with them, she never considered herself a surrealist. The American dealer Julien Levy, very much impressed by Fini’s painting and smitten by her eccentric charms, invited her to New York in 1936, where she took part in a joint gallery exhibition with Max Ernst and met many American surrealists, including Joseph Cornell and Pavel Tchelitchew. Her work was included in MoMA’s pivotal Fantastic Art, Dada and Surrealism exhibition, along with De Chirico, Dali, Ernst, and Yves Tanguy. In 1939 in Paris she curated an exhibition of surrealist furniture for her childhood friend Leo Castelli for the opening of his first gallery. Introductions to her exhibition catalogues were written by De Chirico, Ernst, and Jean Cocteau. A predominant theme of Fini’s art is the complex relationship between the sexes, primarily the interplay between the dominant female and the passive, androgynous male. In many of her most powerful works, the female takes the form of a sphinx, often with the face of the artist. Fini was also an accomplished portraitist; among her subjects were Stanislao Lepri...

Tony Hochstetler's "Cowrie Shell" (2015) is an original handmade bronze sculpture that depicts the shell of a cowrie. TONY HOCHSTETLER is a sculptor of unusual animals and botanical...