David Cook Galleries

Semi-abstract figurative oil painting by Denver modernist Edward Marecak (1919-1993). Titled 'Zeus, Venus, and Hera', painted in 1982 . Cubist, stylized figures depicting gods and goddesses from ancient mythology. Central to the painting is a male figure depicting Zeus, the Greek god of the sky, shown in the nude in rich shades of brown with a beard and bright blue eyes. His arms are wrapped around Venus, the Roman goddess of love, and Hera, the Greek Goddess of marriage and women. The trio is seated on a blue green chair...

Vintage 1980s original abstract painting by Denver, Colorado artist, Mark Travis. Large format artwork painted with oil on masonite board. Abstract compos...

Kansas landscape oil on canvas painting by Robert N. Sudlow (1920-2010) titled 'Pioneer Bluffs in Spring' painted in 1986. Presented in original frame measuring 50 1⁄4 x 46 1⁄2 x 5 1...

Oil on canvas painting titled 'Snowview of Baldwin (Kansas)' painted in 1989 by Robert N. Sudlow (1920-2010) from 1989. Snowy landscape scene painted in shades of gray, brown, white,...

Pastel on paper drawing by Sushe Felix (20th Century) portraying an American Modernist view of Garden of the Gods Park in Colorado Springs. Presented in a custom frame with all archi...

Abstract oil on canvas signed and titled 'Mesa Verde' by Wilma Fiori (1929-2019) painted November 17, 1988. Painted in bright yellows, gold, pink, red, and...

Abstract acrylic painting in shades of red and orange painted in 1988 and signed by Margo Hoff (1910-2008). Wrapped canvas edges are ready for hanging, measuring 48 x 48 inches. Pr...

Margo Hoff (1910-2008) original signed painting "Dark Divers" circa 1985, mixed media on canvas (acrylic, crayon, paper collage on stretched canvas) - 20th century Chicago woman artist. Wrapped canvas has finished edges and is ready for hanging. Provenance: Estate of the Artist, Margo Hoff Painting is clean and in very good condition - please contact us for a detailed condition report. A prolific artist, Margo Hoff’s exquisite style evolved throughout her career yet was always rooted in the events, people, and places in her life. The human experience was her sole focus, expressed through her eyes alone. Born in 1910 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Hoff began creating white-clay animals at a young age, giving them to her friends and family. At eleven she contracted typhoid fever and was bedridden for a summer. During her convalescence, she drew and made cutouts, and it was during this time that her bold, artistic imagination came alive. She began formal art training in high school and continued her education at the University of Oklahoma, Tulsa. In 1933 she moved to Chicago and attended the National Academy of Art and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Between 1933 and 1960—her Chicago years—Hoff’s works was deeply rooted in a figurative, regionalist style. She often used elements of magical realism, and many of her paintings have dreamlike qualities. As a child she learned about color by grinding down rocks, plants, and berries. Her color pallet during the Chicago years is indicative of her early-life color experimentation as she consistently used warm, earth tones in her work. Hoff was a born adventurer and traveled extensively. She lived, worked, taught, and painted in Europe, Mexico, Lebanon, Uganda, Brazil, and China. She also showed at the Denver Art Museum’s Annual Western Exhibitions in 1952-54, 56, and 57. In 1957 she showed along side Colorado modernist Vance Kirkland at the Denver Art Museum’s exhibition, Man's Conquest of Space. What was once a focus on the representational, her work began to change after 1957 when she saw Sputnik in its orbit around Earth. At that moment, feet firmly placed on the ground, she was able to imagine herself in space, looking down from the cosmos, and what she saw was an abstracted world. She then had the opportunity to peer into an electron microscope where once again she was looking down into what seemed to be a realm of pure abstraction. These two events profoundly changed her perspective and she began to move from figural painting to abstract, geometric collage. In 1960, Hoff moved to New York City and she began creating collages. Placing the canvas on the ground, and working from all sides, she used strips of painted paper and tissue—and later painted pieces of canvas—glued onto the canvas surface, building layer upon layer, shape against shape, “action of color next to stillness of color.” She believed these simplified, abstracted forms held the spirit of the subject in the same way poetry reduces words to their essence. These pieces range from aerial cityscapes, to dancers in motions, to flora...

Group of five abstract lithographs signed and individually titled by artist Dale Chisman from 1987. Titles are: At Midnight, I Breathed A Gentle Fragrance, If You Love for Beauty's S...

