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Snowy Barn #2
By Marina Stern
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Snowy Barn #2, 1971, oil on canvas, signed and dated verso, 18 x 23 inches
Marina Stern was a multifaceted New York-based artist whose works ranged from Expressionism and Pop Art to...
Category
1970s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Tower and Wires
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Tower and Wires, 1987, acrylic on canvas, signed lower right, 24 x 16 inches, exhibited: Alfred P. Maurice Artist in the City Paintings 1979 - 1997, Archer Gallery of Clark College, ...
Category
1980s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Acrylic
Down
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Down, 1983, acrylic on canvas, signed and dated lower right, 32 x 48 inches, signed and titled verso, “Maurice 136” inscribed verso, exhibited: Alfred P. Maurice, Recent Works, R.H. ...
Category
1980s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Acrylic
Atilt
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Atilt, 1982, acrylic on canvas, 32 x 48 inches, signed and dated lower right, “Alfred P. Maurice 2725 A South Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL, 60616” inscribed verso, “ATILT” inscribed ver...
Category
1980s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Acrylic
Antenna
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Antenna, 1980, acrylic on canvas, signed and dated lower right, 32 x 48 inches, “Alfred P. Maurice, 2725 A South Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL, 60616, ‘Antenna’” inscribed verso, exhibit...
Category
1980s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Acrylic
Park
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Park, 1980, acrylic on canvas, signed and dated lower right, 32 x 48 inches, inscribed verso “Alfred P. Maurice, 2725 A South Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL, 60616, ‘Park”, labeled verso ...
Category
1980s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Acrylic
Pleasant Ridge
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Pleasant Ridge, 1966-7, oil on board, signed, dated and titled verso, 16 x 24 inches, exhibited: Robert Herrmann, Cincinnati Art Galleries, Cincinnati, OH, March 4 to 28, 2000, no. 1...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Masonite, Oil
View from Main Reading Room, New York
Located in Los Angeles, CA
View from Main Reading Room, New York, 1959-60, oil on canvas, signed and dated in pencil verso, 20 x 20 inches, exhibited: Cincinnati Art Galleries, Cincinnati, OH, March 4 to 28, 2...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
9:23 am
By Saul Chase
Located in Los Angeles, CA
9:23am, 1969, acrylic on canvas, signed and dated verso, 44 ½ x 50 inches, exhibited: 39th Midyear Show, The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio, 1972 (label verso), p...
Category
1960s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
$20,000
Winged Victory of Los Angeles
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Winged Victory of Los Angeles, c. 1960, oil on masonite, signed lower right, artist’s name and title verso, 33 x 34 1/2 inches, exhibited: 1) Edward Biberman, Heritage Gallery, Los A...
Category
1960s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Masonite, Oil
East River (Unititled)
By Isabella Banks Markell
Located in Los Angeles, CA
East River (Untitled), c. 1940s, oil on canvas signed lower right, 18 x 24 inches
Isabella Markell was a painter, etcher, and sculptor, who is best known for her New York City scen...
Category
1940s American Impressionist Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Coney Island, Fourth of July
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Coney Island, Fourth of July, c. 1940s, oil on canvas applied to Masonite, signed upper right, 26 x 21 1/2 inches, presented in its original frame
During the 1930s and 40s, Coney I...
Category
1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings
Materials
Board, Oil, Canvas
Self Portrait
By William Ashby McCloy
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Self-Portrait, c. 1940, oil and tempera on Masonite, artist’s name inscribed verso, 30 x 25 inches
William Ashby McCloy was an American artist, educator, and clinical psychologist. ...
Category
1940s American Modern Portrait Paintings
Materials
Masonite, Oil, Tempera
A Laborer Resting
By Robert Gilbert
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A Laborer Resting, 1930, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower center, 36 x 30 inches, inscribed verso “July – 1930 / Title – A Laborer Resting / Artist – Robert Gilbert / Price - $2...
