David Barnett Gallery

"Yosemite Falls Close Up" is an original black and white archival pigment print. Using the original photograph taken in 1958. This is signed by the artist Thomas Ferderbar in the lower right and titled on the lower left using silver sharpie. A view from down stream of Yosemite Fall, so that the viewer feels as if they are there comparing human size to the large waterfall. Boulders and trees frame the view making it all the more impressive. Paper Size: 50" x 40" Frame Size: 54" x 44" Artist Statement: "I wanted to become a photographer at the age of 12, when my sister Grace gave me a Kodak Box...

This pastel drawing, 'Abstract Portrait,' demonstrates Reggie K Gee's love of color and love of abstraction. In the image, the form of a head is marked by a black contour; however, a...

"Rock, Mirror Lake, California (Yosemite)" is an original photograph by Thomas Ferderbar. The image is printed as an archival inkjet print on premium luster paper. The artist signed this piece in the lower right. This piece depicts a rock emerging from a smooth body of water that reflects the rock and forest behind it. Framed to conservation standards in a flat modern silver finish with a black inlaid accent. Glazed in Museum Glass. Artwork Size: 50" x 40" Frame Size: 54" x 44" Artist Statement: I wanted to become a photographer at the age of 12, when my sister Grace gave me a Kodak Box...

"Derriere Le Miroir" is an original color lithograph created by the artist Saul Steinberg. Edition: 53/150 Artwork Size: 14"x 20" Frame Size: 33 1/8"x 25 5/8" From the Saul Steinb...

"Descanso, Peru (Woman)" by Ernesto Gutierrez, 1986, oil on jute canvas, signed lower right. 25" x 30" art 35" x 40" frame Artist Bio: Ernesto Gutierrez was born in Lima, Peru in ...

This is an original color lithograph created by Claude Weisbuch. It was designed to promote his show at Vision Nouvelle, a gallery in France. This show in particular was about his Ho...

"Derriere Le Miroir" is an original color lithograph signed by the artist Saul Steinberg. The artist's signature is in the bottom left margin. Image Size: 14"x20" Frame Size: 25 5/8...

"Bacchanale" is an original color lithograph by Andre Masson. This piece is from the Je Reve (I Dream) portfolio and is edition number H.C. XVV/XVV. Masson signed the piece in pencil...

"The Bighorn at Night" is an original woodcut signed and titled by the artist, Carol Summers. It is edition 48/50. Catalogue raisonné listing: cat. 105...

"Le Prince Iris" is an original color lithograph by Andre Masson. The artist signed the piece lower right in pencil and wrote the edition number, H.C. XXV/X...

"Satan" is an original color lithograph by Andre Masson. This piece is from the "Je Reve" (I Dream) portfolio of 1975. The edition number, written lower left, is H.C. XXV/XXV. The ar...

"Le Philosophe Au Papillon", from Je Reve (I Dream) Portfolio, is an original color lithograph signed in pencil lower right by French Surrealist artist Andre Masson. This is H.C. XXV/XXV. It depicts a brightly colored man...

A color pochoir on arches paper by Kees Van Dongen titled "Couple Conversing" from the La Garconne Series "Un Couple Parle Ensemble." Two figures are surrounded by an aura-like pink ...

This color pochoir from the La Garconne Series was done in 1925 on Arches paper No. 738/750 depicting a couple sitting at a cafe. Pochoir or stencil has been used to print limited ed...

This color pochoir was done in 1925 on Arches paper No. 738/750 and depicts two nude lovers. Archivally framed with 12k white gold; white gold fillet, silk mat, and museum glass. ...

This color pochoir was done in 1925 on Arches paper No. 738/750 depicting a parade with animals and balloons. Archivally framed with 23k gold; 23k gold fillet, silk mat, and museum...

This color pochoir by Kees Van Dongen is titled which was done in 1925 on arches paper No. 738/750. Archivally framed with 23k gold; 23k gold fillet, silk mat, and museum glass. 9...

This color pochoir was done in 1925 on Arches paper No. 738/750. It depicts a mother and her child underneath a tree with doves flying around them. Archivally framed with 23k gold; ...

Kees van Dongen (b. 1877, Delfshaven – d. 1968 Monte Carlo) He is considered a Fauvist, but his style is still nevertheless closely related to the German Expressionists. He is appr...

This color pochoir was done in 1925 on Arches paper No. 739/750 and depicts two couples on a night out all dressed up. Archivally framed with 12k white gold; white gold fillet, silk...

This color pochoir by Kees Van Dongen was done on arches paper No. 738/750. Two nude women outlined by purple cover their faces with a white sheet. Archivally framed with 12k white...