Fabric Shop is a vintage painting by Margo Hoff (1910-2008). Painted in hues of pink, coral, orange, green, blue, black, green and yellow with canvas collage on canvas. Presented in a vintage/original frame, outer dimensions measure 16 ¼ x 16 ¼ x 1 ½ inches. Image size is 15 x 15 inches. Provenance: Estate of the Artist, Margo Hoff A prolific artist, Margo Hoff’s exquisite style evolved throughout her career yet was always rooted in the events, people, and places in her life. The human experience was her sole focus, expressed through her eyes alone. Born in 1910 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Hoff began creating white-clay animals at a young age, giving them to her friends and family. At eleven she contracted typhoid fever and was bedridden for a summer. During her convalescence, she drew and made cutouts, and it was during this time that her bold, artistic imagination came alive. She began formal art training in high school and continued her education at the University of Oklahoma, Tulsa. In 1933 she moved to Chicago and attended the National Academy of Art and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Between 1933 and 1960—her Chicago years—Hoff’s works was deeply rooted in a figurative, regionalist style. She often used elements of magical realism, and many of her paintings have dreamlike qualities. As a child she learned about color by grinding down rocks, plants, and berries. Her color pallet during the Chicago years is indicative of her early-life color experimentation as she consistently used warm, earth tones in her work. Hoff was a born adventurer and traveled extensively. She lived, worked, taught, and painted in Europe, Mexico, Lebanon, Uganda, Brazil, and China. She also showed at the Denver Art Museum’s Annual Western Exhibitions in 1952-54, 56, and 57. In 1957 she showed along side Colorado modernist Vance Kirkland at the Denver Art Museum’s exhibition, Man's Conquest of Space. What was once a focus on the representational, her work began to change after 1957 when she saw Sputnik in its orbit around Earth. At that moment, feet firmly placed on the ground, she was able to imagine herself in space, looking down from the cosmos, and what she saw was an abstracted world. She then had the opportunity to peer into an electron microscope where once again she was looking down into what seemed to be a realm of pure abstraction. These two events profoundly changed her perspective and she began to move from figural painting to abstract, geometric collage. In 1960, Hoff moved to New York City and she began creating collages. Placing the canvas on the ground, and working from all sides, she used strips of painted paper and tissue—and later painted pieces of canvas—glued onto the canvas surface, building layer upon layer, shape against shape, “action of color next to stillness of color.” She believed these simplified, abstracted forms held the spirit of the subject in the same way poetry reduces words to their essence. These pieces range from aerial cityscapes, to dancers in motions, to flora...

Oil on canvas abstract painting with a bird motif signed by artist Edward (Eduardo) Arcenio Chavez (1917-1995) circa 1980. Painted in red, blue, purple, orange, and black. Presented in a vintage frame measuring 30 ½ x 28 ½ inches, image size is 29 ¼ x 27 inches. About the Artist: Born 1917 Died 1995 Born in Wagonmound, New Mexico, Eduardo Chavez...

'Faulkner in Fresno', vintage 1986 original abstract painting by Sidney Guberman (b. 1936). Painted in shades of red, pale green, black, blue, purple, teal & white. Signed, dated a...

Nude photograph titled 'Torso with Blowing Shirt (3/5)' signed and dated by contemporary artist Mark Sink (b. 1958) taken in 1988. Exhibited as part of "Twel...

Pastel on paper drawing signed and dated by Sushe Felix (20th Century) in the lower right portraying an American Modernist view of Garden of the Gods...

