Nancy Berlin Art

A vivid and conceptually rich example of mid-century abstraction, this watercolor by Hildegarde Haas transforms music into color through the artist’s extraordinary ability to experie...

This painting is part of a new series that embodies my ongoing artistic journey. I begin each piece with an initial idea or thought. However, as the painting evolves, I find myself r...

Sol LeWitt Unique Geometric Abstraction on Postcard, 1982 Original drawing done on postcard from the Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam), mailed, stamped and postmarked (franked) from Spolet...

"Continuum" Abstract Painting 48" x 60" inch by Carole Baines Carole Baines is a self-taught, London-born artist based between Townsville and Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Carole...

William Fredericksen Untitled mid century modern geometric abstraction, 1958-1959 Watercolor and Gouache on Board Hand signed and dated on the front 12 4/5 × 11 7/10 inches Unframed ...

This work is part of our exhibition Marina Stern Luminary, the first retrospective of the artist since 2007. Previously exhibited: Marina Stern Paintings, Eleanor Rigelhaupt Gallery...

Untitled Mixed media on paper, 1979 Signed and dated ‘79 lower right (see photo) Sheet size: 31 1/2 x 48" Frame: 34 1/4 x 50 1/4" Provenance: Members Gallery, Albright-Knox Art Galle...

TUSET (1997, A Coruña, España) Mixed media painting on paper Ready to frame One-of-a-kind Signed on back Includes certificate of authenticity 2021 65 x 50 cm. It belongs to the ser...

Untitled (Abstraction) Mixed media on paper, 1980 Signed and dated 1980 lower right (see photo) Condition: Excellent, unframed Sheet size: 31 1/2 x 47 1/2 inches Provenance: Jan Cowl...

Simon Samsonian (1912 - 2003) Colorful Geometric Abstraction, 1981 Oil on paper 16 x 22 inches Signed and dated lower right Provenance: Estate of the artist This survivor of the Armenian genocide wound up in a Cairo orphanage in 1927. He rose to fame as one of Egypt’s great modernists, but after moving to Long Island late in life he withdrew into anonymity. Now his compelling story is being told. Art historians are finally beginning to realize that the power of abstraction in its early years was a zeitgeist not limited to the major European centers of the avant-garde — Paris, Munich, and Moscow — but one that quickly rippled to major cities throughout the world. Within a few decades that original shock of a new vision had inspired thousands of artists from different cultures — particularly those the Middle East — whose translations were not slavish imitations of works by seminal figures like Picasso, Braque, Malevich, and Kandinsky but creative variants colored by their respective cultures. This essay focuses on an extraordinary Armenian artist, his harrowing survival of the genocide, his rise to fame in Cairo, and his creation of a unique style of abstraction. Art historians have typically formed a chorus that teaches the history of abstraction like this: Just before and during the World War I era, several avant-garde artists emerged to create shockingly different new forms by which artists could express themselves. In Paris, Picasso and Braque broke out with cubism, quickly followed by Mondrian. In Moscow, Malevich created Suprematism, the ultimate hard-edge geometric abstraction. And in Munich, Kandinsky emerged as the father of Abstract Expressionism. Within these few short years a zeitgeist was sensed throughout the art world. American pioneers, too — particularly Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Morgan Russell — felt this explosive freedom of expression. When Europe was recovering after World War I it became clear that Paris would retain its title as capitol of the art world, lasting through the Roaring Twenties and even through the Great Depression. But the end of World War II changed everything. A parallel war had been won by a group of irascible young Abstract Expressionists in New York — led by Pollock, Rothko, DeKooning, and Kline. No sooner had Paris been liberated from the Germans than Picasso, Matisse, Breton, and Duchamp surrendered to the Americans. From that point on New York would be the epicenter of the art world. But a lens that focuses myopically on the war between the avant-garde of Paris and New York misses the wider narrative of multiple aesthetic modernities that developed in the several decades following World War I. For Armenian artists the matter is even more complex owing to the genocide of 1915 where more than 1.5 million people — seventy-five percent of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire — were massacred. Those not shot on the spot were sent on death marches through the Mesopotamian desert without food or water. Frequently, the marchers were stripped and forced to walk naked under the scorching sun until they dropped dead. As a child Samsonian witnessed the murder of his parents and most of the members of his family. Soon thereafter, his older sister, Anahid, quickly shepherded him into a line of children being rescued by Greek nuns. But they became separated and he lost her, too. He was sent to a Greek orphanage in Smyrna (now Izmir), on Turkey’s west coast. Because he only knew his first name, the orphanage gave him a last name based on the place where they found him — Samsun — a major port on Turkey’s north coast on the Black Sea. His birth date was unknown, too. According to Samsonian’s vague recollections he assumed he was about three or four years old at the onset of the genocide, which would place his birth year in 1911 or 1912. In 1922, when Samsonian was about 10, the Turks ended their war with the Greeks by putting Smyrna to the torch in what has been called the “Catastrophe of Smyrna.” Once again, the child was on the run, escaping the fire and slaughter. He found temporary refuge in Constantinople, but within a year that major port would fall to the Turks, too, and become renamed as Istanbul. This time, Samsonian was whisked away to an orphanage in Greece founded by the American charity, Near East Relief — which is credited with saving so many Armenian orphans that the American historian Howard M. Sachar said it “quite literally kept an entire nation alive. Any understanding of Samsonian’s approach to modernism requires careful consideration of the impact of his early years because his art is inseparable from the anguish he experienced. In 1927, when he was a teenager, he was transferred to Cairo, Egypt, then a cosmopolitan city hosting a sizable portion of the Armenian diaspora. There he lived with thirty-two other children on the top floor of the Kalousdian Armenian School. Upon graduating in 1932 he won a scholarship to attend the Leonardo da Vinci Art Institute — an Italian art school in Cairo — where he won first prize in final examinations among one hundred students. He found work with an Armenian lithographic printer and he returned to the Kalousdian Armenian School to teach drawing. In 1939 he married one of his students, Lucy Guendimian. The Cairo in which Samsonian matured as an artist was home to many prominent art collectors after World War I. In this receptive environment Samsonian exhibited widely and won many awards. Beginning in 1937 and for the next thirty years he exhibited annually at the prestigious Le Salon du Caire hosted by the Société les Amis de l’Art (founded in 1921). After World War II he hit his stride as a modernist in Cairo, counting among his peers other artists of the Armenian diaspora such as Onnig Avedissian, Achod Zorian, Gregoire Meguerdichian, Hagop Hagopian...