"Minutiae V" is a fiber collage mixed media piece by Jeanne Smith. This abstract piece is mostly blue on the front and mostly green on the back. The artist wrote on a small beige-col...

"Fan Shape with Dancers" is a silkscreen print by Schomer Lichtner in blue and pink. The print is signed in pencil lower right and is edition 13/200. In this work, the Matissean arabesque figures...

"A Round of Birds" is an original linocut by Mark Herrling. It depicts a radial pattern of black birds and abstract, geometric shapes. The artist signed, titled, and wrote the editio...

"Egyptian Scene" is a cotton textile created by an unknown Egyptian artist around 1925. This textile depicts a bull on an offering table before the Egyp...

"Kill Spotted Horse" is an original lithograph created by Leonard Baskin. It was published by Fox Graphics. This is a proof purchased directly from the artist. Baskin signed the work in the lower right margin and labelled the work as a proof in the lower left margin, written with graphite. It depicts Kill Spotted Horse, an Assinniboine Native American, in a feather headdress against a light blue background.  Artwork Size: 15" x 13 1/2" Frame Size: 27 1/2" x 26 3/8" Artist Bio: Leonard Baskin (1922-2000) was an american artist born in New Jersey and taught art classes in Massachusetts. He has received many public commissions (including a bas relief for the FDR Memorial), honors, and his work is owned by many major museums around the world. Additionally, Baskin was a teacher at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. As a champion for human rights, Baskin created many pieces celebrating those who were seldom recognized.  Baskin’s interest in nineteenth century Native Americans was roused into acute attendance from ignorant indifference, when the National Park Service asked him to provide illustrations for the handbook that described the then called “Custer National Park”, now called “Little Big...

"Log Cabin Humble Beginnings" is a watercolor painting created by Barbara Kohl-Spiro. From 1984 this comes from a series of paintings based on quilt designs. This example depicts the...

"Sun Totem" is an original acrylic painting on canvas signed and dated lower center by the artist Prospere Pierre Louis. It depicts a few contorted human figures in a totem pole arrangement in black and white, a yellow sun with a face in the center, and various brightly colored patterns on the sides. Artwork Size: 62 5/8" x 38 5/8" Frame Size: 73"x 49" Artist Bio: Prospere Pierre-Louis was born in Bainet, in the south of Haiti, on October 12, 1947. As a young boy, he did not go to school but did teach himself to play the drums and the violin. He assisted his father, a houngan (Vodou priest), in preparing Vodou ceremonies. At age 16 he moved to Port-au-Prince where he apprenticed as a barber for a time before working as a waiter at the home of Maude Robard who would in 1973, with the Haitian artist Tiga, organize a community of peasant artists, singers, dancers, craftspeople, actors and painters into a movement that was named Saint Soleil. Prosper followed his friend Maude to the community at Soisson-la-Montagne on the mountain above Laboule and eventually became the most prominent painter in the group. The Saint Soleil movement gained international recognition in 1975 when the French cultural icon Andre Malraux visited the community. It is said that Malraux was seated in a chair on a grassy knoll while the artists of Saint Soleil ascended the slope, encircling him, each holding a piece of their art. Malraux was blown away by the scene and immortalized the movement by featuring Saint Soleil prominently in his last book, " L'Intemporel." Saint Soleil disbanded after only a few years but five of the artists, Prosper Pierre-Louis, Levoy Exil...

"Kite Series; Guardian III" is an original porcelain sculpture by Marjorie Mau. The work looks like a child's garment, but is executed in porcelain. It is creased and tucked at the n...

This artwork is an original sketch for a painting called "Tempest," by Karin Krohne Kaufman. The artist signed the piece lower right. This piece feat...

"If You're Going to Use My Minnows for Your Fishing, Nothing but the Biggest!" is an original watercolor by Chiang Er-Shih. The artist signed the piece lower right "To John Siedel Yo...

"Yanagibashi in Snow" is an original color woodcut by Utagawa Kunisada. This woodblock print depicts a woman walking in the snow near the Motoyanagi canal, which was located in Tokyo...

"En Auto" is an original color lithograph by Singils. The artist signed the piece in stone and wrote the title in the lower left. The edition number, also written lower left, is 46/5...

"Song For Lovers" is an original oil painting on canvas by Xiao Ming. This artwork features two abstracted figures embracing, a seated figure with a dress, multiple animal heads, and other abstract symbols over a dark blue and black background. 23 3/4" x 19 1/2" art 31 1/2" x 26 1/2" frame Born in the Yunnan province of China, Close to Tibet, Xiao Ming found her artwork on her beliefs and traditions of living with nature as a guardian and protector. These beliefs and traditions may have influenced Ming to favor colored inks, a gouache of sorts derived from mineral pigments bound by using animal glue, Mings work is steeped in Chinese art history, influenced by the ancient scroll...

"Farmers are Ploughing Their Fields II" is a mixed media piece by Xiao Ming. The artist stamped their mark lower right. It features abstracted figures farming. 20" x 10 3/4" art 28" x 28" art Born in the Yunnan province of China, Close to Tibet, Xiao Ming found her artwork on her beliefs and traditions of living with nature as a guardian and protector. These beliefs and traditions may have influenced Ming to favor colored inks, a gouache of sorts derived from mineral pigments bound by using animal glue, Mings work is steeped in Chinese art history, influenced by the ancient scroll...

"Tree & Half Dome (Yosemite National Park, CA" is a black and white photograph signed by Thomas Ferderbar. This photo shows a vista in the Yosemite National Park in California. The center of the piece is a evergreen with asymmetrical limbs. In the distance, one can see the mountains, valley, and clouds...

"The Hunter" is a mixed media piece on paper with a stamped signature by Xiao Ming. It depicts an abstracted figure shooting a boar with an arrow. There are various other creatures and it is created with brightly colored inks. 32 1/2" x 33" art 42 1/2" x 42 3/4" frame Born in the Yunnan province of China, close to Tibet, Xiao Ming founds her artwork on her beliefs and traditions of living with nature as a guardian and protector. These beliefs and traditions may have influenced Ming to favor colored inks, a gouache of sorts derived from mineral pigments bound by using animal glue. Ming’s work is steeped in Chinese art history, influenced by the ancient scroll...

"She Remained Still - Figure 28" is an original etching and mixed media piece by Joan Soppe. It depicts a wire bed frame and fields of color and text. This piece is edition 14/50. ...

Printed in 1943, by the U.S. Government Printing Office for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service. The poster features the beloved Disney characters, Bambi (deer), Thumper (rabbit), and Flower (skunk) in wide-eyed shock leaning towards fear. With the slogan "Please, Mister, don't be careless" the poster is designed to tug at the heartstrings of the viewer and make them consider what actions they could take in their own lives to prevent forest fires. Poster: 20" x 14 1/4" Frame: 30" x 22 1/2" Framed to conservation standards with a 100% cotton fiber matboard border and UV clear glass that filters 99% of UV Rays. UV Rays can be especially damaging and cause fading to the inks used in poster making. All of these features are housed in a contemporary natural wood frame. Smokey Bear...

In this drawing, Sylvia Spicuzza presents the viewer with a dark, subtle view of two milkweed pods, bursting forth with cotton. Examples like this show the ability of Spicuzza to draw in a naturalistic style, where most of her work is usually in a highly stylized, graphic mode. The richness and depth of the black charcoal makes for a moody image. 8 x 5 inches, artwork 18 x 14.5 inches, frame Born in 1908, Sylvia Spicuzza was the daughter of noted painter Francesco Spicuzza. Sylvia devoted herself to teaching art to the students of Lake Bluff...

"Lake Michigan Shore" is an original oil painting on board by Francesco Spicuzza. The artist shows the impact of Impressionism in his landscapes from around 1930. "Lake Michigan Shor...

"A Field for the Birds" is an original acrylic painting on canvas by Tom Shelton. The artist signed the painting in the lower right. This painting depicts a diagonal line of birds cu...

"The Orange Cart, Mazatlan, Mexico" is an original watercolor painting signed and dated in the lower right by artist F. Douglas Greenbowe. It depicts a ...

"Cordillera, Blanca-Ancash (White Mountains)" is an original oil painting on canvas by the Peruvian artist Abelardo Marquez. It depicts a mountain and stream in an impressionist styl...

"The Long White Road" is an original wood engraving by Lowell Merritt Lee. A long white road stretches past empty barren trees under a cloudy sky. Image: 6" x 5" Framed: 15.37" x 1...

"Untitled" is an original color lithograph by Angelika Thusius. This is an artist proof and a completely unique impression. This piece depicts two women sharing beans in front of a d...

"Conversaciones Alternadas (Alternated Conversations)" is an original mixed media piece on handmade paper by Teresa Olabuenaga. The artist signed the piece in the lower right. It dep...

"Entre Mitos (Within Myths)" is an original mixed media artwork on canvas by Teresa Olabuenaga. This piece depicts the head of a woman below abstract forms and other images. 54" x ...

"El Gozo en el Recuerdo (The Pleasure in Memory)" is an original mixed media piece on handmade paper by Teresa Olabuenaga. The artist signed the piece in the lower right. It depicts ...

"Landscape Pink & Red" is an original framed pastel drawing by Sue Bartfield. 36" x 25" art 47 1/2" x 36" framed Artist's Statement: "You might be surprised to know that I do not ...

"Progress Regress" is an original oil painting on canvas by Renee McGinnis. The artist signed the piece in the lower right. This piece depicts a boy scrunching up his face, revealing that his teeth say "Progress Regress", the title of the painting. This boy is laying on a pillow in front of a stormy sky. 36" x 48" art 42" x 54" frame Renee McGinnis grew up on a farm in central Illinois and attended Illinois Wesleyan University, earning a BFA in 1984. She continued with graduate work in sociology and anthropology at the University of Chicago. Her work has been exhibited widely in Chicago and has also been shown in Germany, Australia, New York City, Washington D.C. and Baltimore, Md. Her curatorial debut occurred when she launched “The Chicago Solution Show 2003" with the late Ed Paschke as juror, then again in 2005 with Art Institute of Chicago Curator of contemporary Collections- James Rondeau. Awards include: * Honorable Mention, Artists of The Millennium, Rockford Art Museum, juror: James Yood 2000 * Best of Show, juror Ed Paschke, Animal Images 2002 *Best of Show, 13th Annual Women’s Works, Woodstock, IL 2000 *1st Place, International Platform Assoc. Wash. D.C. 1999 *Honorable Mention, jurors: Tom Blackman, Gelsy Verna, Jay Dandy. Hyde Park Art Center...

"Two Ladies in White" is an original pastel drawing by Sue Bartfield in white and purple. 27 1/4" x 40 3/4" art 33 5/8" x 48" framed Artist's Statement: "You might be surprised to...

For the Yoruba people of Nigeria, beads and shells are applied to ceremonial garments and headdresses. Beads are an important part of Yoruba culture. henry John Drewal has written th...

The Ewe people from Ghana are master weavers. People of means commission cloths called adanudo ("skilled/wise cloths"). Ewe adanudo textiles often display a tweed effect by twisting ...

Among the most well-known West African textiles is kente cloth, woven by the Ewe and Asante peoples of Ghana. The word kente is not used by the Asante people; it may be derived from ...

"Passage a Village" is an original drypoint print by Hermine David. It depicts a number of figures on a path into a village using various forms of transportation. This piece is edition 120/150. 11" x 9 3/4" art 21 5/8" x 17" frame Hermine Lionette Cartan David (19 April 1886 in Paris-1 December 1970 in Bry-sur-Marne) was a French painter and the wife of Jules Pascin. She was also a great-granddaughter of the revolutionary painter Jacques-Louis David. Hermine David was one of the Ecole de Paris...

John Steuart Curry "Sketching Wisconsin," 1946 oil on canvas 31.13 x 28 inches, canvas 39.75 x 36.75 x 2.5 inches, frame Signed and dated lower right Overall excellent condition Presented in a 24-karat gold leaf hand-carved wood frame John Steuart Curry (1897-1946) was an American regionalist painter active during the Great Depression and into World War II. He was born in Kansas on his family’s farm but went on to study art in Chicago, Paris and New York as young man. In Paris, he was exposed to the work of masters such as Peter Paul Rubens, Eugène Delacroix and Jacques-Louis David. As he matured, his work showed the influence of these masters, especially in his compositional decisions. Like the two other Midwestern regionalist artists that are most often grouped with him, Grant Wood (American, 1891-1942) and Thomas Hart Benton (American, 1889-1975), Curry was interested in representational works containing distinctly American subject matter. This was contrary to the popular art at the time, which was moving closer and closer to abstraction and individual expression. Sketching Wisconsin is an oil painting completed in 1946, the last year of John Steuart Curry’s life, during which time he was the artist-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The painting is significant in Curry’s body of work both as a very revealing self-portrait, and as a landscape that clearly and sensitively depicts the scenery of southern Wisconsin near Madison. It is also a portrait of the artist’s second wife, Kathleen Gould Curry, and is unique in that it contains a ‘picture within a picture,’ a compositional element that many early painting masters used to draw the eye of the viewer. This particular artwork adds a new twist to this theme: Curry’s wife is creating essentially the same painting the viewer is looking at when viewing Sketching Wisconsin. The triangular composition of the figures in the foreground immediately brings focus to a younger Curry, whose head penetrates the horizon line and whose gaze looks out towards the viewer. The eye then moves down to Mrs. Curry, who, seated on a folding stool and with her hand raised to paint the canvas on the easel before her, anchors the triangular composition. The shape is repeated in the legs of the stool and the easel. Behind the two figures, stripes of furrowed fields fall away gently down the hillside to a farmstead and small lake below. Beyond the lake, patches of field and forest rise and fall into the distance, and eventually give way to blue hills. Here, Curry has subverted the traditional artist’s self-portrait by portraying himself as a farmer first and an artist second. He rejects what he sees as an elitist art world of the East Coast and Europe. In this self-portrait he depicts himself without any pretense or the instruments of his profession and with a red tractor standing in the field behind him as if he was taking a break from the field work. Here, Curry’s wife symbolizes John Steuart Curry’s identity as an artist. Compared with a self-portrait of the artist completed a decade earlier, this work shows a marked departure from how the artist previously presented and viewed himself. In the earlier portrait, Curry depicted himself in the studio with brushes in hand, and with some of his more recognizable and successful canvases behind him. But in Sketching Wisconsin, Curry has taken himself out of the studio and into the field, indicating a shift in the artist’s self-conception. Sketching Wisconsin’s rural subject also expresses Curry’s populist ideals, that art could be relevant to anyone. This followed the broad educational objectives of UW’s artist-in-residence program. Curry was appointed to his position at the University of Wisconsin in 1937 and was the first person to hold any such position in the country, the purpose of which was to serve as an educational resource to the people of the state. He embraced his role at the University with zeal and not only opened the doors of his campus studio in the School of Agriculture to the community, but also spent a great deal of time traveling around the state of Wisconsin to visit rural artists who could benefit from his expertise. It was during his ten years in the program that Curry was able to put into practice his belief that art should be meaningful to the rural populace. However, during this time he also struggled with public criticism, as the dominant forces of the art market were moving away from representation. Perhaps it was Curry’s desire for public acceptance during the latter part of his career that caused him to portray himself as an Everyman in Sketching Wisconsin. Beyond its importance as a portrait of the artist, Sketching Wisconsin is also a detailed and sensitive landscape that shows us Curry’s deep personal connection to his environment. The landscape here can be compared to Wisconsin Landscape of 1938-39 (the Metropolitan Museum of Art), which presents a similar tableau of rolling hills with a patchwork of fields. Like Wisconsin Landscape, this is an incredibly detailed and expressive depiction of a place close to the artist’s heart. This expressive landscape is certainly the result of many hours spent sketching people, animals, weather conditions and topography of Wisconsin as Curry traveled around the state. The backdrop of undulating hills and the sweeping horizon, and the emotions evoked by it, are emphatically recognizable as the ‘driftless’ area of south-central Wisconsin. But while the Metropolitan’s Wisconsin Landscape conveys a sense of uncertainty or foreboding with its dramatic spring cloudscape and alternating bands of light and dark, Sketching Wisconsin has a warm and reflective mood. The colors of the foliage indicate that it is late summer and Curry seems to look out at the viewer approvingly, as if satisfied with the fertile ground surrounding him. The landscape in Sketching Wisconsin is also revealing of what became one of Curry’s passions while artist-in-residence at UW’s School of Agriculture – soil conservation. When Curry was a child in Kansas, he saw his father almost lose his farm and its soil to the erosion of The Dust Bowl. Therefore, he was very enthusiastic about ideas from UW’s School of Agriculture on soil conservation methods being used on Wisconsin farms. In Sketching Wisconsin, we see evidence of crop rotation methods in the terraced stripes of fields leading down the hillside away from the Curry’s and in how they alternate between cultivated and fallow fields. Overall, Sketching Wisconsin has a warm, reflective, and comfortably pastoral atmosphere, and the perceived shift in Curry’s self-image that is evident in the portrait is a positive one. After his rise to favor in the art world in the 1930’s, and then rejection from it due to the strong beliefs presented in his art, Curry is satisfied and proud to be farmer in this self-portrait. Curry suffered from high blood...

"Le Rhone a Avignon" is an original hand colored etching signed by the artist Armand Coussens. This incredibly rare print depicts a church in Avignon, where Pablo Picasso had one of ...

"Field Study - Winter Patterns" is a mixed media piece by Terri Warpinski using photographs, drawings, and fragments of notebook and sketchbook paper. The artist signed the piece in ...

"Catching A Fish" is an original gouache and watercolor painting on illustration board. It is signed in the lower left by the artist Tom Rost. 25" x 20 5/8" art 30 5/8" x 24 3/4" framed with museum glass Tom Rost spent most of his life in Wisconsin, graduating from the Milwaukee State Teacher's College (now the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee). He began his artistic career as an illustrator for the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Works Progress Administration, and the Treasury Department. Later, he began illustrating for the Milwaukee Journal and then left to work in New York with the Field...