John Opper Figurative Paintings
American, 1908-1994
John Opper described the 1930s as a "great gestation period" for his art. "I thought the Thirties was a very vital time for American art. . . . With the WPA, you got together whether it was the [Artists'] Union or the [American Artists'] Congress or whether it was a bar. . . and you talked about art, and you heard about important artists, and you began to live art." But Opper also remembered the thirties as a period of breakdown in the vitality of American art; "we became aware that a great deal was missing."
Academically trained like many of his contemporaries, Opper came to New York in 1934, two years after his graduation from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. As a youth, he had taken Saturday art classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art and later studied at the Cleveland School of Art and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. When he arrived in New York he was a well-trained painter, adept at rendering still lifes and particularly landscapes depicting the American scene. A reviewer of his 1937 exhibition at the Artists' Gallery in New York, for example, wrote about Opper's "colloquial flavor … spontaneity and an imaginative use of color which conveys just the feeling" that the subjects—East River tugboats, old garages, and scenes around Manhattan— suggested.
By 1937 Opper had become familiar with modernism, though he was not yet converted to the cause. Indeed, his 1937 show was made up of the still popular regionalist paintings. Earlier, in 1935 and 1936, he studied with Hans Hofmann and began to think in terms of forces and tensions within the picture plane. He met Wilfrid Zogbaum, Giorgio Cavallon, Byron Browne, Rosalind Bengelsdorf, and George McNeil, with whom he shared a studio. He paid frequent visits to Gallatin's Gallery of Living Art. He joined the WPA easel project in 1936 and began to paint in "a kind of transformed cubist style."
When war came, Opper worked for three years with a marine architectural firm making drawings for the pipe systems of PT boats. After the war, he taught at the University of Wyoming and the University of Alabama, and between 1952 and 1957, he was on the faculty at the University of North Carolina. In 1957, he began teaching at New York University, where he remained until his retirement in 1974.to
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Artist: John Opper
Ninth Avenue El (New York City), Mid 20th Century Cityscape Oil painting
By John Opper
Located in Beachwood, OH
John Opper (American, 1908-1994)
Ninth Avenue El (New York City), c. 1935
Oil on canvas
Signed lower left and verso
30.125 x 24 inches
The Ninth Avenue El was the first elevated rai...
Category
1930s American Modern John Opper Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil
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John Opper figurative paintings for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic John Opper figurative paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by John Opper in oil paint, paint and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 1930s and is mostly associated with the modern style. Not every interior allows for large John Opper figurative paintings, so small editions measuring 24 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Clarence Holbrook Carter, Byron Browne, and Simka Simkhovitch. John Opper figurative paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $12,000 and tops out at $12,000, while the average work can sell for $12,000.