Fauvist Pastel by Iranian American modernist Simon Samsonian
By Simon Samsonian
Located in New York, NY
Simon Samsonian (1912-2003) Untitled, 1991 Poster color and pastel on paper Sight size: 19 1/2 x 14 3/4 in. Framed: 28 1/4 x 22 1/4 in. Signed lower le...
Paper, Pastel
Modernist Simon Samsonian, Two Sisters Mixed Media
By Simon Samsonian
Located in New York, NY
Simon Samsonian (1912-2003) Two Sisters, 1995 Poster color and mixed media on paper Sight size: 16 1/2 x 14 3/4 in. Framed: 26 x 23 1/2 x 1 in. Signed ...
Paper, Pastel, Mixed Media
"Colorful Geometric Abstraction, " Simon Samsonian, Armenian Artist
By Simon Samsonian
Located in New York, NY
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...
Paper, Oil
Argentinian Tango, Mixed Media Abstract Expressionist
By Ricardo de Silva
Located in Soquel, CA
Argentinian Tango, Mixed Media Abstract Expressionist An abstract portrait in cool pastels accented in vibrant yellow and pink and lined in ink, by California-based artist, Ricardo de Silva (American). Paper size: 17.75"H x 12"W From a collection of Ricardo de Silva's work and memorabilia. DeSilva was born in Brazil and grew up in Los Angeles. He was a gallery owner, first in Santa Barbara in the 1960's and 70's, then in San Jose in the 1980's. He was dedicated to promoting the work of talented upcoming artists, including Kogyo and Hasui Kiyochika, Robert Frame, Jim Stuckenberg, Alice Robertson Carr, Deborah Eve Alastra...
Paper, Gouache, Ink, Watercolor
$695
H 15 in W 18 in D 0.25 in
Mid Century Abstracted San Francisco Bay Line Drawing Landscape
By Erle Loran
Located in Soquel, CA
Bold abstract geometric landscape, an expressive black and white line drawing done in pastel, by Erle Loran (American, 1905-1999). Unsigned, but was acquired from the artist's estate. Presented in a new black mat with foam core backing. Provenance: Estate of Earle Loran; David Carlson...
Paper, Pastel
$2,500
H 22 in W 28 in
Pastel Grid (Spice) - contemporary, minimalist, abstract, pastel on paper
By Milly Ristvedt
Located in Bloomfield, ON
This colourful contemporary pastel on paper in grid form is by Milly Ristvedt. The classic grid pattern becomes more than a ‘container’ for colour in the hands of master colourist M...
Paper, Pastel
$3,389
H 16.15 in W 18.31 in D 2.37 in
Period Italian Fausto Pirandello Signed Abstract Pastel
By Fausto Calogero Pirandello
Located in Roma, IT
Important work by one of the greatest artists of the Italian artistic avant-garde Fausto Pirandello It depicts one of his iconic subjects ‘Bathers’ with three characters depicted in...
Wood, Paper, Pastel
$4,900
H 16 in W 19 in
Abstract Landscape Mid 20th Century Work on Paper Hamptons, NY Drawing Pastel
By Robert Dash
Located in New York, NY
Abstract Landscape Mid 20th Century Work on Paper Hamptons, NY Drawing Pastel. Signed and dated '62 lower right. 9 x 12 inches (sight) and 15. 1/2 x 18 1/2 inches framed. BIO Robert Dash is known for his Hamptons paintings...
Paper, Pastel
$2,700
H 20 in W 16 in
FS 215 - Soft pastel color orange, pink, beige abstract geometric watercolor
By Evan Venegas
Located in New York, NY
Evan Venegas studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and earned his BFA in Painting in 1998. Evan Venegas creates artwork that lives at the intersection of geometry and atmosphere...
Watercolor, Archival Paper
$4,664
H 34.26 in W 26.38 in D 0.79 in
Midcentury Ink on paper "Moai" by French artist Reynold H. Arnould
Located in Valladolid, ES
Important and unique pictorial work, Ink on paper, "Moai" by the renowned French artist Reynold Henri Arnould (Le Havre 1919-1980). The work we present expresses with a powerful aest...
