Skip to main content

Letterio Calapai. 1902-1993. Art

American, Italian, 1902-1993

As American art of the 1930s and 1940s has become increasingly sought after, Letterio Calapai’s wood engravings have been rediscovered, and there is a growing realization that he was among the more distinguished artists working in this idiom during this period. Born in Boston, Calapai studied at the Mass. School of Art, the Art Students League, and the American Artists School. He was a student of Robert Laurent, Ben Shahn, and Stanley Hayter. From 1949–55, he was chairman of the Graphics Arts Department at Albright Art School at Buffalo and taught at the New School in New York from 1955-62. He was the founder and director of the Intaglio Workshop for Advance Printmaking in New York from 1960–65 and then became a professor of art at the University of Illinois.

(Biography provided by Harris Schrank Fine Prints)
to
2
2
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
4
2
1
1
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
1
1
4
11,426
2,865
2,494
1,538
1
4
Artist: Letterio Calapai
Letterio Calapai, (Sky Abstraction), 1957, mid-century wood engraving
Letterio Calapai, (Sky Abstraction), 1957, mid-century wood engraving

Letterio Calapai, (Sky Abstraction), 1957, mid-century wood engraving

By Letterio Calapai

Located in New York, NY

Letterio Calapai is widely recognized as a major American artist of the twentieth century. He is widely respected as a printmaker, especially for engravings and wood engravings, and ...

Category

1950s American Modern Letterio Calapai. 1902-1993. Art

Materials

Woodcut

"Labor in a Diesel Plant" Machine Age American Scene Industrial Mid 20th Century
"Labor in a Diesel Plant" Machine Age American Scene Industrial Mid 20th Century

"Labor in a Diesel Plant" Machine Age American Scene Industrial Mid 20th Century

By Letterio Calapai

Located in New York, NY

"Labor in a Diesel Plant" Machine Age American Scene Industrial Mid 20th Century Letterio Calapai (American 1902-1993) ''Labor in A Diesel Plant'' Wood engraving, 1940 17 x 10 1/2...

Category

1940s American Modern Letterio Calapai. 1902-1993. Art

Materials

Lithograph

ROCKWELL KENT'S STUDIO
ROCKWELL KENT'S STUDIO

ROCKWELL KENT'S STUDIO

By Letterio Calapai

Located in Portland, ME

Calapai, Letterio. ROCKWELL KENT'S STUDIO. Wood engraving, 1980. Titled, numbered 7/75 and signed in pencil. 6 x 8 7/16 inches, 153 x 216 mm. In very good condition. Framed.

Category

1980s American Realist Letterio Calapai. 1902-1993. Art

Materials

Engraving, Woodcut

8:30 EXPRESS

8:30 EXPRESS

By Letterio Calapai

Located in Portland, ME

Calapai, Letterio (American, 1902-1993). 8:30 EXPRESS. Wood-engraving, 1943. Edition of 27, numbered "1/27" and titled and signed in pencil. 5 5/8 x 8 3/8 inches (image), 9 1/8 x 12 ...

Category

1940s Letterio Calapai. 1902-1993. Art

Materials

Woodcut

Related Items
"Mine Shaft", Soviet Union: An Early 20th C. Woodcut Engraving by Abramovitz
"Mine Shaft", Soviet Union: An Early 20th C. Woodcut Engraving by Abramovitz

"Mine Shaft", Soviet Union: An Early 20th C. Woodcut Engraving by Abramovitz

By Albert Abramovitz

Located in Alamo, CA

This is a signed woodcut engraving entitled "Mine Shaft" created by Albert Abramovitz in 1935, after a trip to the Soviet Union. It depicts two Russian workers constructing a mine sh...

Category

1930s Letterio Calapai. 1902-1993. Art

Materials

Woodcut

Untitled
Untitled

Kiki SmithUntitled, 1995

$4,000

H 31 in W 21 in

Untitled

By Kiki Smith

Located in New York, NY

Kiki Smith 'Untitled,' 1995 Woodcut with color additions by hand 31 x 21 inches Edition 43 of 47 Signed In 1995 five well-known American artists - Donald Baechler, Julian Lethbridge...