Category
1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Rooftop Bathers (Untitled)
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Rooftop Bathers (Untitled), c. 1940s, oil on canvas, 22 x 32 inches, signed lower right
Betty Waldo Parish gives us a delightful slice of life in 1940s New York, as we see a coupl...
Category
1940s American Modern Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Downtown New York
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Downtown New York, c. 1930s, oil on canvas, signed lower right, 10 x 12 inches; label verso reads: "Harry Dix / Title Downtown New York / Medium Oil"
Harry Dix was a 20th-century p...
Category
1930s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Neighbors
By Norman Barr
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Neighbors, 1939, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right, 22 x 26 inches
Norman Barr was an American Scene painter and muralist known for his poignant depictions of working-clas...
Category
1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Lonely Road (perhaps also known as The Road Home)
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Lonely Road (perhaps also known as The Road Home), c. 1930s, oil on Masonite, signed lower right, 20 x 30 inches, label verso reads: “Painted CA. 1930s Oil City, PA Sister to Jo (Yvo...
Category
1930s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Masonite, Oil
Goldmine, Central City, Colorado
By Joseph Meert
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Goldmine, Central City, Colorado, c. 1936 - 38, oil on canvas, 28 x 36 inches, signed lower right; provenance includes Platt Fine Art, Chicago (label verso); likely original frame pa...
Category
1930s American Realist Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Hollywood
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Hollywood, 1941, oil on board, 18 x 24 inches, signed and dated lower right, illegible writing verso
About the Painting
From a distance, Beckwith deftly captures the spectacle of a Hollywood premiere. But we have not been invited to the party. Our view is from the shadows of a less glamorous neighborhood with a shaggy, unkept palm tree and rundown buildings in the shadows. We look down through the darkness past a packed parking lot to the bright lights of two iconic Hollywood landmarks, the Pantages Theater and the Broadway Building. Completed in 1930, the Pantages was built as an exuberant Art Deco movie palace, while the Broadway Building housed an upscale department store which catered to entertainment industry elites who were less impacted by the Great Depression than the common man, since movies had become the mainstay of popular culture entertainment during the 1930s with large numbers of Americans looking to immerse themselves in Hollywood escapism. Here, in a rare Los Angeles urban image, Beckwith combines that Hollywood fantasy with the more sobering foreground images which could have been pulled from the L.A. Noire fiction of Raymond Chandler...
Category
1940s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Oil
$4,500
World War II Invades Central Park
By Cecil Crosley Bell
Located in Los Angeles, CA
World War II Invades Central Park, 1943, oil on canvas, signed lower right, 30 x 36 inches, literature: Barton, Phyllis, Cecil C. Bell, McGrew Color Graphics (Kansas City, MO, 1976),...
Category
1940s American Realist Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
The Gas Station
By Robert Gilbert
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The Gas Station, c. 1930s, oil on canvas, signed lower left, 25 x 20 inches; presented in newer frame
The Gas Station is a rare Southern California urban scene from the Great Depres...
Category
1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Indian Dance
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Indian Dance, 1935, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower left, 30 x 24, label verso reads: “A Kutka / Indian Dance”, title and artist’s name inscribed verso together with number “12...
Category
1930s American Realist Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
The Woodshed or Woodshed, Woodstock
Located in Los Angeles, CA
The Woodshed or Woodshed, Woodstock, 1932, oil on canvas, signed lower left, 19 x 25 inches, exhibited Downtown Gallery, New York, NY, likely as part of the solo exhibition Dorothy ...
Category
1930s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
RFD#1
By Dale Nichols
Located in Los Angeles, CA
RFD #1, 1937, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right, titled verso, 24 x 30 inches
Iowa had Grant Wood. Missouri had Thomas Hart Benton. Kansas had John Steuart Curry. And, Neb...
Category
1930s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
$75,000
Jones & Laughlin Mills (Untitled)
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Jones & Laughlin Mills (Untitled), 1934, oil on panel, signed lower right, 20 x 24 inches, signed and dated August, 1934 verso, inscribed "Miss Perry" verso, nails from old exhibitio...
