Thomas Duncan Benrimo Art

David was inspired by the Anasazi petroglyphs with these shapes of the figures in this painting. It is an oil painting on Masonite. The frame is black wood- a shadow box concept. The...

This painting is a perfect example of lyrical abstraction and a choice painting out of the best period of Vlerick's career. Ineffable, 1962 Oil on Masonite board 91,5 x 61,5 cm (without frame) 93 x 63 cm (framed) Signed and dated Top Right ‘P. Vlerick 1962’ with title, signature place and date at the back: Ineffable P. Vlerick Afsnee 1962 Pierre Vlerick’s work shows some resemblance to Willem de Kooning’s. While the Dutch American was famed for the wild manner in which he treated his canvas, Pierre Vlerick showed some more restraint, but making a painting was in any case a slow process of stopping and starting and revising. His exploration is meant to result in a correct proportion of colour fields and streaks, often applied layer upon layer. All his colors have a luminous intensity. It was mainly Bonnard’s colorful work that inspired Vlerick to compose his own singular range of colors of slightly tingling yellows, greens, oranges and bits of blue here and there. Abstraction is emphasized by his use of color. Colors not associated with objects from daily life often dominate the composition: purple, for instance. This is the basis for his continuing abstraction, ending up as color fields combined with organic elements depicted with the vaguest of contours. Though both artists create a very metropolitan, say even worldly art, their work evokes nature. De Kooning has been called a master of ‘abstract landscape’. The structure of Vlerick’s works, too, is very vegetable and organic. No wonder he referred to his paintings as his ‘gardens’. Neither artist allowed his garden to remain empty: de Kooning created a female figure looking like a cross between a floozy and the mother goddess. Vlerick imagined a woman who is enjoying her body. Vlerick’s approach to abstract art is the same as de Kooning’s; they refuse to paint in a figurative manner, yet at the same time do not wish to renounce referring to reality. De Kooning once put it very accurately during an interview when he conceded that painting the human figure any longer was absurd(in the post-war period), but also stated that it would be even more absurd not to do it. The only way out of this ambiguous dilemma is the deconstruction of the human figure. Not in order to reject it, but to show it in all its fragility. Pierre Vlerick’s exceptional artistic talents were already recognized while he was studying at the Ghent Academy (1940-1944) whereupon graduating he received a gold medal. In 1947-1948 Vlerick enrolls at the “la Grande Chaumière Academy”, a Parisian private academy which attracts lots of foreign artists thanks to the reputation of its most important teachers such as Maurice Denis (1870-1943). Denis was one of the founding fathers of “the Nabis” and is also considered to be the godfather of abstract art by many artists and art critics. Maurice Denis is famous for his quote: "Remember that a painting, before it is any kind of representation, is essentially a flat surface covered with colors in a certain collected order." At La Grande Chaumière, Vlerick is challenged to develop a pictorial language of his own. Vlerick develops a way to translate the observed reality into visions of color and form, which can be situated somewhere on the axis between the figurative and the abstract. Reality is decomposed and reconstructed into a complete new representation. After a trip to Spain in 1955 the painter evolves towards the use of brighter colors. At the Brussels World Exhibition of 1958 (Expo 58) Vlerick is for the first time confronted with real works of 17 American artists (William Baziotes, James Brooks, Sam Francis, Arshile Gorky, Adolph Gottlieb, Philip Guston, Grace Hartigan, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Theodoros Stamos, Clyfford Still, Bradley Walker...

A pair of abstract modern paintings by Richard W. Dempsey (1909 - 1987). Paintings are oil on masonite and signed "Dempsey" front bottom corner. On the back of each painting on tape is written "Harmony". Richard Dempsey was born in Ogden, Utah, on September 14, 1909. His youth was spent in Oakland, CA, where he attended Sacramento Junior College (1929-31) as an art major. He then studied at The California School of Arts and Crafts (1932-34) and the Students Art Center (1935-40), where he was taught by the sculptor Sargent Johnson. In 1941, he moved to Washington, DC and studied at Howard University...

