Michael Kotasek Figurative 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...

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...

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 (...

John Hanlen (1922-2003). Flower Market, Lima Peru, ca. 1950. Tempera on paper, sheet measures 14.25 x 22.5 inches. Measurement with matting: 18.5 x 26.5 inches. The piece is unfra...

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...

American life is captured in this Clyde Singer painting, Snow in the City (1954), where he depicts an everyday moment in the city. An ordinary scene, of a group of women making thei...

New York City scene of two women walking down a sidewalk with a park in the background, in the foreground a man is walking a small dog. American life is captured in this Clyde Sing...

American life is captured in this Clyde Singer painting, Bill Bally Blacksmithing (1987), where he depicts a woman riding her bicycle by a historic and quintessential Minnesota busin...

A Native American scene entitled, The Day's Catch, shows a man fishing the river from his canoe with a net. Though mostly tonal, the sky and distant landscape pop with blue blue-gr...

John Hanlen (1922-2003). Beach Snack Shack, ca. 1950. Tempera on paper, sheet measures 18 x 23 inches. Measurement with matting: 26 x 31 inches. The piece is unframed. There is ...

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...

Flight by Zolton Sepeshy This is an important, large painting of an approaching storm on the sand dunes that line Michigan's coast, entitled Flight. Zolton Sepeshy, who lived and p...