"Hello Dean" (James Dean) Pop Art Painting 67 x 54 inch by John Paul Fauves From "Alts iz farloyrn" ("All is lost") series 2019 Mixed media, acrylic and oil on canvas 63" × 53" inch "Alts iz farloyrn" ("All is lost") "Alts iz Farloyrn” – the latest series by John Paul Fauves featuring large-scale mixed media paintings, sculptures, and his famous art masks. Inspired by American idols James Dean and Steve McQueen, "Alts iz Farloyrn,” which translates to "All is Lost," was Steve McQueen’s first ever line on stage and represents Fauves own struggle with losing it all yet discovering his true self. “Alts iz Farloyrn” dives deep into the darkness that surrounded James Dean and Steve McQueen and explores their need to live fast. Through this new series, viewers are reminded that although both men overcame challenges to become the Hollywood elite, they struggled to mentally escape their troubled childhood and demons. Recognized internationally for his Neo-Pop Expressionism, Fauves paintings deal with identity through art, mainstream culture and social media. About this series, Fauves says “I have personally lost it all and what I’ve learned is when you lose it all you can win it all again and create a new beginning!” ABOUT John Paul FAUVES: John Paul Fauves (born in 1980) is a contemporary Artist from Costa Rica . His artistic journey started at a very young age after he became a student of Joaquin Rodriguez del Paso , one of the most important Costa Rican modern art tutors. John Paul spent 15 years studying and mastering his technique, and only a few years ago he finally started showcasing his work. In his paintings he engages questions of identity as they relate to art history as well as our everyday interactions with mainstream culture and social media. Greatly inspired by modernist masters as wellas pop-artists, Fauves mixes fragments of different iconic images in vivid and colourful compositions. Of his experimental and high eclectic style, he says, “art is an expression from the soul, and the soul is somethinglimitless. This is why I am always searching for different elements to bring into the work.” 2019: ​ Alts Iz farloyrn, Los Angeles, CA Portraits of Someone, London ​ ​ 2018: ​ [ Mi / Me ] solo exhibition at DOPENESS ART LAB, Taipei, Taiwan Arte de La Peer Papi Chulo group exhibition, Krause gallery, NYC Down the Rabbit Hole group exhibition, Imitate London, London, UK ARCO Madrid Art Palm Beach, Miami ​ 2017: ​ Art Basel Miami PIXELS Pre-Basel group exhibition by JM Art Management at Laurent & Martin gallery LA Style Fashion week FACES, group exhibition by JM Art Management at HOMME gallery A Loss of Innocence, solo exhibition Guy Hepner...

"The Key" Abstract Mixed Media Painting 48 x 48 in by Yoram Katz Medium: Mix Media on board Size framed: 50 x 50 in ABOUT THE ARTIST: Born in Israel. Graduated from the Bazelel Ar...