Joseph O'Sickey Art

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Untitled, 1994 Pastel and oil on paper Signed and dated lower right 19.5 x 25.5 inches ...

Plum Branches and Flowers watercolor on wove paper, 1985 Signed and dated in pencil lower right corner From the artist's 1985 sketchbook Inspired by O'Sickey's love of Japanese and Chinese art and calligraphy. Provenance: Estate of the artist Condition: Excellent Image/Sheet size: 13 5/8 x 17 inches Joseph B. O’Sickey, Painter 1974 CLEVELAND ARTS PRIZE FOR VISUAL ARTS The title conferred on him by Plain Dealer art critic Steve Litt in a 1994 article, “the dean of painting in northeast Ohio,” must have pleased Joseph O'Sickey. It was more than 30 years since he had burst onto the local (and national) art scene. O’Sickey was already in his 40s in that spring of 1962 when he had his first one-man show at the Akron Art Museum and was signed by New York’s prestigious Seligmann Galleries, founded in 1888. In the decade and a half that followed, he would have seven one-man shows at Seligmann, which had showed the work of such trailblazing figures as Seurat, Vuilliard, Bonnard, Leger and Picasso, and appear in all of the group shows. O’Sickey took the Best Painting award in the 1962 May Show at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA). He and would capture the same honor in back-to-back May Shows in 1964 and ’65, and again in 1967. The remarkable thing, noted the Plain Dealer’s Helen Borsick, was that he accomplished this sweep in a variety of painterly styles, even using that most hackneyed of subjects, flowers. “The subject doesn’t matter,” he told her, “what the artist brings to it is the important thing.” O’Sickey’s garden and landscape paintings were big and bold, eschewing delicate detail in favor of vitality and impact. The great art collector and CMA benefactor Katherine C. White, standing before one of O’Sickey’s vivid garden paintings, compared the sensation to “being pelted with flowers.” Though he might represent an entire blossom with one or two smudged brush strokes or a stem with a simple sweep of green, O’Sickey rejected the moniker of Impressionist—or Pointillist or Abstract painter or Expressionist. “My work,” he said, “is a direct response to the subject. I believe in fervor and poetic metaphor. I try to make each color and shape visible and identifiable within the context of surrounding colors and shapes. A yellow must hold its unique quality from any another yellow or surrounding color, and yet read as a lemon or an object, by inference. It does not require shading or modeling—the poetic evocation is part of the whole.” “The subject,” O’Sickey used to tell his students at Kent State University, where he taught painting from 1964 to 1989, “has to be seen as a whole and the painting has to be structured to be seen as a whole.” He liked to think of it as “a process of controlled rapture.” When, in the 1960s, fond childhood memories drew him to the zoo, he found himself responding to the caged animals in their lonely dignity (or indignity) with sharp-edged, almost silhouette-like forms that evoked Matisse’s paintings and cut-paper assemblages. One observer was left with the impression that the artist had “looked at these animals, past daylight and into dusk when they lose their details in shadow and become pure shapes, with eyes that are seeing the viewer rather than the other way around. This is a world of shape and essence,” wrote Helen Borsick. “All is simplification.” O’Sickey attributed his ability to capture his subjects with just a few strokes—in an almost iconographic way—to a rigorous exercise he had imposed upon himself over a period of several months. Limiting his tools to a large No. 6 bristle brush and black ink, he set himself the task of drawing his pet parakeet and the other small objects in its cage (cuttlebone, feeding dish, tinkling bell) hundreds of times. The exercise gave him “invaluable insights into painting. . . . Because of the crudity of the medium, every part of these drawings had to be an invention and every mark had to have its room and clarity.” Then he began adding one color at a time—“still with the same brush and striving for the same clarity”—and headed off to the zoo where “the world opened up to me. I learned how little it took to express the subject.” Born in Detroit at the close of the First World War, O’Sickey grew up in St. Stanislaus parish near East 65th and Fleet on Cleveland’s southeast side. (The apostrophe was inserted into the family’s proud Polish name by a clerk at Ellis Island.) An early interest in drawing and painting may have been kindled by the presence on the walls of Charles Dickens Elementary School, one of only three grade schools in the district with a special focus on the arts, of masterful watercolors by such Cleveland masters as Paul Travis, Frank N. Wilcox and Bill Coombes. As a youngster O’Sickey took drawing classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art, and he and his brother spent hours copying famous paintings; while a student at East Tech High School in the mid-’30s, he attended free evening classes in life drawing with Travis and Ralph Stoll at the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Institute, and Saturday classes at the Cleveland School (later the Cleveland Institute) of Art, where he earned his degree in 1940 under the tutelage of Travis, Stoll and such other legendary figures as Henry Keller, Carl Gaertner, William Eastman, Kenneth Bates...

