John Atherton Art
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Artist: John Atherton
The Bass Season by John Atherton
Located in New Orleans, LA
John Atherton
1900-1952 American
The Bass Season
Saturday Evening Post cover, June 29, 1946
Signed "Atherton" (lower right)
Inscribed "The Bass Season opens in the east July 1st /...
Category
20th Century American Modern John Atherton Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Landscape Abstraction - Mid-Century - Twenty Paintings in One
Located in Miami, FL
When it comes to abstract painting, the creation date is important. At the height of Abstraction Expressionism, overlooked Academic Artist John Atherton created a wonderfully complex painting that embodies many of the characteristics of what was going on in Mid-Century American Art. The work is simultaneously abstract as it is representational. Like a Bento Box, it's divided into sections by dividers. On close inspection, each section stands on it's own as a beautiful mini-painting yet coalesces as part of the whole. From a distance, it is eye-pleasing, but as the view gets closer and closer, new structures and details gloriously reveal themselves. This is an important painting and not unlike the work of Joaquín Torres-García. It was done in the last year of the artist's life. Signed lower right. Canvas is relined. Framed size: 30 x 41.25. The work is best viewed with top gallery lights to bring out color.
Color will look different under different lighting conditions. Atherton exhibited at the famous Julien Levy Gallery in New York and his fine art is mainly associated with Magic Realism. He participated in the seminal 1943 Museum of Modern Art exhibition, American Realists and Magic Realists. The Museum of Modern Art has 4 Atherton paintings in its collection. As an Illustrator, Atherton did covers for the Saturday Evening Post, Fortune and Holiday Magazine...
Category
1950s Abstract Expressionist John Atherton Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Original Resilio Scotchspun Heiland Lassie vintage fashion poster
Located in Spokane, WA
Original horizontal “Resilio Scotchspun” vintage fashion poster. Archival linen backed and presents in excellent condition. “A Bonnie Heila...
Category
1940s American Modern John Atherton Art
Materials
Lithograph
$719 Sale Price
20% Off
A Careless Word - Another Cross Original Poster WWII by John Atherton c1943
Located in Boca Raton, FL
Created during the Second World War by Atherton, this dramatic and gripping image tells the viewer to be diligent in not giving out information about the War Effort in the United Sta...
Category
1940s John Atherton Art
Materials
Lithograph
Bird in Cage
Located in New York, NY
Gouache on board, 20 x 24 in.
Signed (at lower right): Atherton
Painted about 1940
RECORDED: Art News (May 11, 1940), illus. [clipping citation]
EXHIBITED: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1940, The International Watercolor Exhibition, no. 156, illus. on cover as Bird in Cage...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern John Atherton Art
Materials
Tempera, Wood Panel
Landscape in Winter
Located in Miami, FL
At a time when Abstract Expressionism was raging, realist painterJohn Atherton nods his head to the movement with a semi-abstract work. Meticulously rendered and carefully thought o...
Category
1950s Abstract Geometric John Atherton Art
Materials
Oil
The Cavern 1950 painting by John Atherton
Located in Hudson, NY
Signed lower right: "Atherton", inscribed "John Atherton Original Tempera 7/28/50" on verso.
Artwork measures 16" x 20" and framed 20" x 24" x 2 ½"
About this artists: John Atherton (1900-1952) did not show an early aptitude for art; rather, his first love was nature and the activities he relished there, mainly fishing and hunting. Born in Brainerd, Minnesota in 1900, he learned to fish with his father from the age of four. Later the family moved to Spokane, Washington, and when he was old enough, Atherton worked at a variety of jobs to help support his family. One such job, in the sorting plant of a lead and silver mine, paid $4.25 a day—a good wage, though he never had time to spend his money, since he worked seven days a week.
After serving in the Navy for a year during World War I, Atherton was determined to get an education. He worked as a sign painter and played the banjo in a dance band, finally accumulating enough money to enroll in the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Once there, he worked like a fiend, attending classes both during the day and at night, getting the best training available.
Though he had always intended to be a fine artist, Atherton’s first jobs were for commercial art firms. In 1929, using the prize money won for a painting he entered in an art competition, Atherton and his wife moved to New York City. Though the economic situation was difficult in those years, he managed to keep going by taking commissions for magazine illustrations, and over the years he would paint more than forty covers for The Saturday Evening Post.
