George Simmons Paintings

This small, expressive abstract painting invites the viewer to interpret an untold message. Part of an ongoing series. To view more of my artwork, scroll down and click into the bo...

Flowers, 70х50 cm

Small paintings are intimate and personal. They can be moved around easily and personalize a space. This black and white expressive abstract invites the viewer to interpret an untold...

David Rankin American (b. 1946) Untitled (Black on gray) (1990) Gouache and charcoal on paper signed lower left 19 x 15 inches Rankin is a New York-based, British-born Australian post-war and contemporary artist known for his expressionistic abstract paintings. His work can be categorized by his use of quick, loose brushstrokes, reminiscent of scribbles on a page. Rankin works predominantly in oil painting and acrylic on canvas, but also works with paper, prints, sculptures and ceramics. Rankin has held over 100 one-person exhibitions in cities across the world, including New York, London, Paris, Beijing, Mexico, Vienna, Berlin and Cologne, as well as all over Australia. Represented in many of the world’s leading public and private collections and museums, David Rankin’s work is featured in Australia’s leading institutions, including the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Victoria and Queensland Art Gallery. David Rankin was born in Plymouth, Devon, England in 1946 then emigrated to Australia with his family in 1948. He spent his childhood in the 1950s in the semi-rural Port Hacking region South of Sydney and his teenage years in country New South Wales, from Hay, Wagga Wagga and Albury in the South to Bourke and Brewarrina in the North. Rankin is self-taught, developing his techniques and ideas in the outback towns of his youth. He was inspired by the greats from Leonardo da Vinci to Paul Klee as well as being influenced by the history of Buddhism and Asian art. In his travels before he arrived in Sydney in 1967 he developed a concept of what he wanted to achieve as an Australian artist. His dream was to express the anima, the life spirit or the essence of God in all nature. As an Australian artist he believed could bring the elements of Western Art together with an understanding and love for the cultures of Asia and the Australian Aborigine. He also felt that as Australia was closer to Asia than Europe it made sense to think about the art of Indian, Chinese and Japanese artists, and that one could not be an authentic articulate Australian artist without a love and respect for the artistic and spiritual expressions of the various Aboriginal artists, peoples and cultures. His work combined elements of Abstract Expressionist painting with Jewish and Aboriginal influences. In 1979 his first wife, Jennifer Mary Roberts (née Haynes) died. Rankin subsequently met his current wife Lily Brett, whose own life was etched by tragedy with her parents being survivors of the Holocaust. She too migrated to Australia as a child after the Second World War in 1948. The artist recounts that his empathy for Lily and the pity for his first wife's death fused into what he calls "the dark blessing of my life." The darkness was transformed into images. The author Dore Ashton writes that the events of 1979 and the fire which ravished his studio in 1997 and burnt his art works and many personal possessions, had a profound impact on his work. Having personal life experiences as his subject matter, Rankin's paintings contemplate these things. For example, his Jerusalem series followed a trip to Jerusalem in 1988, which then led to his Golgotha works. His travels to the Australian, American and Mexican deserts became the subject matter for many of his canvases, such as Ridge – Mungo, Golden Prophecy – San Antonio, Grey Sonora Landscape and then led to his Witness Series. From the fire in his studio he then painted Buddha and Flames. He illustrated two books by Lily Brett on the holocaust and explored the theme further in his huge work The Drowned and The Saved from a book by Primo Levi of the same name. Through Brett he encountered Jewish mythology and painted judaica imagery, Black Menorah...

SALE ONE WEEK ONLY “Untitled #34” was created by Sam Gilliam, one of the great innovators in postwar American painting. It is dated and signed on the lower front. The thick handmade paper is rich with folds and texture and the colors lively. In addition to Acrylic paint on the surface there appears to be imbedded color in the handmade paper which has additional embossed accents. Unframed the piece measures 16 x 14. Provenance of Yaw Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan is on the verso along with the note that the Paper Surfaces in contact with this artwork are acid free. In the mid-1960s he emerged from the Washington D.C. scene with works that elaborated upon and disrupted the ethos of Color School painting. A series of formal breakthroughs would soon result in his canonical Drape paintings, which expanded upon the tenets of Abstract Expressionism in entirely new ways. One profound manner was the sculpture aspect of the painting giving it a free flowing expression of pure color. In the latter half of the 1950s, Washington D.C. saw a flourishing of abstract art that emphasized the form-making capabilities of pure color. Known as The Washington Color School, the loosely affiliated group of abstract painters knew each other through various teaching experiences. The moniker has an uncertain origin but likely originated with the title of a 1965 exhibition at the Washington Gallery of Modern Art, "Washington Color Painters," curated by Gerald Nordland. The show exhibited the works of Kenneth Noland, Paul Reed, Morris Louis, Howard Mehring, Thomas Downing, and Gene Davis. Additionally, Leon Berkowitz...

This sophisticated abstract painting was realized by the esteemed Mid Century artist, Jen Brisson in 1961. It features an abstract grid like composition created by intersecting verti...

So little with so much to say. This expressive abstract painting invites the viewer to interpret an untold message. Emphasis is on simplified composition with the use of paint, paper...

A cloud of silvery white floats across shimmering layers of turquoise and cerise in this abstract painting by Alice Teichert. The cloud appears above a flurry of calligraphic marks t...

This hand painted piece by Lucchetta is part of the op art series where he is able to catch movement with his unique technique. Lucchetta is challenging himself. His precise stable hand can be sometime mistaken to a work of a machine, a printer. But if you look close enough you are able to see that it is a work of a line master!! This piece comes framed in a white wooden frame. The measurements of the work with the frame is 17/17". Op art masters from the 20's century that are inspiration to Lucchetta's pieces are Victor Vasarely, Brigit Riley...

This modern abstract painting by Peter Keil is on a smooth masonite board with a painted grey background, black abstract portrait with many colors. Here you certainly see the Picasso...

Homage to the iconic Chanel Brand. This original artwork on paper combines textured brush strokes and textile collage elements. Surrounded by heavy texture, the focal point is a deta...

This hand painted piece by Lucchetta is part of the op art series where he is able to catch movement with his unique technique. Lucchetta is challenging himself. His precise stable hand can be sometime mistaken to a work of a machine, a printer. But if you look close enough you are able to see that it is a work of a line master!! This piece comes framed in a white wooden frame. The measurements of the work with the frame is 17/17". Op art masters from the 20's century that are inspiration to Lucchetta's pieces are Victor Vasarely, Brigit Riley...