Paper
$6,500
H 50 in W 50 in D 2 in
Specifically Nowhere, Yellow (Abstract Geometric Painting with Grids on Yellow)
By Donise English
Located in Hudson, NY
Large abstract geometric painting with intricate line work in pencil and gouache on a bright yellow background "Specifically, Nowhere (Yellow)" made by Hudson Valley artist, Donise English, in 2022 gouache, acrylic, pencil, and colored pencil on paper, mounted on panel 48 x 48 inches unframed, 50 x 50 inches with a dark brown stained wood floater frame Surface is protected with four coats of an archival UV protective varnish Signed, verso Excellent condition and ready to hang This large abstract geometric painting was made by Hudson Valley based artist, Donise English, in 2022. The composition begins with a bright yellow background overlaid with intricate line work in graphite and colored pencil. Thousands of hand drawn lines serve as a backdrop for a bold geometric form in a dusty violet and dark gray gridded pattern that references "an imagined city grid", says the artist. The painting on paper is mounted to wood panel and complemented with a dark stained wood floater frame. It's in excellent condition and ready to hang as is. The surface is protected with four coats of an archival UV protective varnish. More about the work: Donise English emphasizes lines, grids, and fields of subtle color to evoke imagined places and invented structures. While precise lines and straight angles are often associated with themes in architecture and urban planning designs, English conveys a geometric motif guided by intuition rather than a ruler. Variations on grids retain flaws and unmistakable traces of the artists’ hand; her style of draftsmanship shies away from intellectualism and instead makes her compositions feel very personal. Each design is intensely intricate, incorporating gouache, acrylic, pen, graphite, ink and colored pencil. Artist Statement: My work is about the way visual diagrams present information that describes how something is made or the way it is. I am interested in drawing and collaging multiple layers of information that refer abstractly to maps, architectural drawings and blueprints or patterns and structures found in such things as roller coasters, power lines and fences. I use gouache and collaged paper in a series of layers that are a visual and ideological response to the previous layer to define my pictorial space. For each piece I create a set of rules to follow about the use of a limited palette, a grid format, opacity of paper and whether a piece may include curving lines or maintain a rectilinear structure. Artist CV: EDUCATION Master of Fine Arts in Painting Bard College 1986 Bachelor of Science in Art History State University College at New Paltz 1977 Additional Study: New York Studio School (Drawing Marathons) Columbia University, School of Architecture Women’s Studio Workshop TEACHING Professor of Studio Art, Department of Art and Art History, Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY Coordinator, Interior Design Program, Florence, Italy campus 1992-present AWARDS NYFA Fellowship in Painting 2018 Invitational Award for Outstanding Contemporary Talent, University of Bridgeport, CT 2000 Purchase Prize, “11th National Juried Exhibition” College of Notre Dame of Maryland, Baltimore 1999 First Prize, “Women in the Visual Arts ‘95” Erector Square Gallery, New Haven, CT 1995 Joseph A. Cain Memorial Purchase Award for Sculpture Del Mar College, Corpus Christi, TX 1994 Honorable Mention, “National Juried Exhibition” University of Bridgeport, CT 1993 Individual Artists Fellowship in Sculpture Dutchess Arts Fund 1992/93 Tallix, Morris, Singer Internship in Sculpture Tallix Foundry, Beacon, NY 1990/91 MEMBERSHIP Royal British Society of Sculptors SELECTED JURIED/INVITATIONAL EXHIBITIONS 2020 “edu: Art Faculty of the Hudson Valley”, Hudson Valley MOCA, Peekskill, NY 2019 “Contemporary Abstraction”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY “Mixed Media”, SITE Gallery, Brooklyn, NY 2018 “JuxtaPositions”, The Painting Center, New York, NY “Peculiar Rarities”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY 2017 “Interlock: Color and Contrast in Abstraction”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY “Donise English: Encaustics”, Catskill Art Society, Livingston Manor, NY 2016 “Let’s Stay in Touch”, Howard County Center for the Arts, Ellicott City, MD “Under, Over, After Over”, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY 2015 “Off the Grid”, Arts & Culture Program, Albany International Airport, Albany, NY “Gridspace”, KMOCA, Kingston, NY “Abstraction”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY “Assuming Identity”, NY Institute of Technology, New York, NY 2013 “Modern Artists”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY “Artists of the Mohawk-Hudson