Untitled (Hot Air Balloon Ascent and Spectators) Sepia wash on wove paper, 1985 Signed and dated in ink lower right corner From the artist's 1985 sketchbook Probably a view of Cape C...

Mountain and Sky, Deer Island, Maine Watercolor on paper, 1985 Signed in ink lower right corner From the artist's 1985 sketchbook Done while at their summer home in Deer Island, Main...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Still Life with Fruit Bowl Watercolor and ink on paper Signed lower left 11 x 14 inches ...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Untitled, c. 1950 Oil on paper Signed lower right 12.5 x 19 inches Joseph O'Sickey, bo...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Sunflowers in Field Watercolor on paper Signed lower left 12.5. x 19 inches Joseph O'Si...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Still Life Oil and graphite on paper Signed lower left 12.25 x 18.75 inches Joseph O'Si...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Interior Still Life with Chair and Flowers Pastel and oil on green paper Signed lower ri...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Horseback Riders Pastel on brown paper Signed lower left 9.5 x 12.5 inches Joseph O'S...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Horses in Landscape Watercolor and graphite on paper Signed lower right 15 x 22 inches ...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Summer Trees Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 11.5 x 15.5 inches Joseph O'Sickey...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Picnic Watercolor and ink on paper Signed lower left 14.75 x 22 inches Joseph O'Sickey,...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Stable Scene Watercolor and graphite on paper Signed lower right 9 x 12.25 inches Josep...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Industrial Cityscape Oil on paper Signed lower left 13.75 x 16.5 inches Joseph O'Sicke...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Still Life with Oriental Instrument and Cat, 1998 Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower r...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Terrace in Shade, 1980 Oil on canvas Signed and dated upper right 48 x 60 inches Joseph...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Still Life with Wine Bottle, c. 1980 Oil on canvas Signed lower right 24 x 30 inches ...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Still Life with Fruit & Blanket Oil on canvas Signed lower right 50 x 42 inches 52.5 x 4...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) October Terrace, 1992 Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower right 72 x 62 inches Joseph O'Sickey, born in Detroit in 1918, was a painter and teacher throughout his career. As a child he attended Saturday classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Still Life with Pheasant and Owl Oil and pastel on canvas Signed lower left 60 x 72 inch...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Autumn Garden Still Life, 1990 Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower right 54 x 72 inches Joseph O'Sickey, born in Detroit in 1918, was a painter and teacher throughout his career. As a child he attended Saturday classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Hats, 2000 Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower right 48 x 54 inches Joseph O'Sickey, ...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Horses Prepared to Perform and Circus Truck, Circus Series, 1991 Oil on canvas Signed an...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Vases with Sunflowers, c. 1980 Oil on canvas 60 x 72 inches Joseph O'Sickey, born in Detroit in 1918, was a painter and teacher throughout his career. As a child he attended Saturday classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Two Owls Oil on board 15 x 10.5 inches Joseph O'Sickey, born in Detroit in 1918, was a ...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) At the Stable, 2000 Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower right 29 x 36 inches Joseph ...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Autumn Riders and Red Winged Black Birds, 1993 Oil ...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Interior with Green Chair, 1996 Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower right 36 x 30 inche...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Garden Series: Garden Behind Studio, 1991 Oil on canvas Signed lower right 36 x 42 inch...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Interior with Indian Cloths, 1990 Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower right 34 x 30 inches Joseph O'Sickey, born in Detroit in 1918, was a painter and teacher throughout his career. As a child he attended Saturday classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) April, 1965 Oil on canvas Signed lower left 30 x 24 inches Joseph O'Sickey, born in D...

Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Horse and Sulky, 1982 Oil on canvas Signed lower right 24.5 x 29.5 Exhibited: Canton Mus...

Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Landscape with Blue Chair Oil on canvas Signed lower right 23 x 18 inches Joseph O'Sickey, born in Detroit in 1918, was a painter and teacher throughout his career. As a child he attended Saturday classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art, which retains one of his paintings in its permanent collection, and the Cleveland Institute of Art, where he received a Bachelor's degree in 1940. He graduated from the Cleveland School of Art (now the Cleveland Institute of Art) in 1940 and taught at Ohio State University (1946-47), Akron Art Institute (1949-52), Western Reserve University School of Architecture (1956-64), and Kent State University (1964-89). Among the most honored painters active in the region, O'Sickey won the Cleveland Arts Prize in Visual Arts in 1974, and was called "a dean of painting in Northeast Ohio" by Steven Litt, art and architecture critic of the Plain Dealer. However, his work continued to develop through his 20s, strongly influenced by post...

Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Backyard Landscape Oil on canvas Signed lower right 5'10" x 6'7" Joseph O'Sickey, born in Detroit in 1918, was a painter and teacher through...