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Period: 20th Century
'White Stoneware (Face)' original hand-built ceramic plate by Estherly Allen
By Estherly Allen
Located in Milwaukee, WI
This small hand-built plate, 'White Stoneware (Face),' is an intimate and exciting example of the ceramic work of Estherly Allen. She was a student of George McNeil, an important Abs...
Category
1980s Abstract Expressionist Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Ceramic, Glaze, Stoneware
20th century landscape pastel drawing colorful grass path hills sky signed
By Wolf Kahn
Located in Milwaukee, WI
'Study for Connecticut at Putney' is an original pastel drawing by American artist Wolf Kahn. The landscape is an exploration of color and light: it is rendered in cool blues and purples with fields of subtle yellow, the pastels treated with the same gesture as Kahn's paintbrush on a canvas. Indeed, this pastel was a study executed en plein air for a painting – the painting now sometimes called 'Bend in the River' – that he later created in the studio. This process of creating studies, selecting the best of the studies, and then recreating them as paintings was typical of Kahn's studio process and makes this pastel a significant example of the artist's creative output.
9 x 11 inches, artwork
15.5 x 18.13 inches, frame
Signed 'W. Kahn' lower right
Framed to conservation standards using archival materials including 100 percent rag matting. Housed in a gold finish wood moulding.
Acquired directly from the artist.
Wolf Kahn, the youngest of four siblings, was born into a well-to-do artistic family. His father was the conductor of the Stuttgart Philharmonic Symphony, and his mother came from a family of art collectors.(1) During 1938, Kahn took his first art lessons, but most of his initial drawings were of military or historical events. The next year Kahn was sent to England for safety following the ascendancy of Hitler to power, and in 1940, he immigrated to the United States.
In 1942, he entered New York's High School of Music and Art, and while there, he was employed by a commercial art firm doing illustrations. After a stint in the Navy, Kahn entered Hans Hofmann's school, and among his fellow students were Neil Blaine, Jane Freilicher, Allan Kaprow and Larry Rivers. His initial results were done with a dark palette and abstracted forms, and although Hofmann's style of teaching was difficult, Kahn has consistently praised him for teaching him the value of control and understanding.(2)
Kahn's first exhibition was a 1951 group show in a loft with several other artists in lower Manhattan. From this impromptu show, a group effort evolved called the Hansa Gallery Cooperative.(3) In 1953, Wolf Kahn had a one-man show at this gallery, which was reviewed by Fairfield Porter, and at this same time bolder, more vivid colors began to appear in his work. By the mid-1950's, on a summer trip to Provincetown, Kahn's paintings indicated a new direction of softening warm colors in the manner of Bonnard. He was included in Meyer Shapiro's seminal exhibition, The New York School: The Second Generation at the Jewish Museum, and by the end of the 1950s, he had developed his abstracted landscape style for which he is best known.
In 1966, he made his first "barn" painting on Martha's Vineyard that reduced the complexities of detail of the architecture to a more basic shape, a stylistic convention that is evident in the Museum's painting. Kahn has since commented frequently on his use of color as a unique and specific component of each work as the situation demands, where the gradual buildup of the colors resembles the beauty and translucent nature of pastels.(4) Since then Kahn has had one-person exhibitions at the Kansas City Art Institute, Chrysler Museum, San Diego Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art and the Columbus Museum, among others. His work is in the permanent collections of numerous museums throughout the United States.
Footnotes:
1. Much of the biographical information is drawn from Justin Spring, Wolf Kahn (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996).
2. Spring, 21. Wolf Kahn draws this from a 1973 address to the College Art Association.
3. This group included Jane Wilson...
Category
1970s Contemporary Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pastel, Paper
'The Prairie School Collection' exhibition poster Milwaukee Art Museum
By Frank Lloyd Wright
Located in Milwaukee, WI
This poster, produced for an exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum, features the bold work of American architect and designer Frank Lloyd Wright. Beneat...
Category
1980s American Modern More Prints
Materials
Paper, Offset
'Le Condottiere' original signed lithograph poster, knight on horseback 1970s
By Claude Weisbuch
Located in Milwaukee, WI
This poster, produced for the 1978 International Meeting of Fine Art Dealers in Washington, features prominently one of Claude Weisbuch's dynamic images: Le Condottiere. It is an original color lithograph advertising his new works, and is one of only twenty-five that bears the artist's signature in the lower right. In line with Weisbuch's interest in the Renaissance and Baroque in Europe, this image looks back to the early modern period. Condottieri were Italian captains...