In 1938, an artist friend suggested that he use the same flat, decorative style as his commercial work for his gallery paintings. This was a breakthrough for Atherton; soon afterwards he held a one-man show at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York, and his paintings began to be collected by museums including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Atherton’s reputation increased to a national scale when he designed the art deco stone lithograph poster for the 1939 World’s Fair that strikingly depicted Earth and its atmospheric layers in the lap of Liberty.
Atherton was highly influenced by the magic realist...
Category
1950s Modern John Atherton Art
Materials
Masonite, Tempera
Guns, rifle and Shells Abstraction
Located in Miami, FL
An intriguing and complex composition composed of guns, rifles, ammo and a bullseye. Work is housed in a rustic Heydenryk frame.
Category
1940s Abstract John Atherton Art
Materials
Gouache, Board
Thought Provoking Rock Quarry - Mid Century Abstract
Located in Miami, FL
This meticulously planned, designed, and executed work depicts an ultra-wide angle view of a rock quarry/mine. The viewer looks down at close-up-stylized rock formations and then out at a horizon line with rust-colored mine trestles. Atherton hints at perspective with a broken white line that is wider in the foreground and tapers to a hairline as it recedes to the background. The work was done in 1951 at the height of America's most important art movement: Abstract Expressionism. John Atherton absorbs its influences but retains elements of representation. Atherton was an in-demand commercial artist who worked for most blue-chip clients. It is possible that this was an editorial assignment for Fortune Magazine. At the same time, Atherton was also a fine artist and the work could be an expression of pure creative pursuits. The work looks better in person and one can look at it for hours and not get bored. Look carefully and you may discover a deeper meaning in this painting of precisely arranged rocks. Signed lower right.
Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, sold to benefit the acquisitions program
____________________
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Carlton Atherton (January 7, 1900 - September 16, 1952) was an American painter and magazine illustrator, writer and designer. His works form part of numerous collections, including the Museum of Modern Art,[1] Whitney Museum of American Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.[2][3][4]
Early Years
He was the son of James Chester Atherton (1868-1928) and Carrie B. Martin (1871-1909). He was born in Brainerd, Minnesota.[5] His father was Canadian born. His parents relocated from Minnesota to Washington State, with his maternal grandparents whilst he was still an infant. He attended high school in Spokane, Washington.
Career
During his early years he never displayed an aptitude for art; rather, his first love being nature and the activities he relished there, mainly fishing and hunting. He enlisted in 1917, serving briefly in the U.S. Navy for a year during World War I. At the end of the war, determined to get an education he worked various part-time jobs, as a sign painter and playing a banjo in a dance band to pay his enrolment fee at the College of the Pacific and The California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute). Once there, he also worked in the surrounding studios developing his oil painting techniques.
A first prize award of $500 at the annual exhibition of the Bohemian Club in 1929, financed his one way trip to New York City, which helped to launch his career as an artist.[6]
Atherton had aspired to be a fine artist, however his first paid jobs were for commercial art firms designing advertisements for corporations such as General Motors, Shell Oil, Container Corporation of America, and Dole. However, by 1936, encouraged primarily by friends, such as Alexander Brook, an acclaimed New York realist painter, he returned to the fine arts.
Atherton continued to accept numerous commissions for magazine illustrations; such as Fortune magazine, and over the years he would paint more than forty covers for The Saturday Evening Post starting with his December 1942 design, “Patient Dog.” This picture is reminiscent of his friend Norman Rockwell ‘Americana style’ and captures a poignant moment of nostalgia, where a loyal dog looks toward a wall of hunting equipment and a framed picture of his owner in military uniform.
Selected One person Exhibitions
Atherton accomplished his first one-man show in Manhattan in 1936. His Painting, “The Black Horse” won the $3000 fourth prize from among a pool of 14,000 entries. This painting forms part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection in New York.[7]
Atherton achieved recognition in New York City and elsewhere during the 1930s. Having exhibited at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York,[8] his paintings began to be collected by museums; including the Museum of Modern Art[9] and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
His reputation increased with his art deco stone lithograph poster for the 1939 New York World's Fair. In 1941, his design won first place in the Museum of Modern Arts “National Defense Poster Competition”.