Region”, The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY Stone Canoe/Community Folk Art Center, Syracuse, NY 2012 New York Institute of Technology, New York, NY “Contemporary Painters (Who Just Happen To Be Women)”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY “Strange Glue: Collage at 100”, Cambridge School, Weston, MA “Dear Mother Nature”, Dorsky Museum, SUNY New Paltz, NY “Fresher Paint”, Rockland Center for the Arts, Nyack, NY Courthouse Gallery, Lake George Arts Project, Lake George, NY 2011 “Process+Content: Donise English”, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY “Donise English-Paintings”,Orange County Community College, Newburgh, NY “Gender Matters/Matters of Gender”, Freedman Gallery, Albright College, Reading, PA 2010 Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY “Encaustics: Wax and Image”, Westchester Community College, White Plains, NY “Dots, Lines and Figures”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY “Spring Awakening”, NY Institute of Technology, New York, NY “Clay City Dreams”, NY Institute of Technology, New York, NY “Texture,Pattern, Fragment”, Krause Gallery, Moses Brown School, Providence, RI 2009 “Collage”, NY Institute of Technology, New York, NY “Working in Wax”, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA “Encaustic 2009”, College of New Rochelle, NY “Three Artists”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY “Convergence: The Human Experience”,Howard County Center for the Arts, MD 2008 “Suckers and Biters: Love, Lollipops, and Exquisite Corpse” Chashama Gallery, New York, NY Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson NY 2007 “Patterns and Light”, Blue Hill Gallery, Blue Hill, ME “Suckers and Biters”, AG Gallery, Brooklyn, NY 2006 “100 Artists, 100 Watercolors”, Jeannie Freilich Fine Art, New York, NY “On/Of Paper”,Kirkland Art Center, Clinton, NY “The Love Show”, Manchester Community College, Manchester, CT 2005 The Soap Factory, Minneapolis, MN “Small Tales”, Valdosta State University, Georgia National Juried Exhibition,Art Institute and Gallery Salisbury, MD, Juror: Stephen Haller “Greed, Envy, Jealousy, Fear”, TSL Warehouse, Hudson, NY 2004 “Women in the Middle: Borders, Barriers, Intersections” University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee “Girl Art Now”,Hera Gallery, Wakefield, RI 3 Person Exhibition, Monterey Peninsula College, Monterey, CA “The Feminine Eye”, Bradley University, Peoria, IL “Women Painting Women”, McNeese State University, Lake Charles, LA “Thought Patterns”, Kent Place Gallery, Summit, NJ “Surface, Matter and Artifice”, Dutchess Community College Art Gallery Poughkeepsie, NY 2003 “Beefcake/Cheesecake”,Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana, CA,Juror: Jamie Wilson, Curator Halpert Bienniel, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC Juror: Jeff Fleming, Senior Curator, Des Moines Art Center “The Great White Oak”, Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY 2002 “Cat Calls”, Red Clay Arts, Brooklyn “Hudson Valley Regional”, SUNY New Paltz Juror: Sydney Jenkins, Director, Ramapo College Art Galleries 2001 One-Person Exhibition, Davis and Hall Gallery, Hudson, NY “Beyond the Surface”, Womanmade Gallery, Chicago One-Person Exhibition, Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY 2000 “Vision 2000...
Canvas, Gouache, Archival Paper, Color Pencil, Graphite
$2,700
H 20 in W 16 in
FS 1 - Soft pastel color abstract geometric watercolor on paper
By Evan Venegas
Located in New York, NY
Evan Venegas studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and earned his BFA in Painting in 1998. Evan Venegas creates artwork that lives at the intersection of geometry and atmosphere...
Watercolor, Archival Paper
$1,500Sale Price|40% Off
H 30 in W 22 in D 0.13 in
Organic Shapes in Orange and Purple, Original Pastel Drawing by Felix Ruvolo
By Felix Ruvolo
Located in Soquel, CA
Organic Shapes in Orange and Purple, Original Pastel Drawing by Felix Ruvolo Engaging pastel drawing by Felix Ruvolo (American, 1912-1992). The shapes in this drawing are primarily ...
Paper, Pastel
$2,700
H 20 in W 16 in
FS 1 12- Soft pastel color orange, pink, beige abstract geometric watercolor
By Evan Venegas
Located in New York, NY
Evan Venegas studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and earned his BFA in Painting in 1998. Evan Venegas creates artwork that lives at the intersection of geometry and atmosphere...
Watercolor, Archival Paper
$2,650
H 16.5 in W 11.75 in
"Phizo, " Abstract Portrait Oil Pastel on Grocery Bag signed by Reginald K. Gee
By Reginald K. Gee
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Phizo" is an original oil pastel drawing on a grocery bag by Reginald K. Gee. The artist signed the piece on the back. It features an abstracted portrait with expressionistic marks ...
Oil Pastel, Found Objects