Spring Storm, original vintage painting by New Mexico & Oklahoma modernist, Doel Reed (1894-1985). Evening scene with hint of a moon, clouds and rain over a rocky western landscape with low mountains/buttes, dated, June 1980 and signed by the artist lower right. Presented in a custom frame, outer dimensions measure 24 ½ x 37 ½ x 1 ¼ inches. Image size is 14 ¾ x 27 ¾ inches. Provenance: Private Collection, Denver, Colorado Expedited and international shipping is available - please contact us for a quote. About the Artist: Early in his artistic career, Doel Reed knew he wanted to be a printmaker. Influenced by Goya's aquatints, he extended himself beyond his formal art training to learn this technique, and he established himself as one of its masters. For decades, he devoted himself to the art program at the University of Oklahoma, taking it from a faculty of one to a major mid-Western department. Upon retirement, Reed focused totally on his work, moving with his family to Taos, New Mexico, where they had previously summered. Marked by strong tonal contrasts, his landscapes of this region are deeply emotional renderings with a sense of mystery -- modernist forms combined with romantic moodiness. Born and raised in Indiana, Reed originally studied architecture, which he credits with a lifelong attention to "how something is constructed." His mature style can be characterized as architectonic in his concern with assembling volumes and planes. Even the intense northern New Mexico light becomes the means to articulate three-dimensional patterns into cubistic interplay. When painting, Reed used thick strokes of oil and casein as another structural element. Transferring to fine art, his studies at the Cincinnati Art Academy were then interrupted by military service in World War I. Suffering a gas attack in the trenches of France, Reed spent months in a hospital temporarily blinded. The effects of the gas also damaged his lungs, which later prompted him to live in the dry climates of Oklahoma and New Mexico. After the war, he returned to his studies, but it was discovery of Goya's aquatints rather than his art classes that inspired. Considered the master, Goya drew on the tonal range available with this medium to create powerfully haunting imagery. Perhaps Reed responded personally to the eloquent series "The Disasters of War." Now his course was set, and he built his own etching press, which he continued to use for the rest of his life. In 1924, he accepted a teaching position at Oklahoma State University, where he remained for thirty-five years. Emphasizing drawing, Reed encouraged students to go to nature and translate the scene through their own sensibilities. Beginning as the sole art professor, he developed the program when it became an independent department in 1930. Through his stewardship, the university gained a reputation as one of the best for printmaking in the country. During the forties, Reed also prepared a series of lectures and demonstrations on aquatint for the Association of American Colleges. His most public offering in art education is the book "Doel Reed Makes An Aquatint" (1965). Sabbaticals allowed him to visit Paris in 1926 and 1930-31. Summer travel took him to Nova Scotia and Mexico, but gas rationing during World War II necessitated a closer destination. Thus the Reed connection with Taos was established. Finally in 1959, he, his wife, and daughter moved there to Talpa Ridge, the same outlying area in which artists like Andrew Dasburg, Howard Cook, and Barbara Latham resided. Settling into a complex of three adobe buildings, Reed was welcomed by these artists, who referred to their community as Neurosis Ridge. Rena Rosenquist of Mission Gallery remembers that Reed was "the most affable man" who liked cold martinis. For Reed, the surrounding Sangre de Cristo Mountains offered "end of abstract pattern." His inventive mind came up with techniques to transform a natural scene into a richly dimensional object. He fashioned a rosin box and concocted his own formula of etching ground to achieve a velvety texture with his prints. Described as "not for the faint-hearted,”" casein became a medium with which built up paint surfaces that almost seem sculpted. Both the prints and drawings are characterized by a tension between the two-dimensional surface pattern and the articulated space it conveys. In addition to landscapes, Reed produced a number of works of voluptuous women with the figures echoing landscape elements. As a boy, his first art experience was a grade-school field trip to the John Herron Art Museum (now the Indianapolis Art Museum), where he expressed his admiration for a painting of a nude mermaid -- an image that made a lasting impression. Reed was proudest of his recognition by the National Academy of Design (now just the National Academy). In 1942, he was named associate member; in 1952, he was named full academician. ©David Cook Galleries, LLC Exhibited: Society of Independent Artists, 1927 & 1929; Society of American Etchers, 1930-1946; Kansas City Art Institute, 1932; “100 Etchings of Year,” 1932-44; Art Institute of Chicago, 1934, 1937, 1939; National Academy of Design, 1934-46, 1965 (Samuel Morse Medal); Tulsa Art Association, 1935 (prize); Paris Salon, 1937; Rome, Italy, 1937; Sweden, 1938; Chicago Society of Etchers, 1938 (prize); Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1940; Philadelphia Print Club, 1940 (prize); Venice, Italy, 1940; Carnegie Institute, 1941; Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH,1942, (prize); Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1942; Whitney Museum of American Art, 1942; Northwest Printmakers, 1942 (prize), 1944 (prize); Herron Art Institute, 1943; Library of Congress, 1944-46; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1944-45; Philbrook Art Club, 1944 (prize); Laguna Beach Art Association, 1944 (prize); Southern States Art League, 1944 (prize); “50 American Prints,” 1944; Oakland Art Gallery, 1945 (prize); Audubon Artists, 1945, 1951 (Gold Medal of Honor), 1954 (John Taylor Arms Memorial Medal); Albany Institute of History and Art, 1945; Pasadena Art Institute, 1946; London; Allied Art Association; National Society of Painters Casein; Mission Gallery, Taos, NM, and Blair Galleries, Ltd. Santa Fe, NM. Works Held: Carnegie Institute; Honolulu Academy of Art; Grinnell College; Library of Congress; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Art, Houston; New York Public Library; Oklahoma Art Club; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Philbrook Art Club; Seattle Art Museum; Southern Methodist University; University of Montana; University of Tulsa; Bibliotéque Nationale, Paris; Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Further Reading: Harmsen's Western Americana: A Collection of One-Hundred Western Paintings with Biographical Profiles of the Artists, Dorothy Harmsen, Northland Press, Flagstaff, Arizona, 1971.; The Illustrated Biographical Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West, Peggy and Harold Samuels, Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1976.; Taos Artists...

'Second Mesa (Hopi Pueblo, Arizona)' is a watercolor, ink, and charcoal on paper by Bert Van Bork (1928-2014). Signed by the artist in the lower right co...

Original framed oil painting on burlap by Edward Marecak (1919-1993) titled "Autumn Harvest" from 1987. Signed and dated by the artist in the lower right corner. Presented in a custom framed, outer dimensions measure 20 x 29 x 1 ⅜ inches. Image size is 19 x 28 inches. Provenance: Estate of the Artist, Edward Marecak Painting is clean and in good condition - please contact us for a detailed condition report. Expedited and international shipping is available - please contact us for a quote. About the artist: Born to immigrant parents from the Carpathian region in Slovakia, Marecak grew up with his family in the farming community of Bennett’s Corners, now part of the town of Brunswick, near Cleveland, Ohio. When he turned twelve, his family moved to a multi-ethnic neighborhood of Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, and Slovenians in Cleveland. His childhood household cherished the customs and Slavic folk tales from the Old Country that later strongly influenced his work as a professional artist. During junior high he painted scenery for puppet shows of “Peter and the Wolf,” awakening his interest in art. In his senior year in high school he did Cézanne-inspired watercolors of Ohio barns at seventy-five cents apiece for the National Youth Administration. They earned him a full scholarship to the Cleveland Institute of Art (1938-1942) where he studied with Henry George Keller whose work was included in the 1913 New York Armory Show. In 1940 Marecak also taught at the Museum School of the Cleveland Institute. Before being drafted into the military in 1942, he briefly attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art near Detroit, one of the nation’s leading graduate schools of art, architecture, and design. A center of innovative work in architecture, art and design with an educational approach built on a mentorship model, it has been home to some of the world’s most renowned designers and artists, including Eero Saarinen, Charles Eames, Daniel Libeskind and Harry Bertoia. Marecak’s studies at Cranbrook with painter Zoltan Sepeshy and sculptor Carl Milles were interrupted by U.S. army service in the Aleutian Islands during World War II. Following his military discharge, Marecak studied on the G.I. Bill at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center from 1946 to 1950, having previously met its director, Boardman Robinson, conducting a seminar in mural painting at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Although he did not work with Robinson at the Fine Arts Center, who had become quite ill - retiring in 1947 - he studied Robinson’s specialty of mural painting before leaving to briefly attend the Cranbrook Academy in 1947. That same year he returned to the Fine Arts Center, studying painting with Jean Charlot and Mary Chenoweth, and lithography with Lawrence Barrett with whom he produced some 132 images during 1948-49. At the Fine Arts Center he met his future wife, Donna Fortin, whom he married in 1947. Also a Midwesterner, she had taken night art courses at Hull House in Chicago, later studying at the Art Institute of Chicago with the encouragement of artist Edgar Britton. After World War II she studied with him from 1946 to 1949 at the Fine Arts Center. (He had moved to Colorado Springs to treat his tuberculosis.) Ed Marecak also became good friends with Britton, later collaborating with him on the design of large stained glass windows for a local church. In 1950-51 Marecak returned to the Cleveland Institute of Art to complete his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. A year later he was invited to conduct a summer class at the University of Colorado in Boulder, confirming his interest in the teaching profession. In 1955 he received his teaching certificate from the University of Denver. Vance Kirkland, the head of its art department, helped him get a teaching job with the Denver Public Schools so that he and his family could remain in the Mile High City. For the next twenty-five years he taught art at Skinner, Grove, East, George Washington and Morey Junior High Schools. Prior to coming to Colorado, Marecak did watercolors resembling those of Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent and Charles Burchfield. However, once in Colorado Springs he decided to destroy much of his earlier oeuvre, embarking on a totally new direction unlike anything he had previously done. Initially, in the 1940s, he was influenced by surrealist imagery and Paul Klee and in the West by Indian petroglyphs and Kachinas. His first one-person show at the Garrett Gallery in Colorado Springs in 1949 featured paintings and lithographs rendered in the style of Magic Realism and referential abstraction. The pieces, including an oil Witch with Pink Dish...

Canvas collage, acrylic and crayon on canvas by 20th Century artist Margo Hoff (1910-2008) titled 'Lighted Street' depicting and abstract image of a street at night with glowing stre...

Masks And Flowers, vintage original 1984 oil painting on board by Edward Marecak (1919-1993), semi abstract, cubist style painting of tribal mas...

Comanche Dance at San Ildefonso Pueblo (New Mexico). Etching and drypoint, artist's proof from an edition of 50 prints. Presented in a custom frame, outer dimensions measure 22 ¼ x 18 ½ x ½ inches. Image size is 11 ¾ x 14 ½ inches. Print is clean and in very good vintage condition - please contact us for a detailed condition report. Expedited and international shipping is available - please contact us for a quote. About the Artist: Gene (Alice Geneva) Kloss is considered one of America’s master printmakers. She was born in Oakland, California and established herself as an artist on the West coast. Kloss was introduced to etching by Perham Nahl while at UC Berkley. She graduated in 1924, and in 1925 married poet Phillips Kloss. In her late twenties, Kloss moved to Taos, New Mexico and began her life’s work of the New Mexican landscape and peoples. It was at this time that she received national acclaim. Her artwork exudes an unmistakable content and style. Enchanted by the architecture, mountainous landscapes and rituals of the inhabitants, Kloss captured the beauty of the Southwest and surrounding areas. Her style was bold yet deftly simple, masterfully expressing the elusive Southwestern light...

Oil stick on paper titled "Barn Side with Sliding Doors" by George Vander Sluis (1915-1984) of a grey wooden barn with two windows as well as two r...

Oil painting on foam core titled "Adam and Eve" by Denver artist Edward Marecak (1919-1993) from 1983. Portrays two semi-abstract figures with shapes in the background, painted in colors of pink, blue, yellow, and brown. Presented in a custom wooden frame, outer dimensions measure 30 ⅞ x 48 ⅞ x 2 ⅝ inches. Image size 30 x 48 inches. Painting is in good vintage condition - please contact us for a detailed condition report. Provenance: Estate of Edward Marecak About the Artist: Born to immigrant parents from the Carpathian region in Slovakia, Marecak grew up with his family in the farming community of Bennett’s Corners, now part of the town of Brunswick, near Cleveland, Ohio. When he turned twelve, his family moved to a multi-ethnic neighborhood of Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, and Slovenians in Cleveland. His childhood household cherished the customs and Slavic folk tales from the Old Country that later strongly influenced his work as a professional artist. His junior and senior high projects earned him a full scholarship to the Cleveland Institute of Art (1938-1942) where he studied with Henry George Keller whose work was included in the 1913 New York Armory Show. In 1940 Marecak also taught at the Museum School of the Cleveland Institute. Before being drafted into the military in 1942, he briefly attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art near Detroit, one of the nation’s leading graduate schools of art, architecture, and design. Marecak’s studies at Cranbrook with painter Zoltan Sepeshy...

Oil on board painting by Edward Marecak (1919-1993) titled "Masks" from the 1980s. Mosaic style oil painting in vibrant colors of red, blue, green, yellow, and orange. Presented in a...

Oil on panel painting by Edward Marecak (1919-1993) titled The Keepers of the Chalice from 1987. Presented in a custom black frame, outer dimensions measure 36 ¼ x 48 ¼ x 1 ⅛ inches....

Two Mystic Ladies Hiding, 1980s semi abstract geometric painting by Denver, Colorado artist, Edward Marecak. Two reclining female figures, interior scene, bowl of fruit and vase of f...

Three Figures Caught in Stained Glass, vintage 1980s semi abstract painting by Denver modernist, Edward Marecak with three human figures, painted in colors of brown, olive, black, pu...

Abstract painting by New Mexico artist, William Lumpkins (1909-2000), painted in vivid colors of blue, orange, yellow, pink, gray, green, and black....

Somethin' Stupid, original vintage 1988 abstract oil painting on canvas by Sidney Guberman (Born 1936). Painted in colors of Black, violet blue, bright coral pink, teal green, brown...

"Still Life with Masks", vintage original semi-abstract painting by 20th century Denver artist, Edward Marecak (1919-1993) from 1983. Oil Paint on board with a mid-century modern fe...