Category
1930s American Realist Landscape Paintings
Materials
Oil, Board
Civilization
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Civilization, c. 1948, oil on canvas, signed lower left, 20 x 24 inches, label verso reads “Eugene M. Dyczkowski / Grand Inland, N. Y. / Civilization,” inscribed verso in the artist’...
Category
1940s American Realist Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Farm Tragedy (Untitled)
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Farm Tragedy (Untitled), c. 1930s, mixed media on plaster on panel, unsigned, 22 1/8 x 32 inches; label verso reads: "New York Artists Equity Association, New York, NY," provenance i...
Category
1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings
Materials
Mixed Media
Highway Derelict
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Highway Derelict, May, 1939, oil on canvas board, signed upper right, 18 x 20 inches, exhibited 1) Society of Independent Artists, American Society of Fine Arts (Art Students League), New York, NY, April 19 – May 12, 1940, no. 535 (noted verso, listed in catalog, and see Kantner, Dorothy, Palette Palaver, Pittsburgh Sun Telegraph, April 19, 1940 – “Helen F. Price and Ethel M. Dean, the former of Johnstown, the latter of this city, are two members of the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh who are represented in the Independent Artist’s Exhibition which opens today in New York. Miss Price is represented by . . . ‘Highway Derelict’ . . . .”), 2) Solo Exhibition of Log Cabin Paintings...
Category
1930s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil, Board
Untitled
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Untitled, c. 1940s, oil on Masonite, signed lower right, 19 ¾ x 25 ¾ inches
Ava Vorhaus Gabriel was a New York-based painter, lithographer, and designer. Born in Larchmont, Gabriel ...
Category
1940s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Masonite, Oil
Road Repairing, Lower Manhattan at Night
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Road Repairing, Lower Manhattan at Night, 1934, oil on Masonite, signed and dated lower right, 24 x 16 inches; original label verso has title and address
Margit Varga was an artist,...
Category
1930s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Masonite, Oil
Gracie Mansion
By Isabella Banks Markell
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Gracie Mansion, c. 1944, oil on canvas, signed lower right, 25 x 30 inches, presented in a newer frame
Isabella Markell was a painter, etcher, and sculptor, who is best known for ...
Category
1940s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Laundry Day (Untitled)
By Florence Walton Pomeroy
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Laundry Day (Untitled), c. 1940s, oil on canvas, signed lower left, 30 x 24 inches
Florence Walton Pomeroy was a New Jersey-based artist who primarily created portraits, still life...
Category
1940s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Landscape
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Landscape, c. 1930-40s, oil on panel, signed lower right, 16 x 20 inches
Jeanette Maxfield Lewis was a California-based landscape painter and etcher. Born in Oakland, she spent much...
Category
1930s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Oil, Panel
Summer in Town
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Summer in Town, 1943, oil on board, signed and dated lower right, 13 ¾ x 22 inches, titled and dated verso, exhibited: 1) 139th Annual Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, ...
Category
1940s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Oil, Board
Rites of Winter
By Georgina Klitgaard
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Rites of Winter, by 1939, oil on canvas, 32 x 40 inches, exhibited: 134th Annual Exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, January 29 – March 5, 1939, no...
Category
1930s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
The Ledge
By Georgina Klitgaard
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Georgina Klitgaard (1893 – 1976) The Ledge, by 1931, oil on canvas, signed lower right, 32 1/8 x 50 1/8 inches, exhibited: 1) 44th Annual Exhibition of American Paintings & Sculptur...
Category
1930s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Johnny Walker’s Place
By Georgina Klitgaard
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Johnny Walker’s Place, by 1929, oil on canvas, signed lower right, 34 x 42 inches, exhibited 1) 28th International Exhibition of Paintings, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, Octobe...
Category
1920s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Peck Slip
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Peck Slip, 1950, oil on cardboard, 15 x 20 inches, exhibition label verso reads: “Oil on cardboard, 20 x 15, 1950 / Title: Peck Slip / Price: $100 / Artist and Owner: Fiske Boyd / 30...
