Milan Kaplan Altabet Animal Drawings and Watercolors

Roland Ayers (1932-2014). The Split Second After, ca. 1959 Lithograph on paper, image measuring 14 × 18 inches. Sheet measuring 18 × 23 inches. Unframed. Minor staining of sheet...

Graves, Morris (American 1910-2001). TWO BIRDS. Brown Ink on tan paper, not dated. Although signed in pencil, lower right, the signature proved fugitive dur...

Grey tonal painting of a Falcon perched on a branch. The work is framed in a silver frame with a white matte. The artist signed the work in the bottom right corner. Artist Biograph...

"Abstraction" Mid-20th Century American Abstract 1960s Color Field Modernist James Daugherty (1887-1974) "Lascaux" 5 ¼ x 8 ¼ inches Pastel on paper Initialed lower left, titled lo...

Art Size : 11 x 14 in. Vintage Frame: 17 x 20 in. Signed and dated in pencil, bottom right. Media includes watercolor, acrylic, and pencil on paper. This vibrant, psychedelic and su...

Red Grooms Ruckus Rodeo, 1975 Acrylic and felt tip pen on paper Signed and dated in black felt marker Unique work Provenance: Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, with original label verso Fr...

We're pleased to showcase Mexican Master Rufino Tamayo's work on paper. Flying Bird portrays a bird flying over the mountains. Rufino Tamayo created this modernist and minimalist dra...

Kiki Smith Tiger Moth, 2020 Ink and colored pencil on Twin Rocker hand made paper with deckled edges Pencil signed and dated by Kiki Smith on the front Fram...

André Masson ( 1896-1987) Pencil study with annotations on the right side, acquired by the previous owner from Luis Masson son of Andrè Masson

Baldur Helgason drawing 2018: Baldur Helgason Jorgen the Dog Day: A robust, lively Helgason hand-drawing defined by the artist’s signature style. Med...

JACQUES LIPCHITZ Study for Bull and Condor, 1964 Original Ink on gouache on Paper drawing and signed lower left front Unique Held in the original vintage frame This work is from th...

Surrealist proto-Afropunk drawing by African-American artist, Roland Ayers (1932-2014). Animal Capers, ca. 1970 . Ink on illustration board, image measures 20 inches. inches; illustration panel measures 21.5 inches. Unsigned. Minor staining evident in detail photos Artist and art educator, Roland Ayers was born on July 2, 1932, the only child of Alice and Lorenzo Ayers, and grew up in the Germantown district of Philadelphia. Ayers served in the US Army (stationed in Germany) before studying at the Philadelphia College of Art (currently University of the Arts). He graduated with a BFA in Art Education, 1954. He traveled Europe 1966-67, spending time in Amsterdam and Greece in particular. During this period, he drifted away from painting to focus on linear figurative drawings of a surreal nature. His return home inaugurated the artist’s most prolific and inspired period (1968-1975). Shorty before his second major trip abroad in 1971-72 to West Africa, Ayers began to focus on African themes, and African American figures populated his work almost exclusively. In spite of Ayers’ travel and exploration of the world, he gravitated back to his beloved Germantown, a place he endowed with mythological qualities in his work and literature. His auto-biographical writing focuses on the importance of place during his childhood. Ayers’ journals meticulously document the ethnic and cultural make-up of Germantown, and tell a compelling story of class marginalization that brought together poor families despite racial differences. The distinctive look and design of Germantown inform Ayers’ visual vocabulary. It is a setting with distinctive Gothic Revival architecture and haunting natural beauty. These characteristics are translated and recur in the artist’s imagery. During his childhood, one of the only books in the Ayers household was an illustrated Bible. The images within had a profound effect on the themes and subjects that would appear in his adult work. Figures in an Ayers’ drawing often seem trapped in a narrative of loss and redemption. Powerful women loom large in the drawings: they suggest the female role models his journals record in early life. The drawings can sometimes convey a strong sense of conflict, and at other times, harmony. Nature and architecture seem to have an antagonistic relationship that is, ironically, symbiotic. A critical turning point in the artist’s career came in 1971 when he was included in the extremely controversial Whitney Museum show, Contemporary Black Artists in America. The exhibition gave Ayers an international audience and served as a calling card for introductions he would soon make in Europe. Ayers is a particularly compelling figure in a period when black artists struggled with the idea of authenticity. A questioned often asked was “Is your work too black, or not black enough?” Abstractionists were considered by some peers to be sell-outs, frauds or worse. Figurative* work was accused of being either sentimental or politically radical depending on the critical source. Ayers made the choice early on to be a figurative artist, but considered his work devoid of political content. Organizations such as Chicago’ s Afri-Cobra in the late 1960‘s asserted that the only true black art of any relevance must depict the black man and woman...