Michael Kotasek Paintings

Monumental, important WPA painting signed by Percy Albee. The painting is oil canvas measuring 36" x 48". Titled verso "New Americans", this WPA painting was exhibited at the Carnegi...

"Old Shoemaker" Ashcan 20th Century Modernism 1924 California WPA Realism Worker. Signed “Otis Oldfield” lower left. 14 x 12 inches. Exhibited: Galerie des Beaux Arts, San Francisco, CA, 1925 Provenance: Estate of the Artist Born in Sacramento, CA on July 3, 1890, Otis Oldfield left high school at age 16 to work in a local print shop. In 1909 he arrived in San Francisco and enrolled at the Best Art School. After working for two years as a bellhop at the Argonaut Hotel and as a hat check boy at the Cliff House, he had saved enough money for further studies in Paris. In 1911 he sailed for France and enrolled at Académie Julian. Caught up in the activities of wartime Paris, he was an apprentice for a book...

**Technical Sheet** **Title:** "Street of the Old Quarter" **Author:** British School, 19th Century **Date:** 1892 **Technique:** Oil on canvas **Dimensions:** 14.17 x 10.63 inc...

An ordinary scene of a woman walking down a sidewalk in the rain is elevated to a little gem of a painting. American life is captured in this Clyde Singer painting, Puddle Jumper (...

This mural study is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1930s Industry and Commerce, 1936, tempera on panel, 16 ½ x 39 ½ inches, signed verso “John Ballator, Portland Ore.” provenance includes: J.C. Penney Company, represented by Russell Tether Fine Arts Assoc.; presented in a newer wood frame About the Painting Industry and Commerce is a prime example of WPA Era muralism. Like a Mediaeval alter, this mural study is filled with icons, but the images of saints and martyrs are replaced with symbols of America's gospel of prosperity through capitalism. Industry and Commerce has a strong narrative quality with vignettes filling the entire surface. Extraction, logistics, design, power generation, and manufacturing for printing, chemicals, automobiles and metal products are all represented. To eliminate any doubt about the mural's themes, Ballator letters a description into the bottom of the study. Ballator also presents an idealized version of industrial cooperation, as his workers, lab-coated technicians and tie-wearing managers work harmoniously toward a common goal in the tidy and neatly designed environments. Although far from the reality of most industrial spaces, Ballator's study reflects the idealized and morale boosting tone that many mural projects adopted during the Great Depression. About the Artist John R Ballator achieved success as a muralist, lithographer, and teacher during the Great Depression. Born in Oregon, he studied at the Portland Museum Art School, the University of Oregon and at Yale University where he received a Bachelor of Fine Art. In 1936, Ballator was commissioned to paint a mural panel for the new Department of Justice Building in Washington DC, an important project that spanned five years with several dozen artists contributing a total of sixty-eight designs. Ballator completed murals for the St. Johns Post Office and Franklin High School, both in Portland, Oregon. He also contributed to the 1938 murals at Nathan Hale School in New Haven, Connecticut. During the late 1930s, Ballator taught art for several years at Washburn College in Topeka, Kanas, where he completed a mural for the Menninger Arts & Craft Shop before accepting a professorship at Hollins College...

The work belongs to the American School of trompe-l’œil painting, a genre that flourished in the 19th century, delighting viewers with illusions of reality. The composition presents ...

The danger of American life is captured in this Clyde Singer painting, City Peril (1958), where he depicts a moment in the city where a woman is targeted while walking. An accomplish...

Clyde Singer captures the moment when two friends open a letter with shocking news. A master of capturing the small and significant moments of everyday life, Singer realistically po...

This charming rural winter scene of ice skaters fully displays Norman Rockwell's America, but it was painted by female artist Charlotte Joan Sternberg. She combines the mid-century A...

A mid-century American Realist scene of children playing on the railroad entitled, London Round House. The chaotic scene of children rambunctiously playing is suspected to be set in...

A dynamic narrative painting titled A Surprise Dinner Guest (or An Unexpected Guest), showing the moment an outdoorsman sees the bear approaching his snowy campsite. Presented in a...

American life is captured in this Clyde Singer painting, Red Coat, where he depicts a woman walking down the street towards her destination in 1956. An accomplished American Scene pa...