Oil on masonite. Signed lower right and on verso. 30 x 24 in. 31 x 25 in. (framed) Custom framed in maple. Louis Leon Ribak was born in the Russian empirical governorate of Grodno in 1902. A long-disputed region that is ethnically Lithuanian, at present day, Grodno is located in the western reaches of the Republic of Belarus, near the borders with Poland and Lithuania. At the age of ten, Ribak and his family immigrated to New York City. In 1922, he attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, followed by studies at the Art Students League (1923) and the Educational Alliance (1924). Ribak’s oeuvre can be largely delineated between two stylistic phases: social realism and abstraction, the former taking hold during the 1930s and 40s. During that period, he had several solo exhibitions at the A.C.A. Gallery in New York, while also regularly exhibiting with “An American Group Inc.” - a cohort of socially-conscious painters that included Stuart Davis, Reginald Marsh, Maurice Sterne, and Raphael Soyer. In 1933, Ribak assisted Diego Rivera on the mural for the lobby of Rockefeller Center, while also being employed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) as a muralist. Louis Ribak met fellow artist Beatrice Mandelman at a dance sponsored by the Artists Union in New York. They were married in 1942, and shortly thereafter, he was drafted for military service in World War II. After his discharge from the service in 1942 due to difficulties with asthma, Mandelman and Ribak traveled west to visit his former mentor John Sloan in Santa Fe, NM. By this time, the couple had become disenchanted with the art scene in New York, and in light of the need to find a healthier climate for Ribak’s asthma - as well as reputed FBI surveillance based on political affiliations with Communist sympathizers - they decided to permanently relocate to the emerging artists’ colony of Taos, NM in 1944. This change of scenery ushered in the second phase of Ribak’s stylistic career, with his work shifting from social realism toward abstraction. He was captivated by the landscape and the diverse cultures of northern New Mexico, the influences of which began to appear in his work. Ribak founded the Taos Valley Art School in 1947, offering no ideology to his students; instead arguing that the adoption of a single approach would lead to academicism. Ribak was an integral force in the development of the Taos Moderns...

Oil, acrylic, gesso on wood panel. 2022. First of a series of UFOs

This is a one of a kind acrylic and mixed media painting on wood panel by San Diego artist, Peter Geise. It is unframed. Its dimensions are 12"x12"x.75"" A...

Diptych of abstracted floral paintings in an earthy blue and brown palette "Hollyhock & Zin" (Pair of Contemporary Miniature Botanical Paintings on Wood Panel) Monotype on Paper and Oil, Mounted on Panel "Hollyhock" measures 10 x 8 x 2 inches "Zin" measures 10 x 7.8 x 2 inches Roughly 10 x 18 inches overall as a diptych Signed, verso Panels could also stand upright on a shelf or mantelpiece. Wired on reverse for simple hanging, sides of panel are cleanly painted white, framing not necessary. About the work: Contemporary landscape painter David Konigsberg is well known for his conceptual landscapes that come alive in the space where earth and sky meet. Dramatic backdrops of tumultuous clouds above gestural painted fields, informed by years of living in the upper Hudson Valley, provide a stage for factual and whimsical subject matter like flying space pods...

Oil, acrylic, gesso on panel. One of a series. The UFO image has a compelling way of summing up or reflecting these norm-breaking times. These are also about composition, color, and ...

Signed and dated "Jimmy Ernst 63" lower right. Measurement of artwork is 8 ½" x 8 ¼" and framed 15 ½" x 15" x 1 ¼". Provenance: Gift from Jimmy Ernst to his personal friend architect John Johansen...

Oil, ink, graphite, wood stain, glitter, resin on masonite panel Dimitri operates from the idea of the “unfinished.” It informs his choice of materials and the way he handles them. I...

This painting is a perfect example of lyrical abstraction and a choice painting out of the best period of Vlerick's career. Pierre Vlerick’s work shows...

“… look into the stains of walls, or the ashes of a fire, or clouds, or mud … you may find really marvelous ideas. The mind of the painter is stimulated to new discoveries … various ...