Category
1970s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
'Weisbuch gravures' original signed exhibition poster Musée d'Art Moderne Paris
By Claude Weisbuch
Located in Milwaukee, WI
This poster, published in Paris, was produced for a 1978 exhibition of the prints of contemporary artist Claude Weisbuch. This example is rare and unusual in that it is signed by the artist and inscribed to David Barnett, one of his most significant US dealers...
Category
1970s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph, Offset
'Three Studies' original signed drawing, Venus de Milo & Victory of Samothrace
By Claude Weisbuch
Located in Milwaukee, WI
This drawing, three studies of figures, was done by the contemporary artist Claude Weisbuch in 1979, but it shows his interest in the old masters and his academic approach to drawing. The figures are based on sculptures at the Louvre Museum in Paris, especially the ancient Greek sculptures of the Venus de Milo int he center and the Winged Victory of Samothrace...
Category
1970s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Paper, Graphite
Premiere U.S. Exhibition Poster at David Barnett Gallery, signed by Weisbuch
By Claude Weisbuch
Located in Milwaukee, WI
This is the poster published by the David Barnett Gallery for the first exhibition of Claude Weisbuch's artwork in the United States. It features...
Category
1970s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph, Offset
'Polichinelle Et Ses Trois Chiens' original signed lithograph, Pulcinella & dogs
By Claude Weisbuch
Located in Milwaukee, WI
'Polichinelle Et Ses Trois Chiens,' or in English 'Pulcinella and His Three Dogs,' is an original signed lithograph by the contemporary artist Claude Weisbuch – and it is an excellen...
Category
1980s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
'Le Chef D'Oeuvre Inconnu' original signed lithograph, artist painting at easel
By Claude Weisbuch
Located in Milwaukee, WI
'Le Chef D'Oeuvre Inconnu,' or in English 'The Unknown Masterpiece,' is an original signed lithograph by the contemporary artist Claude Weisbuch – and it is an excellent example of t...
Category
1970s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
'Hommage à Michel-Ange' original signed lithograph, Sistine chapel 1970s
By Claude Weisbuch
Located in Milwaukee, WI
'Hommage à Michel-Ange' is an original color lithograph signed by the contemporary artist Claude Weisbuch and shows the strong interest he took in the High Renaissance. In the image, Weisbuch draws from Michelangelo's frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel...
Category
1970s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
'Boeuf Ecorche' original signed lithograph, Rembrandt with slaughtered ox 1970s
By Claude Weisbuch
Located in Milwaukee, WI
'Boeuf Ecorche' is an original color lithograph, signed by Claude Weisbuch – and it is a quintessential example of the contemporary artist's interest in the old masters. In the image...
Category
1970s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
'Il bouge sans arrêt' original signed lithograph poster after drypoint, 1960s
By Claude Weisbuch
Located in Milwaukee, WI
This poster is a lithographic enlargement of the dry point print 'Il bouge sans arrêt' by the French artist Claude Weisbuch. The image is an early example of his explorations into th...
Category
1960s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
'Artist Series at the Pabst' original lithograph poster, violinists 1980s
By Claude Weisbuch
Located in Milwaukee, WI
This limited edition poster was produced for the fifth anniversary season of the Artist Series at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee, in cooperation with the David Barnett Gallery. It is...
Category
1980s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
'Untitled' original 1960s signed serigraph silver abstract vintage train pop art
Located in Milwaukee, WI
In this untitled serigraph, Vincent DiMattio combines the aesthetics of the space age with Pop Art sensibilities and techniques. In the postwar era of the 1950s and 1960s, the United States was in the midst of a period of economic growth for the middle class, and so the trappings and imagery of middle class life became the subjects of a number of artists. While figures like Andy Warhol focused on images of celebrities and soup cans, here DiMattio looks to robots and rockets. At the far left, a figure appears with a round green head and a small clamping arm. To the right, a form like a tank with phallic protrusions, one with a head like the form of a space ship. These signs all alight with the space age toys...
Category
1960s Pop Art Abstract Prints
Materials
Foil
'La Côte Basque' original lithograph travel poster with beach and golf
By Bernard Villemot
Located in Milwaukee, WI
This poster, titled 'La Côte Basque' in the image, was intended to draw people to travel to the Basque coast of Spain. The image is dominated by the serene blues, greens and yellows of the golf course and sandy beach. Throughout the vista, figures can be seen at leisure golfing, riding horseback, eating at restaurants, and sunbathing.
34 x 23.75 inches, poster
43.5 x 33.25 inches, image
Signed in the stone, lower right
Framed to conservation standards using archival materials including 100 percent rag mounting, UV5 Plexiglas to inhibit fading, and housed in a gold finished wood moulding with a 3-inch Belgian linen liner.