Category

1990s Letterio Calapai. 1902-1993. Art

Materials

Woodcut

Shunga: Twelve Signs of the Zodiac - Goat
Shunga: Twelve Signs of the Zodiac - Goat

Shunga: Twelve Signs of the Zodiac - Goat

Located in Fairlawn, OH

Shunga: Twelve Signs of the Zodiac - Goat Color woodcut with gauffrage (embossing) Unsigned (as usual) Format: Shikishiban Publisher: Privately produced Unusually well preserved with the fugitive blue still intact Image size: 5-1/8 x 5-3/4" Sheet size: 5 3/8 x 6 1/4" From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia In this Japanese name, the surname is Isoda. Isoda Koryūsai (礒田 湖龍斎, 1735–1790) was a Japanese ukiyo-e print designer and painter active from 1769 to 1790. Life and career Koryūsai was born in 1735 and worked as a samurai in the service of the Tsuchiya clan. He became a masterless rōnin after the death of the head of the clan and moved to Edo (modern Tokyo) where he settled near Ryōgoku Bridge in the Yagenbori area. He became a print designer there under the art name Haruhiro in 1769, at first making samurai-themed designs. The ukiyo-e print master Harunobu died in 1770, and about that time Koryūsai began making prints in a similar style of life in the pleasure districts. Koryūsai was a prolific designer of individual prints and print series,[1] most of which appeared between 1769 and 1881. In 1782, Koryūsai applied for and received the Buddhist honour hokkyō ("Bridge of the Law") from the imperial court and thereafter used the title as part of his signature. His output slowed from this time, though he continued to design prints until his death in 1790. Works Koryūsai created a total of 2,500 known designs, or an average of four a week. According to art historian Allen Hockley, "Koryūsai may ... have been the most productive artist of the eighteenth century". The series Models for Fashion: New Designs as Fresh Young Leaves (Hinagata wakana no hatsumoyō, 1776–1781) ran for 140 prints, the longest known ukiyo-e print series of beauties. He designed at least 350 hashira-e pillar prints, numerous kachō-e bird-and-flower prints, a great number of shunga erotic prints, and others. Ninety of his nikuhitsu-ga paintings are known, making him one of the most productive painters of the period. Legacy Despite Koryūsai's productivity and popularity—both in his time and amongst later collectors—his work has attracted little scholarship. The first ukiyo-e histories written in the West in the 19th century elevated certain artists as exemplars; Koryūsai's work came to be seen as too indebted to Harunobu, who died in 1770, and inferior to that of Kiyonaga, whose peak period came in the 1880s. An example is Woldemar von Seidlitz's Geschichte des japanischen Farbenholzschnittes ("History of Japanese colour prints", 1897), the most popular of the early ukiyo-e histories, which paints Koryūsai as a successor to Harunobu and a rival of Kiyonaga in the 1770s who slipped into mediocrity and imitation of his rival by the end of the decade.[5] Interest lay mainly in the details of Koryūsai's life—a samurai who received court honours was unusual in the proletarian world of ukiyo-e. In 2021, contemporary woodblock printmaker David Bull...

Category

1770s Other Art Style Letterio Calapai. 1902-1993. Art

Materials

Woodcut

GREETINGS FROM THE HOUSE OF WEYHE. Many Known Artists Inside the Gallery
GREETINGS FROM THE HOUSE OF WEYHE. Many Known Artists Inside the Gallery

GREETINGS FROM THE HOUSE OF WEYHE. Many Known Artists Inside the Gallery

Located in Santa Monica, CA

MAYBEL DWIGHT (1875 - 1955) GREETINGS FROM THE HOUSE OF WEYHE, 1928 Lithograph, signed in the plate. Image 7 1/8 x 8 3/8” + printed title. Sheet 8 ¼ x 9” as issued. Xmas card iss...

Category

1920s American Modern Letterio Calapai. 1902-1993. Art

Materials

Lithograph

Mystic Cafe, Pyramids Signed Aquatint Etching California Woman Artist Susan Hall
Mystic Cafe, Pyramids Signed Aquatint Etching California Woman Artist Susan Hall

Mystic Cafe, Pyramids Signed Aquatint Etching California Woman Artist Susan Hall

By Susan Hall

Located in Surfside, FL

Hand signed and numbered Aquatint Etching Susan Hall lives and works in Point Reyes Station, California, a town in the heart of the Point Reyes National Seashore. This pristine wil...

Category

1970s American Modern Letterio Calapai. 1902-1993. Art

Materials

Etching, Aquatint

Shadows, Garage at Night

Shadows, Garage at Night

By Martin Lewis

Located in New York, NY

Martin Lewis (1881-1962, Shadows, Garage at Night, drypoint, 1928, signed in pencil lower right [also signed in the plate lower right]. Reference: McCarron 69, only state, from the t...