Category
1950s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Oil, Board
Three Chimneys
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Three Chimneys, 1956, oil on Masonite, signed and dated lower left, 18 x 36 inches, titled verso, presented in its original frame
Three Chimneys is a prime example of Ethel Margolies’ Precisionist-influenced industrial scenes. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Margolies made a name for herself by painting the Northeast’s factories, foundries, and manufacturing plants. Although this subject matter is often associated with male artists, Margolies is part of an important lineage of female modernists who depicted symbols of America’s industrial might. Starting with artists like New Jersey’s Elsie Driggs and Chicago’s Yvonne Deluc Pryor, Margolies is part of a through line of women Precisionist painters that also included the West Coast’s Vanessa Helder. Whereas these artists tended towards a stark and pristine realism, Margolies seems to have been influenced by the 1920s and early 1930s work of Charles Demuth’s and Charles Sheeler’s highly designed paintings from the same period, as both adopted a cubo-futurist oriented brand of Precisionism.
Ethel Polacheck Margolies was a Connecticut painter...
Category
1950s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Masonite, Oil
Seoul, Korea
By Dong Kingman
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Seoul, Korea, 1954 - 56, watercolor on paper, signed lower right 21 x 28 inches (sight), Midtown Galleries label with artist’s name and title verso, likely exhibited at Kingman’s solo exhibition, Midtown Galleries, 1956, literature: Gruskin, Alan D., Saroyan, William (introduction), The Watercolors of Dong Kingman and How The Artist Works, The Studio Publications, Inc. in association with Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York and London (1958), p. 54 (illustrated) (“In Seoul on April 27th and 28th Kingman did some mountain sketching [see reproduction, on page 54, of handsome Kingman painting, “Seoul,” owned by Robert Clary...
Category
1950s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
Autumn Landscape
By Robert Vickrey
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Autumn Landscape, by 1958, tempera on Masonite, 24 x 36 inches, signed lower left, exhibited: 1) 133rd Annual Exhibition of the National Academy of Design, New York, NY, February 20 – March 16, 1958 (Henry Ward Ranger Purchase Prize); and 2) Henry Ward Ranger Centennial Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York, NY, September 25 - October 12, 1958, #133 (see Levin, Meyer, Illustrative Paintings Gathered for Ranger Show at National Academy, St. Petersburg Times, October 13, 1958 (“There’s a warm, low-keyed picture of golden fields, with distant structures, called “Autumn Landscape,” by Robert Vickrey, whose magic realism is felt in so “regular” a subject.”), literature: 1) Watson, Ernest William, Composition in Landscape and Still Life, Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, 1959, pp. 24, 155 and 157 (illustrated); and 2) Vickrey, Robert and Cochrane, Diane, New Techniques in Egg Tempera, Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, 1973, p. 111 (illustrated); ex collection National Academy of Design
Reflecting on his art, Robert Vickery...
Category
1950s American Realist Landscape Paintings
Materials
Masonite, Egg Tempera
Broadway
By Jean Dominique van Caulaert
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Broadway (?), 1952, oil on Masonite, signed and dated lower left, 15 x 18 inches, inscription verso may say "Broadway", presented in its original frame
Jean Dominique van Caulaert w...
Category
1950s Impressionist Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Untitled (Highrise)
By Karl Benjamin
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Untitled (Highrise), 1954, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right, 20 x 20 inches, presented in its original frame
Karl Benjamin was a California-based artist who is best known...
Category
1950s Hard-Edge Landscape Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Blue Lake
By George Marinko
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This painting is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1940s.
Blue Lake, c. 1940s, oil on masonite, signed lower right, 20 x 36 inches, label and inscriptio...
Category
1940s American Modern Paintings
Materials
Masonite, Oil
My Only Working Tool
Located in Los Angeles, CA
My Only Working Tool, 1949, oil on panel, signed and dated lower right, 16 x 12 inches, remnant of exhibition label verso, exhibited at the Art News Second Annual National Amateur Competition, National Academy of Design, New York, NY, December, 1950 (see The Best Amateurs, Art News, volume 49, issue 8, December 6 to 20, 1950, p. 65 – 66), presented in a period frame
Fausto Sansone...