Selected Public Collections
Fleming Museum of Art, Burlington, Vermont
Albright-Knox Art Gallery,[10] Buffalo, NY
Art Institute of Chicago,[11] Chicago
Wadsworth Atheneum,[12] Hartford, CT
Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Museum of Modern Art,[13] New York
Whitney Museum of American Art,[14] New York
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,[15] Philadelphia
De Young Museum,[16] San Francisco
Smithsonian American Art Museum,[17] Washington DC
Butler Institute of American Art[18] Youngstown, OH
The Famous Artists School
Founded in 1948 in Westport, Connecticut, U.S.A. The idea was conceived by members of the New York Society of Illustrators (SOI), but due to the Society's legal status, could not be operated by it. SOI member Albert Dorne led the initiative to set up a separate entity, and recruited the support of Norman Rockwell, who was also an SOI member. For the founding faculty, Dorne recruited Atherton, as well as accomplished artists such as Austin Briggs, Stevan Dohanos, Robert Fawcett, Peter Helck, Fred Ludekens, Al Parker, Norman Rockwell, Ben Stahl, Harold von Schmidt and Jon Whitcomb.[19]
He collaborated with Jon Whitcomb with the book “How I Make a Picture: Lesson 1-9, Parts 1”.[20][21]
Society of Illustrators
Atherton as an active member from his arrival in New York. The society have owned many of his works. Ex-collection includes:
Rocking Horse (ca. 1949) [22]
Atherton, as his peers had many of his works framed by Henry Heydenryk Jr.[23]
Personal
On November 2, 1926, he married Polly “Maxine” Breese (1903-1997).[24][25] They had one daughter, Mary Atherton, born in 1932.
Atherton's often chose industrial landscapes, however found himself spending considerable time in Westport, Connecticut, with an active artistic community, and it became home for him, and his family. He then moved to Arlington, Vermont.[26]
Norman Rockwell enlisted Atherton in what was to be the only collaborative painting in his career.[27]
He was part of a group of artists including a Norman Rockwell, Mead Schaeffer and George Hughes who established residences in Arlington.[28] Atherton and Mead Schaeffer were avid fly fishermen and they carefully chose the location for the group,[29] conveniently located near the legendary Battenkill River.
In his free time, Atherton continued to enjoy fly-fishing.[30] He brought his artistic talent into the field of fishing,[31] when he wrote and illustrated the fishing classic, “The Fly and The Fish”.[32]
He died in New Brunswick, Canada in 1952,[33] at the age of 52 in a drowning accident while fly-fishing.[34]
Legacy
The Western Connecticut State University holds an extensive archive on this artist.[35]
His wife, Maxine also published a memoir “The Fly Fisher and the River” [36] She married Watson Wyckoff in 1960.
Ancestry
He is a direct descendant of James Atherton,[37][38] one of the First Settlers of New England; who arrived in Dorchester, Massachusetts in the 1630s.
His direct ancestor, Benjamin Atherton was from Colonial Massachusetts...
Category
1950s Abstract Expressionist John Atherton Art
Materials
Mixed Media, Gouache, Board
Art Deco Woman in Classical Robes set in Stylized Landscape
Located in Miami, FL
Woman in Surreal Landscape Illustration
Published: Woman's Home Companion December 1939, "How to Pray"
By Ralph Sadler Meadowcroft
Work is Unframed
Category
1930s Art Deco John Atherton Art
Materials
Tempera
$44,000 Sale Price
24% Off
Monroe Street Bridge, Saturday Evening Post cover, June 12, 1948
Located in Fort Washington, PA
In this iconic Saturday Evening Post cover, the artist paints himself as the solitary fisherman underneath a Monroe Street Bridge in Spokane, Washington....
Category
1940s John Atherton Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Rocking Horse Children's Room
Located in Miami, FL
Eye-pleasing example of understated and muted colors. Gouache on masonite Ex-collection the Society of Illustrators Meticulously rendered in a post-cubist manner in subtle earth ton...
Category
1940s Abstract Geometric John Atherton Art
Materials
Gouache
Mining for Ore, Saturday Evening Post Cover, 1947
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Medium: Oil Painting
Signature: Signed Lower Left
Contact for exact dimensions.
Saturday Evening Post Cover, November 22, 1947
Category
1940s John Atherton Art
Materials
Oil, Panel, Board
Shotgun Hunting Abstract with Shooting Bullseye
Located in Miami, FL
Complex and masterfully thought out the composition of rifle, gun shells, target shapes, and buck shots. Most likely done for a ad or men's magazine.
Signed lower right Atherton. Housed in a rustic House of Heydenryk frame...
Category
1940s Post-Modern John Atherton Art
Materials
Gouache, Board
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John Atherton art for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic John Atherton art 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 purple and other colors. You can also browse by medium to find art by John Atherton 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 abstract style. Not every interior allows for large John Atherton art, so small editions measuring 1 inch across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Carl Holty, Julie Heffernan, and Robert Freiman. John Atherton art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $2,168 and tops out at $138,500, while the average work can sell for $39,500.