Category

1930s American Realist Letterio Calapai. 1902-1993. Art

Materials

Drypoint

Kabuki Actors in the Play "Mimasu Mimasu Karigane Soga" Antique Japanese Print
Kabuki Actors in the Play "Mimasu Mimasu Karigane Soga" Antique Japanese Print

Kabuki Actors in the Play "Mimasu Mimasu Karigane Soga" Antique Japanese Print

By Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III)

Located in Austin, TX

Page Size: 13.5 x 27 in. Frame size: 21.5 x 33 in. This woodblock print depicts Kabuki Actors performing the play "Mimasu Mimasu Karigane Soga", from the Theater Nakamura. A dramat...

Category

19th Century Edo Letterio Calapai. 1902-1993. Art

Materials

Woodcut

Modernist Figurative Pop Art Etching and Aquatint "the Artist" Michael Mazur
Modernist Figurative Pop Art Etching and Aquatint "the Artist" Michael Mazur

Modernist Figurative Pop Art Etching and Aquatint "the Artist" Michael Mazur

By Michael Mazur

Located in Surfside, FL

Michael Mazur "The Artist" Hand signed and editioned from the edition of 50 1967 Michael Burton Mazur (1935-August 18, 2009) was an American artist who was described by William Grim...

Category

Early 2000s American Modern Letterio Calapai. 1902-1993. Art

Materials

Lithograph, Screen

"Actor Kataoka Nazaemon as Oboshi Yaranosuke Leader of the 47 Ronin" Portrait
"Actor Kataoka Nazaemon as Oboshi Yaranosuke Leader of the 47 Ronin" Portrait

"Actor Kataoka Nazaemon as Oboshi Yaranosuke Leader of the 47 Ronin" Portrait

By Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III)

Located in Austin, TX

Artist: Utagawa Kunisada "Toyokuni the Third" (Japanese 1786 - 1864) Page Size: 14 x 9.5 in. Frame Size: 21 x 16.25 Translation of Calligraphic Japanese Text: 大星由良之助 Ōboshi Yuranosu...

Category

Mid-19th Century Letterio Calapai. 1902-1993. Art

Materials

Paper, Woodcut

19th century woodcut engraving print figurative American forest trees scene
19th century woodcut engraving print figurative American forest trees scene

19th century woodcut engraving print figurative American forest trees scene

By Winslow Homer

Located in Milwaukee, WI

The present woodcut engraving is an original print designed by Winslow Homer, originally published in Harper's Weekly on April 30, 1859. It is an excellent example of the many prints Homer produced of fashionable people engaged in leisurely activities, in this case along a picturesque countryside lane. The sign reading 'Belmont' on the left indicates this is probably near his home in Belmont Massachusetts. The image presents multiple figures, both men and women, riding horseback: Some in the distance gallop away, toward a town marked by a church steeple beyond. Three others in the foreground, including two equestrian women, gather around a group of children who have been gathering flowers and trapping birds...

Category

1850s Victorian Letterio Calapai. 1902-1993. Art

Materials

Woodcut, Engraving

Female Figure and Skeletal Woodcut
Female Figure and Skeletal Woodcut

Female Figure and Skeletal Woodcut

By Paul Koch

Located in Houston, TX

Woodcut of female figure and skeleton by English artist Paul Koch, 1964. Signed lower right. 23/200 Original artwork on paper displayed on a white mat with a gold border. Mat fits ...

Category

1970s Letterio Calapai. 1902-1993. Art

Materials

Woodcut

Hilaire Hiler WPA Era Native American Fox Costume Color Serigraph 1934 Print
Hilaire Hiler WPA Era Native American Fox Costume Color Serigraph 1934 Print

Hilaire Hiler WPA Era Native American Fox Costume Color Serigraph 1934 Print

By Hilaire Hiler

Located in Denver, CO

An important 1934 WPA-era color serigraph by American modernist Hilaire Hiler (1898–1966), this dynamic work titled Native American Fox Costume exemplifies the artist’s bold synthesis of modernist abstraction, cultural symbolism, and avant-garde color theory. The composition depicts a stylized figure in ceremonial fox costume, poised with a bow and adorned with an elaborate feathered headdress, rendered in striking contrasts of black, red, and white. The result is a powerful visual rhythm that reflects both the graphic experimentation and cultural fascination characteristic of early twentieth-century American Modernism. Executed during the WPA period, this original serigraph demonstrates Hiler’s distinctive semi-abstract style, in which figuration is reduced to geometric structure and symbolic form. The flattened composition, bold outlines, and saturated palette create a sense of movement and ritual energy, reinforcing the work’s connection to mythic narrative and Native American-inspired themes common in WPA-era printmaking. The artist’s engagement with color theory and structural design is evident throughout, making this an especially strong example of his print oeuvre. Hilaire Hiler was a key figure in American modernism, known not only as a painter and printmaker but also as a color theorist and educator associated with WPA mural projects, including work for the Aquatic Park...

