Collected Detroit

"Manipulator" is an abstracted figurative drawing in charcoal and graphite. The figure seems to be "manipulating" some object it holds without visual clarity as what that object is leaving it up to the viewer to fantasize about its intent. The drawing has a monumentality to it that speaks of Butler’s influence by Henry Moore, for whom he worked at one time, and echoes the style of the sculptures that Butler created. Butler most often used the female figure in his sculptures and drawings and although it is not certain, this drawing may be of a female figure engaged in some hand work with perhaps a mechanical toy that resembles a bird. Butler trained as an architect and worked as a blacksmith before becoming Henry Moore’s assistant and developing his own talent as a sculptor. His first solo exhibition was held in 1949 at the Hanover Gallery in London. In 1952 he exhibited at the Venice Biennale and in the same year won a much publicized competition for a Monument to the Unknown Political Prisoner which, however, was never made. After winning the 'Unknown Political Prisoner' competition in 1953 he became one of the best known sculptors during the 1950s and 1960s, and also taught at the Slade School of Art. Reginald Cotterell Butler (28 April 1913 – 23 October 1981) was an English sculptor born at Bridgefoot House, Buntingford, Hertfordshire to Frederick William Butler, formerly a police constable, and Edith Barltrop. His parents were the Master and Matron of the Buntingford Union Workhouse. His father was a relative of the poet William Butler Yeats; Edith was of Anglo-French descent. Butler studied and lectured at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London from 1937 to 1939. He was a conscientious objector during the Second World War, being exempted from military service conditional upon setting up a small blacksmith business repairing farm implements. Butler's later work consists of lifelike models of female figures, such as Girl on a Round Base, that have something in common with Hans Bellmer and the sculpture of Allen Jones and prefigure the work of Ron Mueck...

Monumental "Bull Elephant" (Loxodonta Africana) Limited Edition #19, Model #50024, Made in England By Boehm Porcelain. Boehm porcelain originated in the US with Edward Marshall Boehm...

The Challenge (Blue Heron) by Gunther Granget Ltd Edition #42/200 for Hutschenreuther Porcelain in Germany. Hand painted in fired. Hutschenreuther is a historic German porcelain man...

Nude Female Ltd Ed by Carl Werner for Hutschenreuther Porcelain Germany. Signed on Bottom by Artist. Hutschenreuther is a historic German porcelain manufacturer, founded in Bavaria i...

Nativity Scene with Blessed Mary, Kneeling Joseph, Angel, One Shepherd, One King, Manger, Baby Jesus, and Two Animals. The figures range in height from 18.5" to 12"; animals are 3" ...

SALE ONE WEEK ONLY "Seated Girl" is an oil on canvas portrait of an artist who was cut down in his prime and largely forgotten until recently. Marvin Cherney's paintings are solemn but unsophisticated in his subjects. He deploys a more limited range of greyed colors in order to emotionalize his subject and heighten the mood of their isolation. This painting was one of the thirteen that was exhibited at Garelick's Gallery in Detroit from January 8th through January 21st in 1961. The painting is 34.75 x 22.5 inches unframed. The painting is signed by Marvin Cherney Marvin Cherney was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1925. He attended the Maryland Institute of Art and the School for Art Studies in New York. After his graduation he began to travel around Europe before returnig to New York. Cherney won 2 Tiffany Awards and Brooklyn Museum Prize and his work has been exhibited at the National Academy of Design, The Art Institute of Chicago, Brooklyn Museum, Audubon Artists, University of Nebraska, Silvermine Artists Guild, Butler Art Institute, Ringling Museum, Howard University...

The idyllic atmosphere of this local dock scene falls within a couple of styles one being regionalism, an American realist modern art movement that included paintings, murals, lithographs, and illustrations depicting scenes of rural and small-town America primarily in the Midwest and frequently associated with Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton. The other style is romanticism wherein the scene depicted is a more desired or dramatic version of what actually is. “Untitled (Dock Scene)” is typical of a small town dock scene from Michigan where Culver lived or from places as far away as Maine, but what makes it important is its easy familiarity: water, gulls or terns, slanting wood shanties, scruffy dirt patches and course grasses. It is not idealized, but does set the tone of fresh air, the scream of birds and the sun on water. This piece has been professionally reframed with acid-free matting and museum glass. In a 1952 Detroit Free Press article, entitled “Artist Explains His Work,” Culver was asked why he painted the way he did. He stated: “I try to ‘see’ though not too exactly; I try to think though not too ponderously; I feel emotion yet I try not to become overwrought. I interpret rather than describe, and design rather than depict. I work with values, not light and shade; hence, when I am successful, I achieve substance rather than three-dimensional form, and this satisfies me as being wholly sufficient. In my work I wish to be serious without becoming a bore, exuberant without being frivolous, humorous without being silly. I believe that good paintings are conceived, not contrived; and I am interested in art much more than in pictures.” Charles Culver...

SALE ONE WEEK ONLY John Glick is well-known for his beautifully rendered functional pieces of art. His decorative pieces, especially his large pots, are breathtakingly powerful objects. Glick's creative genius, however, is most exquisitely shown in this unique grouping of objets d'art. The Wall Hanging has a lovely classical scroll shelf. The objets on the shelf include an apple and pear - both fruits frequently rendered by artists from the Dutch Masters to Cezanne because of their perfectly balanced shape and rich colors. In addition is a small Greek or Roman styled dish used as an oil lamp. The other three objets are mysterious twisted tube-like organic shapes. John Glick, at one of his richest, creative bests. The objets are of various sizes, movable and can be displayed as desired. The size given is the overall size of both pieces and the objets d'art. "The works in John Glick’s “Mantel Series” are still life tableaux comprised of ordinary, yet intriguing objects that imply a history of people interacting with objects and each other over time. Imagine a lettr or poem from a loved one, once read, tucked among other fabourite things for safekeeping. Or a salty treasure carried in a dampened pocket and later deposited on a cottage shelf to dry, crackle and change. In essence, the mantels hold suggestive collections in which most people can find a part of themselves a link to a personal memory and a connection to a lost moment in time. His body of work, The Mantel Series, was partially inspired by a memory of a salt box that hung near his grandmother’s kitchen wood stove. For Glick, the unassuming little box, with its pleasing enigmatic shape and wooden lid, conjured pleasant boyhood memories, nostalgia for home and hearth, and vivid awareness of history. Upon his wall-based mantels, the artist placed a well-honed repertoire of distinct objects, all deftly crafted of clay, that become characters in his unspoken drama, each form playing off the others in the ensemble.” Plum Tree Pottery...

This "Untitled Painting About Love", mixed media, by Irma Cavat was part of the Arwin Galleries presentation "Paintings About Love" in Detroit, Michigan in ...

The 16 in x 23 in watercolor displays striking and colorful qualities that influenced abstract expressionism for decades to come. In 2016 the Dennos Museum in Traverse City, Michigan, in homage to the very first exhibition in the Zimmerman Sculpture Court, installed the first two paintings by the former Michigan State University painting professor, Clif McChesney (1929-2011) on the Court walls, and the glass artistry of Dale Chihuly, featuring works from the Dennos Collection. In 1991, an exhibition of Dale Chihuly glass...

ONE WEEK ONLY SALE The rich tones of the stoneware clay come through the soft creamy glaze that drips over the surface like melted vanilla ice cream over red devil cake. There are i...

"Jim Jim" is an ebony carving by Tom Brun, sculptor and Detroit Zoo Keeper, who cared for the real Jim Jim at the Detroit Zoo. This ebony sculpture is in beautiful condition with slight exposure to the lighter streak of wood sometimes found in ebony. It is said that Tom would often go into a house and pick up one of his sculptures and say that it was unfriendly – meaning that it had not been handled enough. Morley Driver has said of Brun in a newspaper article from the 1950’s “In Any Animal He Sees Beauty”: No one who has ever seen a Tom Brun hippopotamus will ever again think of it as ugly or ungainly, meaning that the artist not only gives you beauty but teaches you to see it. Tom has said: “Small pieces are like a proverb – a gem of meaning that one can dissect.” They are meant to be picked up, caressed and held. Tom knew Jim Jim from birth and cared for him with love and attention. Brun was a compassionate zookeeper and advocated for less cages and more space for an animal to roam. Brun was born in England in 1913. A few years after the end of World War I his father moved the family in 1919 to Detroit, Michigan. In 1935 at age 23, he officially became a U.S. citizen. He served in the army during World War II for five years and upon discharge and at the age of 36 took advantage of the GI Bill and applied for admission to Society of Arts and Crafts (now known as the College for Creative Studies) where he was gladly accepted. While at Arts and Crafts his instructors and established artists such as Sarkis Sarkisian, John P. Foster, Morris Brose, Richard Koslow, Patricia Burnett, Lloyd and Renee Radell...