Category
1940s American Modern Paintings
Materials
Oil, Board
A Valley Streetscape at Night
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This work is part of our exhibition - American Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1940s
A Valley Streetscape at Night, 1948, oil on masonite, signed and dated lower right, 18 x 24 inches; literature: King, Chloe, The Paintings of Edgard O. Kiechle – Unearthed After 60 Years, Ventura Blvd, January/February, 2023, pp. 46 – 53 (illustrated)
Edgar Kiechle...
Category
1940s American Modern Paintings
Materials
Masonite, Oil
Untitled (Farm in Winter)
By Julius M. Delbos
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This work is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1940s
Untitled (Farm in Winter), 1940s, oil on canvas, signed lower right, 26 x 30 inches, presented in an original frame
Julius Delbos...
Category
1940s American Modern Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Orange Grove Landscape
By Dorr Bothwell
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Orange Grove Landscape, 1941, gouache on illustration board, 14 inches x 18 inches (image), 22 x 26 inches (framed) signed and dated lower right, newly framed with museum glazing
...
Category
1940s American Modern Paintings
Materials
Gouache, Board
Rabbit Hunters
By Roger Medearis
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Rabbit Hunters, egg tempera on Masonite, 12 x 9 inches, 1947, signed and dated lower left, signed, titled and dated verso “Rabbit Hunters Egg Tempera Roger Medearis 1947,” exhibited at Medearis' solo show at Kende Galleries, New York, in 1949 (Medearis’ record book, a copy of which is held by Vose Galleries in Boston, MA, indicates this is painting “No. 23” and that is was completed in 1947 and sold via Kende Galleries (at Gimbel Brothers...
Category
1940s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Tempera, Board
Landscape
By Marcel Emile Cailliet
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Landscape, 1940, oil on canvas, 24 x 20 inches, signed, dated and titled verso: “Marcel Cailliet ’40 – S.C.” and “Marcel Cailliet Landscape”; likely exhibited at the annual juried st...
Category
1940s American Modern Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Untitled (Collapsed Shacks)
By Karl Fortress
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Untitled (Collapsed Shacks), c. 1940s, oil on canvas, signed lower left, 20 ½ x 26 ½ inches, presented in a period frame
This work is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: ...
Category
1940s American Modern Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Untitled (Houses and Railroad Tracks)
By Harry Lane
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Untitled (Houses and Railroad Tracks), c. 1940s, oil on canvas board, signed lower right, 16 x 20 inches, presented in a newer frame
This work is part of our exhibition America Coas...
Category
1940s American Modern Paintings
Materials
Oil, Board
Arthur Kill
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This painting is part of our exhibition Charles Goeller: A Wistful Loneliness.
Oil on canvas, 15 ¾ x 24 inches, Signed and titled verso on stretcher
Exhibited:
[Solo Exhibition] Cha...
Category
1940s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
Church in Trees
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This painting is part of our exhibition Charles Goeller: A Wistful Loneliness.
Oil on canvas, 13 x 9 inches, Signed lower left
Category
1940s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
Across the Street
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This painting is part of our exhibition Charles Goeller: A Wistful Loneliness.
Oil on canvas, 16 x 12 inches, Signed lower right
Exhibited:
1) [Solo E...
Category
1940s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
Suburb (in Winter)
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This painting is part of our exhibition Charles Goeller: A Wistful Loneliness.
Oil on canvas, 20 x 15 inches, Signed lower right
Exhibited:
1) Portrai...