Category

1930s American Modern Letterio Calapai. 1902-1993. Art

Materials

Screen

Previously Available Items
"Labor in a Diesel Plant" Machine Age American Scene Industrial Mid 20th Century
"Labor in a Diesel Plant" Machine Age American Scene Industrial Mid 20th Century

"Labor in a Diesel Plant" Machine Age American Scene Industrial Mid 20th Century

By Letterio Calapai

Located in New York, NY

"Labor in a Diesel Plant" Machine Age American Scene Industrial Mid 20th Century Letterio Calapai (American 1902-1993) ''Labor in A Diesel Plant'' Wood engraving, 1940 17 x 10 1/2' inches (sight) Signed, titled and annotated 'artist's proof' and inscribed 'To Angelo Pastor with admiration' LC in pencil. BIO The outstanding printmaker Letterio Calapai (1902-1993) was born in Boston where he undertook basic art studies. In addition, he enrolled in the Art Students League in New York and named the following as his private teachers: Ben Shahn, Robert Laurent and Charles Hopkinson. Calapai became a member of the National Society of Mural Painters, the Atelier 17 Group of Northwest Printmakers, the Springfield, Massachusetts Art League and the Baltimore Watercolor Club, as well a the Society of American Graphic Artists. In 1934 Calapai turned to printmaking almost exclusively and exhibited three works at Salons of America: Eleanora, Odalisque and Portrait. In the same year at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts he exhibited The Negress. Two years later his watercolor, Maine Islands No. 7 was on view at the Art Institute of Chicago's winter show. In 1977 the Workshop Gallery in Glencoe, Illinois held a retrospective exhibition of Calapai's woodcuts and wood engravings. The artist's works are to be found in the following museums: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA), the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the New York Public Library, Columbia University, Princeton University, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Kunsthaus in Zurich, the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, in addition to many more museums all over the world. Calapai executed a mural in Brooklyn's 101st Battalion Armory and he illustrated books, for instance, Look Homeward, Angel, a portfolio of wood engravings inspired by Thomas Wolfe...

Category

1940s American Modern Letterio Calapai. 1902-1993. Art

Materials

Lithograph

The Pianist
The Pianist

Letterio CalapaiThe Pianist, 1941

Sold

H 7.57 in W 5.88 in

The Pianist

By Letterio Calapai

Located in Myrtle Beach, SC

Letterio Calapai, 'The Pianist', woodcut, 1941, edition 35. Signed, titled, numbered '22/35' and annotated 'To Dr. William Covington' in pencil. The artist...

Category

1940s American Modern Letterio Calapai. 1902-1993. Art

Materials

Woodcut

The Pianist
The Pianist

Letterio CalapaiThe Pianist, 1941

Sold

H 7.57 in W 5.88 in

The Pianist

By Letterio Calapai

Located in Myrtle Beach, SC

Letterio Calapai, 'The Pianist', woodcut, 1941, edition 35. Signed, titled, numbered '22/35' and annotated 'To Dr. William Covington' in pencil. The artist...

Category

1940s American Modern Letterio Calapai. 1902-1993. Art

Materials

Woodcut

Eight-thirty Express
Eight-thirty Express

Eight-thirty Express

By Letterio Calapai

Located in New York, NY

Letterio Calapai (1902-1993), Eight-Thirty Express, wood engraving, 1943, signed and dated ’43 lower right, titled and inscribed trial proof 3 bottom left in pencil [with the monogra...

Category

1940s American Modern Letterio Calapai. 1902-1993. Art

Materials

Engraving, Woodcut

Letterio Calapai art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Letterio Calapai art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Letterio Calapai in woodcut print, engraving and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the modern style. Not every interior allows for large Letterio Calapai art, so small editions measuring 16 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Frank Wootton, Felix de Weldon , and Cecil Crosley Bell. Letterio Calapai art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $375 and tops out at $2,800, while the average work can sell for $1,650.

Artists Similar to Letterio Calapai