Bernard Villemot (1911 – 1989) was a French graphic artist known primarily for his iconic advertising images for Orangina, Bally Shoe, Perrier, and Air France. He was known for a sharp artistic vision that was influenced by photography, and for his ability to distill an advertising message to a memorable image with simple, elegant lines and bold colors. From 1932 to1934, he studied in Paris with artist Paul Colin, who was considered a master of Art Deco. From 1945 to 1946, Villemot prepared posters for the Red Cross. In the late 1940s, he also began a famous series of travel posters for Air France that would continue for decades. In 1949, Villemot's works were exhibited with those of his contemporary poster artist Raymond Savignac at the Gallery of Beaux Arts in Paris. In 1953, Villemot began designing logos and posters for the new soft drink Orangina, and over time these works would become some of his best known. In 1963, the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris held an exhibition of his works. By the end of his life in 1989, he was known as one of the last great poster artists, and many collectors and critics consider him to be the "painter-laureate of modern commercial art." Since his death in 1989, his memorable images have been increasingly sought after by collectors. At least three books have been published that survey his art: "Les affiches de Villemot," by Jean-Francois Bazin...
Category
1960s Modern Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Poster for "Gran Show de la Risa" with Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and others
Located in Milwaukee, WI
This original color lithograph poster features some of the most iconic and beloved comedians of the early 20th century: The image is dominated by the figure of Charlie Chaplin, holding his iconic bowler hat over his head. Surrounding him are portraits of Harold Lloyd...
Category
Mid-20th Century Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
"Speedway" large French movie poster with Elvis Presley, Nancy Sinatra
Located in Milwaukee, WI
This poster for the 1968 film Speedway is an energetic and playful work of graphic design. The poster is dominated by vibrant magenta and yellow, making the image of Elvis Presley an...
Category
1960s Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
'Nuits de la Fondation Maeght' lithograph event poster
By Wassily Kandinsky
Located in Milwaukee, WI
This poster, published in 1971 for the Fondation Maeght, proudly boasts a lithographic rendering of Wassily Kandinsky's 1922 mural plans for the Juryfreie exhibition in Germany. It w...
Category
1970s Blue Rider Abstract Prints
Materials
Lithograph
'Orange/Black abstract' original signed pastel drawing, blue and salmon 1980s
By Valerie Christell
Located in Milwaukee, WI
Valerie Christell's large pastel drawings from the early 1980s take the landscape and make it abstract. In them, she tries to emulate the experience of seeing the land while driving at high speed on the back of a motorcycle. The resulting imagery is rendered in energetic and gestural line work that morphs into large fields of color. This example, 'Orange/Black abstract,' takes on the appearance of nighttime, lit only by the light of the motorcycle headlight...
Category
1980s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pastel, Paper
'Self Portrait 1974' original etching signed by Sandra Sweeney
By Sandra Sweeney
Located in Milwaukee, WI
Following in line with artists before her, like Rembrandt and van Gogh, Sandra Sweeny here presents a self portrait. The image is both direct and subtle not only in its handling of m...
Category
1970s Contemporary Portrait Prints
Materials
Paper, Etching
20th century female artist self-portrait drawing pastel small color signed
By Sandra Sweeney
Located in Milwaukee, WI
Following in line with artists before her, like Rembrandt and van Gogh, Sandra Sweeny here presents a self portrait. The image is direct but subtle in its handling of materials, but ...
Category
1970s Contemporary Nude Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Pastel, Graphite
Postcard with view of Rudberg's Pier, Beaver Lake, Hartland, Wisconsin
Located in Milwaukee, WI
With the invention of the halftone print process, photographic postcards like this became inexpensive to produce and became widely distributed in the first decades of the 20th centur...
Category
Early 1900s Tonalist Landscape Photography
Materials
Lithograph
'Fruit Still Life' original watercolor and gouache on board, signed Yolanda
Located in Milwaukee, WI
Though signed "Yolanda," the artist of this gouache and watercolor painting is unknown. The still life, contained and symmetrical, is dominated by the form of a pear. On either side,...
Category
Early 20th Century American Modern Still-life Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor, Gouache, Board
'Woman By The River' original color pencil drawing signed by Angelika Thusius
By Angelika Thusius
Located in Milwaukee, WI
In this small, intimate drawing, Angelika Thusius presents an image of a woman kneeling on the ground before a river. Foliage bursts all around her, framing her in the oasis. In the distance, two other figures kneel, engaged in a similar task. The simple yet stylized form of her body and skirt recall the images of lauded Latinx artists like Diego Rivera and Alfredo Ramos Martínez...