Category
1940s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Materials
Oil
Industry and Commerce
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This mural study is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1930s
Industry and Commerce, 1936, tempera on panel, 16 ½ x 39 ½ inches, signed verso “John Ballator, Portland Ore.” provenance includes: J.C. Penney Company, represented by Russell Tether Fine Arts Assoc.; presented in a newer wood frame
About the Painting
Industry and Commerce is a prime example of WPA Era muralism. Like a Mediaeval alter, this mural study is filled with icons, but the images of saints and martyrs are replaced with symbols of America's gospel of prosperity through capitalism. Industry and Commerce has a strong narrative quality with vignettes filling the entire surface. Extraction, logistics, design, power generation, and manufacturing for printing, chemicals, automobiles and metal products are all represented. To eliminate any doubt about the mural's themes, Ballator letters a description into the bottom of the study. Ballator also presents an idealized version of industrial cooperation, as his workers, lab-coated technicians and tie-wearing managers work harmoniously toward a common goal in the tidy and neatly designed environments. Although far from the reality of most industrial spaces, Ballator's study reflects the idealized and morale boosting tone that many mural projects adopted during the Great Depression.
About the Artist
John R Ballator achieved success as a muralist, lithographer, and teacher during the Great Depression. Born in Oregon, he studied at the Portland Museum Art School, the University of Oregon and at Yale University where he received a Bachelor of Fine Art. In 1936, Ballator was commissioned to paint a mural panel for the new Department of Justice Building in Washington DC, an important project that spanned five years with several dozen artists contributing a total of sixty-eight designs. Ballator completed murals for the St. Johns Post Office and Franklin High School, both in Portland, Oregon. He also contributed to the 1938 murals at Nathan Hale School in New Haven, Connecticut. During the late 1930s, Ballator taught art for several years at Washburn College in Topeka, Kanas, where he completed a mural for the Menninger Arts & Craft Shop before accepting a professorship at Hollins College...
Category
1930s American Realist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Tempera
Circus Wagons
By Millard Sheets
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This watercolor is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1930s
Circus Wagons, 1927, watercolor on paper, signed and dated lower left, 10 x19 ¾ inches (sight), provenance includes Stary-Sheets Art Gallery (Gualala, CA); J. Ralph & Louis Stone Foundation; presented in a newer metal frame behind glazing
About the Painting
Millard Sheets was only twenty years old and in his third year of studies at the Chouinard Art Institute when he painted Circus Wagons. Despite his youth, Sheets was already an accomplished artist who had publicly exhibited his work and won prestigious prizes. Within several years, he would have his first solo exhibition at one of Los Angeles’ premiere galleries and become a painting instructor at his alma mater. In Circus Wagons we already see Sheets deft handling of the watercolor medium and his interest in the California Scene. In this case, Sheets captures a back lot view of a traveling circus, a subject he sometimes returned to, including in a color screen print in the collection of the National Gallery. Sheets made a career by painting what he knew and observed firsthand. This approach allowed Sheets to capture with authenticity the details of each narrative. Even with a narrowly limited palette and an economy of brushstrokes, Sheets effectively depicts the southern California scene with its strong and mysterious shadows, as well as the workers and circus animals. Seen through the hindsight of his six-decade long career, Circus Wagons offers a fascinating insight into the early development of California Scene painting which would by the mid-1930s become the best recognized style on the West Coast.
About the Artist
Millard Sheets was the dean of California watercolorists. His list of accomplishments is so extensive that his entry in Who was Who in American Art is over forty lines. Born in Pomona, California, Sheets became a painter at an early age, winning a prize at the Los Angeles County Fair in 1918. By the mid to late-1920s, Sheets became a regular at art exhibitions in the western part of the United States, winning several additional prizes before he reached the age of twenty-five. Sheets studied at the prestigious Chouinard Art Institute from 1925 through 1929 with Frank Tolles Chamberlin and Clarence Hinkle and had his first solo show with Los Angeles’ Dalzell Hatfield Gallery in 1929. During the 1930s, Sheets was invited to exhibit at almost every major American Museum and in many ways, his work came to represent the California watercolor school...
Category
1920s American Realist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Watercolor
Factory Worker
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This painting is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1930s
Factory Worker, c. 1936, oil on canvas, signed lower right, 18 ¼ x 36 inches; exhibited in City ...
Category
1930s American Realist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil
