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David Rankin, American (b. 1946) Rocky Hillside, (1990) Oil on paper Hand signed lower right, signed and titled verso. 30 x 22 1/2 inches David Rankin is a New York-based, British-born Australian post-war and contemporary artist known for his expressionistic abstract paintings. His work can be categorized by his use of quick, loose brushstrokes, reminiscent of scribbles on a page. Rankin works predominantly in oil painting and acrylic on canvas, but also works with paper, prints, sculptures and ceramics. Rankin has held over 100 one-person exhibitions in cities across the world, including New York, London, Paris, Beijing, Mexico, Vienna, Berlin and Cologne, as well as all over Australia. Represented in many of the world’s leading public and private collections and museums, David Rankin’s work is featured in Australia’s leading institutions, including the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Victoria and Queensland Art Gallery. David Rankin was born in Plymouth, Devon, England in 1946 then emigrated to Australia with his family in 1948. He spent his childhood in the 1950s in the semi-rural Port Hacking region South of Sydney and his teenage years in country New South Wales, from Hay, Wagga Wagga and Albury in the South to Bourke and Brewarrina in the North. Rankin is self-taught, developing his techniques and ideas in the outback towns of his youth. He was inspired by the greats from Leonardo da Vinci to Paul Klee as well as being influenced by the history of Buddhism and Asian art. In his travels before he arrived in Sydney in 1967 he developed a concept of what he wanted to achieve as an Australian artist. His dream was to express the anima, the life spirit or the essence of God in all nature. As an Australian artist he believed could bring the elements of Western Art together with an understanding and love for the cultures of Asia and the Australian Aborigine. He also felt that as Australia was closer to Asia than Europe it made sense to think about the art of Indian, Chinese and Japanese artists, and that one could not be an authentic articulate Australian artist without a love and respect for the artistic and spiritual expressions of the various Aboriginal artists, peoples and cultures. His work combined elements of Abstract Expressionist painting with Jewish and Aboriginal influences. In 1979 his first wife, Jennifer Mary Roberts (née Haynes) died. Rankin subsequently met his current wife Lily Brett, whose own life was etched by tragedy with her parents being survivors of the Holocaust. She too migrated to Australia as a child after the Second World War in 1948. The artist recounts that his empathy for Lily and the pity for his first wife's death fused into what he calls "the dark blessing of my life." The darkness was transformed into images. The author Dore Ashton writes that the events of 1979 and the fire which ravished his studio in 1997 and burnt his art works and many personal possessions, had a profound impact on his work. Having personal life experiences as his subject matter, Rankin's paintings contemplate these things. For example, his Jerusalem series followed a trip to Jerusalem in 1988, which then led to his Golgotha works. His travels to the Australian, American and Mexican deserts became the subject matter for many of his canvases, such as Ridge – Mungo, Golden Prophecy – San Antonio, Grey Sonora Landscape and then led to his Witness Series. From the fire in his studio he then painted Buddha and Flames. He illustrated two books by Lily Brett on the holocaust and explored the theme further in his huge work The Drowned and The Saved from a book by Primo Levi of the same name. Through Brett he encountered Jewish mythology and painted judaica imagery, Black...

PIOTR BUTKIEWICZ (born in 1966) Butkiewicz obtained his education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław. He graduated in 1991 in the sculpture studio of prof. Leon Podsiadły. He pra...

Untitled XXXII is a unique oil on free-standing canvas painting by contemporary artist Ferle, dimensions are 200 cm × 140 cm (78.7 × 55.1 in). The artwork is signed, sold unframed an...

A nice abstract oil painting by American artist Donald Hugo Stoltenberg (1927-2016). Stoltenberg was born in Milwaukee, WI, attended public grade school in Chicago, and High School i...

Harrison Gilman's large original artworks begin with a layer of fast-paced gestural abstraction followed by organic shapes and geometric structures. Some of his paintings remain in t...

Harrison Gilman's large original artworks begin with a layer of fast-paced gestural abstraction followed by organic shapes and geometric structures. Some of his paintings remain in t...

A fine abstract in brown tones by American artist David Lund (b. 1925). David Lund’s illustrious painting career spans over 65 years. Born in New York, the...

Contemporary abstraction oil on canvas painting by Polish artist Iwona Delinska. Artwork is painted with different density paint which makes every layer of composition dynamic. Some ...

A fine Mid Century vertical abstract expressionist oil painting by Panamanian artist Antonio Alvarado (b. 1938). Antonio studied under the figurative ...

Blue Yonder is an original oil over acrylic on canvas painting by American artist Monroe Hodder. Hodder’s abstract paintings are gloriously bold. Inspired by the urban backdrops of h...

Study For Moby Dick is an original oil on canvas painting by American artist Monroe Hodder. Hodder’s abstract paintings are gloriously bold. Inspired by the urban backdrops of her li...

Sergei Inkatov’s original, abstract fine art oil paintings have been exhibited internationally. His expressionistic artworks are vivid and richly textured. Inkatov’s paintings radiat...