Category
1980s Contemporary Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Color Pencil
'Monday in Wick Haven' original linoleum cut print by Howard Thomas
By Howard Thomas
Located in Milwaukee, WI
In this image, Howard Thomas presents the viewer with a domestic interior. The image is dominated by the figure of a black woman, resting her arm on an ironing board. To the right, the tool of her task dangles a chord above a checker tiled floor. Beyond, though a window, neighboring homes fill the landscape. The careful line-work of the linocut adds a sense of expressionism to the scene, but the image nonetheless falls into the Social Realism that captivated most American artists during the Great Depression.
This print was published in 1936 as part of the Wisconsin Artists' Calendar for the year 1937, which included 52 original, hand-made prints – one for each week of the year.
6 x 5 inches, image
10 x 7.13 inches, sheet
12.37 x 12.43 inches, frame
Entitled "Monday in Wick Haven" lower left (covered by matting)
Inscribed "Linoleum Cut" lower center (covered by matting)
Artist name "Howard Thomas" lower right (covered by matting)
Framed to conservation standards using 100 percent rag matting and museum glass, all housed in a silver gilded moulding.
Quaker-born in Ohio, Thomas trained in the Midwest at Ohio State University and the Chicago Art Institute. He taught in the Art Department of the Milwaukee State Teachers College (now University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) where he became good friends with Carl Holty, Edward Boerner, Robert von Neumann...
Category
1930s American Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Linocut
'Jones Island' original woodcut engraving by Gerrit Sinclair
By Gerrit Sinclair
Located in Milwaukee, WI
The print 'Jones Island' is something of a self portrait. In the image, an artist stands before and easel, depicting the docks and buildings on the coast. The title indicates that this is Jones Island in Milwaukee, the peninsula along Lake Michigan that today is home to largely industrial buildings. The buildings and figures in the print suggest that this might be a view of the last of the Kashubian or German immigrant settlements on the peninsula before they were evicted in the 1940s to make way for the development of the harbor. The artist in the image thus acts as a documentarian of these peoples. The careful line-work of the woodblock engraving adds a sense of expressionism to the scene, leaving the figures and buildings looking distraught and dirty, though the image nonetheless falls into the Social Realist category that dominated American artists during the Great Depression.
This print was published in 1936 as part of the Wisconsin Artists' Calendar for the year 1937, which included 52 original, hand-made prints – one for each week of the year.
6 x 5 inches, image
10 x 7.13 inches, sheet
13.43 x 12.43 inches, frame
Signed "GS" in the print block,upper left
Entitled "Jones Island" lower left (covered by matting)
Inscribed "Wood Engraving" lower center (covered by matting)
Artist name "Gerrit V. Sinclair" lower right (covered by matting)
Framed to conservation standards using 100 percent rag matting and museum glass, all housed in a silver gilded moulding.
Gerrit Sinclair studied at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1910 - 1915, under Vanderpoel, Norton, and Walcott. In World War I, he served in the Army Ambulance Corps and later recorded his experiences in a series of oil paintings. He taught in Minneapolis before arriving in Milwaukee in 1920 to become a member of the original faculty of the Layton School of Art. He was also a member of the Wisconsin Painters & Sculptors.
Sinclair's paintings and drawings were executed in a lyrical, representational style, usually expressing a mood rather than a narrative. His paintings reveal a great sensitivity for color and atmosphere. His subject matter focused on cityscapes, industrial valleys, and working-class neighborhoods, captured from eye-level. A decade before the popularity of Regionalism, Sinclair's strong interest in the community was reflected not only in his paintings, but also in his encouragement to students to return to their communities as artists and teachers. Joseph Friebert...
Category
1930s American Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Woodcut, Engraving
'Floorboard Plus Four' original collagraph signed by Joseph Rozman
By Joseph Rozman
Located in Milwaukee, WI
The present unique collagraph is an excellent example of Joseph Rozman's pictographic style. The composition is organized like a tiled floor, each square containing an abstracted ima...
Category
1960s Abstract Expressionist Figurative Prints
Materials
Paper, Ink, Watercolor
'Mad Dash' original lithograph signed by Joseph Rozman
By Joseph Rozman
Located in Milwaukee, WI
'Mad Dash' is a print that exemplifies the work of Joseph Rozman during the 1970s, moving beyond the playful pictographs of the previous decade and morphing into an increasingly surr...
Category
1970s Surrealist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
'Family Outing' original watercolor signed by Joseph Rozman
By Joseph Rozman
Located in Milwaukee, WI
The present watercolor is an excellent example of Joseph Rosman's early style, presenting contemporary American life though a child-like, abstracted lens. In the image, a man, woman ...
Category
1960s Contemporary Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
'Plus White Deer' collagraph by Joseph Rozman from 'Los Animales' portfolio
By Joseph Rozman
Located in Milwaukee, WI
The present color collagraph, from the portfolio 'Los Animales,' is an excellent example of Joseph Rozman's pictographic style. Rozman's work often looks to ancient and non-western a...
Category
1960s Abstract Expressionist Figurative Prints
Materials
Paper, Ink
'Girl with Sun, Bicycle and Car' original watercolor signed by Joseph Rozman
By Joseph Rozman
Located in Milwaukee, WI
The present painting is an excellent example of Joseph Rozman's pictographic style. The composition is dominated by abstracted vignettes: A fashionable woman beneath the sun, a car, ...
Category
1960s Abstract Expressionist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
Early 20th century aquatint landscape figure boat water trees lake print signed
By Manuel Robbe
Located in Milwaukee, WI
'Le Pecheur' is an excelletn example of the aquatints of Manuel Robbe, a French artists working during the turn of the 20th century. The image draws upon th...
Category
Early 1900s Impressionist Figurative Prints
Materials
Aquatint
Foldout from catalogue for 'Terres de grand feu' lithograph by Joan Miró
By Joan Miró
Located in Milwaukee, WI
Joan Miró produced this original lithograph especially for the catalogue for an exhibition of his and Josep Llorens Artigas' collaborative work at the Pierre Matisse Gallery, New Yo...
Category
1950s Abstract Abstract Prints
Materials
Lithograph
'Coupe Gordon Bennett 1909' original lithograph by Marguerite "Gamy" Montaut
By Marguerite Montaut
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Coupe Gordon Bennett 1909 — Curtiss le Gagnant" is an original Lithograph with Pochoir created by Marguerite Montaut (GAMY). Gamy presents the viewer w...
Category
Early 1900s American Realist Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph, Ink
Cover from 'Miró Lithographs IV, Maeght Publisher' original print by Joan Miró
By Joan Miró
Located in Milwaukee, WI
This original lithograph is one of six produced by Joan Miró especially for the fourth volume of the catalogue of his lithographs. These are excellent examples of his later work and ...
Category
1980s Abstract Abstract Prints
Materials
Lithograph
'The Rabbit' original woodcut engraving by Clarice George Logan
By Clarice George Logan
Located in Milwaukee, WI
In 'The Rabbit,' Wisconsin artist Clarice George Logan presents the viewer with a multi-figural scene: under a wood-frame structure, four children crouch on the ground, gathered around a young woman who presents a rabbit. Under normal circumstances, such an image of children with a bunny would recall childhood storybooks. In this case, however, the image is more ambiguous and suggests the unfortunate economic circumstances many children suffered during the interwar years. Nonetheless, the group could also be interpreted as a nativity play, with the rabbit taking the place of the Christ child, shining light on the children like in a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Correggio. The careful line-work of the woodblock engraving adds a sense of expressionism to the scene, leaving the figures looking distraught and dirty, though the image nonetheless falls into the Social Realist category that dominated American artists during the Great Depression.
This print was published in 1936 as part of the Wisconsin Artists' Calendar for the year 1937, which included 52 original, hand-made prints - one for each week of the year.
Clarice George Logan was born in Mayville, New York in 1909 but moved to Wisconsin in 1921. She attended the Milwaukee State Teachers College from 1927 to 1931 where she studied with Robert von...
Category
1930s American Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Engraving, Woodcut
'Improvisation 7' second ed. woodcut from 'Klänge' by Wassily Kandinsky
By Wassily Kandinsky
Located in Milwaukee, WI
'Improvisation 7' second ed. woodcut from 'Klänge' is a woodcut print created by Wassily Kandinsky. The present woodcut print comes from the second edition of 'Klänge (Sounds),' a book of original graphics and poetry by Wassily Kandinsky. The title of the album and of this print, 'Improvisation,' demonstrated Kandinsky's interest in music and how abstract musical forms could be translated into images on a two-dimensional surface. This particular composition is difficult to read, but through the abstraction, one can make out various figures and a landscape beyond. Originally carved and printed in 1911, this second edition print was done ca. 1938. It is a woodcut in black ink on woven paper. Signed with encircled 'K' in the block, lower right (from the book, signed in ink, ed. 117/300)
Image Size: 7 1/2" x 5 inches
Frame Size: 22 1/4" x 18 3/4"
Ref. Roethel 124
Artist Bio:
The Museum of Modern Art described 'Klänge (Sounds)' as follows:
Vasily Kandinsky's self-described "musical album," Klänge (Sounds), consists of thirty-eight prose-poems he wrote between 1909 and 1911 and fifty-six woodcuts he began in 1907. In the woodcuts Kandinsky veiled his subject matter, creating increasingly indecipherable images (though the horse and rider, his symbol for overcoming objective representation, runs through as a leitmotif). This process proved crucial for the development of abstraction in his art. Kandinsky said his choice of media sprang from an "inner necessity" for expression: the woodcuts were not merely illustrative, nor were the poems purely verbal descriptions. Kandinsky sought a synthesis of the arts, in which meaning was created through the interaction of, and space between, text and image, sound and meaning, mark and blank space. The experimental typography shows his interest in the physical aspects of the book.
Klänge is one of three major publications by Kandinsky that appeared shortly before World War I, alongside Über die Geistige in der Kunst (Concerning the Spiritual in Art) and the Blaue Reiter almanac...
Category
1910s Blue Rider Abstract Prints
Materials
Woodcut, Laid Paper
'Improvisation 7' original first ed. woodcut from 'Klänge' by Wassily Kandinsky
By Wassily Kandinsky
Located in Milwaukee, WI
The present woodcut print comes from 'Klänge (Sounds),' a book of original graphics and poetry by Wassily Kandinsky. This first edition was released in an edition of 300, each book signed and numbered by the artist. The title of the album and this particular print, 'Improvisation,' demonstrated Kandinsky's interest in music and how abstract musical forms could be translated into images on a two-dimensional surface. This particular composition is difficult to read, but through the abstraction, one can make out various figures and a landscape beyond.
7.5 x 5 inches, image
22 x 19.5 inches, frame
Woodcut in black ink on laid paper (watermark Van Gelder Zonen)
Signed with encircled 'K' in the block, lower right
Framed to conservation standards using 100 percent acid free archival materials including silk-lined matting with 1/4 inch bevel, museum glass, and a gold-gilded moulding
Ref. Roethel 124
The Museum of Modern Art described 'Klänge (Sounds)' as follows:
Vasily Kandinsky's self-described "musical album," Klänge (Sounds), consists of thirty-eight prose-poems he wrote between 1909 and 1911 and fifty-six woodcuts he began in 1907. In the woodcuts Kandinsky veiled his subject matter, creating increasingly indecipherable images (though the horse and rider, his symbol for overcoming objective representation, runs through as a leitmotif). This process proved crucial for the development of abstraction in his art. Kandinsky said his choice of media sprang from an "inner necessity" for expression: the woodcuts were not merely illustrative, nor were the poems purely verbal descriptions. Kandinsky sought a synthesis of the arts, in which meaning was created through the interaction of, and space between, text and image, sound and meaning, mark and blank space. The experimental typography shows his interest in the physical aspects of the book.
Klänge is one of three major publications by Kandinsky that appeared shortly before World War I, alongside Über die Geistige in der Kunst (Concerning the Spiritual in Art) and the Blaue Reiter almanac...
Category
1910s Blue Rider Abstract Prints
Materials
Woodcut
'Street Scene With Building #2' original silkscreen signed by Lester Johnson
By Lester Johnson
Located in Milwaukee, WI
The present work is an original screen print signed by Lester Johnson, from his 'Street Scene Portfolio.' It features four figures, all wearing fashionable street clothing emblematic...
Category
1970s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Screen
'Street Scene With Man & Women' original silkscreen signed by Lester Johnson
By Lester Johnson
Located in Milwaukee, WI
The present work is an original screen print signed by Lester Johnson, from his 'Street Scene Portfolio.' It features four figures, all wearing fashionable street clothing emblematic...
Category
1970s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Screen
'Untitled (Pink House with Lake)' original aquatint by Nicolette Jelen
By Nicolette Jelen
Located in Milwaukee, WI
The present artwork is an original color aquatint by the Sag Harbor-based artist Nicolette Jelen, and is a particularly rare Hors Commerce. It presents a view of what is probably a N...
Category
1980s Contemporary Landscape Prints
Materials
Aquatint
'King of Farts' original ceramic vase and relief signed by Michael Gross
By Michael Gross
Located in Milwaukee, WI
The ceramic sculptures of Wisconsin artist Michael Gross are personal narratives that reveal an unusual mix of earthly magic and primal vitality. The artist works in a variety of forms, including figurines, large vessels and furniture. The present vase is among the top tier of his works from the 1980s, showing multiple playful figures in relief around the vessel. In his Neo-Expressionist style, hearkening to the works of Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, the figures are colored in painterly polychrome. Also, not unlike the painted narrative vessels of Ancient Greece, though much more subversive, many of the figures and stories are identified with text: 'King of Fart,' 'Dance Little Sister,' 'Girls for Every Boy,' and 'Beach Boy.'
22 x 13 x 12 inches overall
Signed 'Gross' near base
Dated 1986 near upper rim
SELECTED COLLECTIONS INCLUDING WORKS BY GROSS:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Sharon Lynne Wilson...
Category
1980s Neo-Expressionist Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Ceramic
'Nude Male and Nude Female, ' original lithograph pair signed by R.C. Gorman
By Rudolph Carl Gorman
Located in Milwaukee, WI
R. C. Gorman is better known for his images of colorful and elegant Navajo figures. This pair of prints, however, offers a view into his personal life. The pair of nude figures in th...
Category
1970s Contemporary Nude Prints
Materials
Lithograph
'Waukesha Beach Resort, Milwaukee, Wis.' original color postcard by Jno T. Faber
Located in Milwaukee, WI
Produced by Jno T. Faber, a Milwaukee Publisher of postcards, this image shows the historic structure of the Waukesha Beach Resort on Pewaukee Lake. Before the hotel are yellow cars ...
Category
Early 1900s Other Art Style Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
'Reclining Nude, ' after Degas study for 'Les Maheurs de la Ville d'Orleans'
By Joan Dvorsky
Located in Milwaukee, WI
In this drawing, Milwaukee-based artist Joan Dvorsky presents a drawing after a sketch by Edgar Degas. Degas' original drawing was a study for an 1863 painting entitled 'Les malheurs...
Category
1990s Impressionist Nude Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Graphite
'Glass as Art, Glass is Art' original serigraph poster signed by Robert Danner
By Robert Danner
Located in Milwaukee, WI
This colorful poster was produced for a 1981 exhibition at the Lincoln Center for the Arts in Milwaukee, celebrating glass art. The image is dominated by the exhibition title 'GLASS ...
Category
1980s Contemporary More Prints
Materials
Screen
"Erotica III Marginala, " from the Mask of the Red Death series signed Castellon
By Federico Castellon
Located in Milwaukee, WI
This lithograph was one of sixteen Federico Castellón produced in 1968, published by Aquarius Press, to illustrate Edgar Allan Poe's 1832 story 'The Mask of the Red Death.' The image...
Category
1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
"Erotica IV Marginala, " from the Mask of the Red Death series signed Castellon
By Federico Castellon
Located in Milwaukee, WI
This lithograph was one of sixteen Federico Castellón produced in 1968, published by Aquarius Press, to illustrate Edgar Allan Poe's 1832 story 'The Mask of the Red Death.' The image...
Category
1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Black and White Bouquet in Vase on Table, Marc Chagall lithograph
By Marc Chagall
Located in Milwaukee, WI
6 x 6.5 inches, image
14.88 x 11 inches, paper
22.63 x 20.13 inches, frame
Offset lithograph after the original drawing
Framed to conservation standards using 100 percent silk-lined rag matting and museum glass, housed in a gold cassetta-style moulding with a gilded fillet insert
Marc Chagall was born in Liozno, near Vitebsk, now in Belarus, the eldest of nine children in a close-knit Jewish family led by his father Khatskl (Zakhar) Shagal, a herring merchant, and his mother, Feige-Ite. This period of his life, described as happy though impoverished, appears in references throughout Chagall's work. The family home on Pokrovskaya Street is now the Marc Chagall Museum...
Category
1970s Modern Still-life Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Southwest Indians at Shore and New Mexican Village, two-sided painting
Located in Milwaukee, WI
The present artwork is an unusual example of the paintings of Fritzi Brod. It is painted on both sides: on one side, an image of three Native Americans on ...
Category
1930s American Impressionist Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Board
'Chairs - Paris' original photograph by Leslie Borns
By Leslie Borns
Located in Milwaukee, WI
This image of empty broken chairs in a deserted alley is reminiscent of the work of Eugene Atget, who was capturing the streets of Paris over a 30 year pe...
Category
1980s Contemporary Black and White Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
'Chairs - Paris' original photograph by Leslie Borns
By Leslie Borns
Located in Milwaukee, WI
This image of empty broken chairs in a deserted alley is reminiscent of the work of Eugene Atget, who was capturing the streets of Paris over a 30 year pe...
Category
1970s Contemporary Black and White Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
"Little Audrey Goes on a Trip #2" original painting by Randall Berndt
By Randall Berndt
Located in Milwaukee, WI
The present work is an excellent example of the narrative paintings of Randall Berndt. In the painting, we see a woman in a carved canoe among sculptures ...
Category
1980s Contemporary Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Acrylic
'Two Women & Man With Band T-Shirt' original screenprint by Lester Johnson
By Lester Johnson
Located in Milwaukee, WI
The present work is an original screen print signed by Lester Johnson, from his 'Street Scene Portfolio.' It features three figures, all wearing fashionable street clothing emblemati...
Category
1980s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Screen
"Three Seated Men" original etching signed by Lester Johnson
By Lester Johnson
Located in Milwaukee, WI
The present aquatint is an excellent example of the multifigural works of Lester Johnson. The print presents the viewer with three seated figures, their...
Category
1970s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Etching, Aquatint
"Victoria" original lithograph signed by Malvin Marr "Zsissly" Albright
By Malvin Marr Albright
Located in Milwaukee, WI
The present print, "Victoria," is the most iconic example of the printmaking of Malvin Marr Albright, called Zsissly. The composition for the image comes from Albright's painting from about 1935, done while he was studying at the Art Institute of Chicago. We can see clearly in the image how he possesses the same skill for unsettling, magic realist images as his more famous twin brother Ivan Le Lorraine: The lady Victoria sits at a dining room table, surrounded by luxurious still-life objects. All the textures and surfaces of the image express a horror vacui as seen in his painted works, such as "The Trail of Time is Dust" at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. The door in this print recalls one of the more famous works by his brother, "That Which I Should Have Done I Did Not Do (The Door)" at the Art Institute of Chicago.
1947, after ca. 1935 original painting
8 1/2 x 13 inches, image
12 x 16 inches, sheet
16 1/4 x 20 1/2 frame
Signed in pencil, lower right
Title in pencil, lower left
Published by Associated American Artists Inc.
Unnumbered from the edition of 250
A painter and sculptor, Malvin Albright was born in Chicago, one of twin sons of Adam Emory Albright, famous Chicago figure painter of juvenile subjects, who often used Malvin and his brother Ivan Le Lorraine as models.
Malvin's middle name, Marr, was after Wisconsin artist Carl von Marr...
Category
1940s American Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
"Milkweed Pod II #528" original charcoal drawing by Sylvia Spicuzza
By Sylvia Spicuzza
Located in Milwaukee, WI
In this drawing, Sylvia Spicuzza presents the viewer with a dark, subtle view of a milkweed pod, bursting forth with cotton. Examples like this show the ...
Category
1920s Naturalistic Still-life Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Charcoal
"Pansies" original crayon drawing by Sylvia Spicuzza
By Sylvia Spicuzza
Located in Milwaukee, WI
In this small painting, Sylvia Spicuzza presents the viewer with a simple trillium flower, the white petals framed by blue-green leaves.
4.5 x 8 inches, artwork
13 x 15 inches, fram...
Category
1950s Modern Still-life Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Crayon
"Young Woman in a Landscape" original drawing signed by Sylvia Spicuzza
By Sylvia Spicuzza
Located in Milwaukee, WI
In this intimate drawing, Sylvia Spicuzza presents the viewer with a young woman crouched down in a garden. The image is framed by foliage and fields of color.
3.75 x 5.25 inches, ...
Category
1950s Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Crayon
"Still Life with Artist's Hand" original watercolor signed by Sylvia Spicuzza
By Sylvia Spicuzza
Located in Milwaukee, WI
This still life is an unusual example of Sylvia Spicuzza's work, as most of her most significant output are geometric and biomorphic abstract images. The objects in the image - a sea shell, a pitcher, a heavy necklace - are objects the artist likely had at home and staged for the image. But of particular significance is the insertion of the artist's hand, as though she was reaching into the still life while she was painting. The hand has been a significant symbol of the artist throughout art history as a source of creation: Albrecht Dürer's 'Self Portrait at the Age of Twenty-Eight' (1500) highlights the artist's hand much like traditional images of Christ giving gestures of blessing. Likewise, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's 'Self Portrait as a Soldier' (1915) shows the artist in military uniform but with a severed hand as a symbol of helplessness during the First World War. Another important comparison, given Spicuzza is a Midwestern artist, is Ivan Albright's magic realist work 'That Which I Should Have Done I Did Not Do (The Door)' at the Art Institute of Chicago. The massive painting...
Category
1950s Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor