Adolf Benca

Large Figurative Abstract Expressionist Textured Painting Adolf Benca

Jichak Pressburger, Painter. b. 1933, Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. A concentration camp survivior. Came to Israel aboard the ship, "The Exodus". 1964 Went to Paris. In 1979 Returned as new immigrant. Education Tel Aviv University, B.A. in art, with Marcel Janco and Isidor Ascheim at Avni art school. Beaux Arts, Paris with Professor Coutaud. Itzchak Pressburger Stays in Paris from 1963 – 1979, Resident of the “Cité des Arts” 1969-1972. Lives and works in Jerusalem since 1979. One-Man Exhibitions 1963 Gallery Dugit, Tel-Aviv 1968 Cultural Center Enkhuizen, Netherlands 1968 Gallery Zunini, Paris (chosen by the art critic of « Opus : Jean-Jacques Lévèque) 1970 Gallery Zunini, Paris 1973 Gallery Maitre Albert, Paris. Cultural Center Verfeil sur Seye, France 1974 Gallery Maitre Albert, Paris 1976 Gallery Mundo, Barcelone 1980 Artists’ House, Jerusalem 1981 Gallery Alain Gerard, Paris Group Exhibitions 1966 Rathaus Charlottenburg, Berlin. (The first show of Israeli painters in Germany Artists Center of Silvarouvres, Nantes, Ffance XXXth Salon of Finances at “l’Hotel des Monnaies”, Paris 1969 Maison de Culture, Le Havre, France 1968 Gallery Zunini, Paris (chosen by the art critic of « Opus : Jean-Jacques Lévèque) Salon « Grands et Jeunes d’Aujourd’hui », Paris Museum of Fine Arts, Nantes, France Cultural Center Vitry, France Gallery Il Giorno, Milan Cité des Arts, Paris 1972 Salon “Grands et Jeunes d’Aujourd’hui”, Paris Salon de Mai, Paris 1973 Städtische Galerie, Siegen, Germany 1974 Jewish Cultural Center, Paris Publicis, Paris 1975 Réalitiés Nouvelles, Paris 1976 Salon de Mai, Paris 1977 “Perspectives Israeliennes”, Grand Palais, Paris 1981 Salon Alain Gerard, Paris 1984 Artists’ House, Jerusalem Publication 1990 Haggadah Yom Kippour (Hebrew/French) Abraham Bliah (private edition), Paris Acquisitions 1968 The City of Paris 1972 The State of France The Yitzchak Pressburger artist was born in Bratislava – known for centuries by its German name of Pressburg – but the outbreak of World War II found him and his family in Prague. His father realized they had to escape from the Nazi occupiers and tried to get the family across the border into Hungary. However, they were caught near the crossing point, arrested and incarcerated overnight at the nearby railway station. The Czechs put them on a train to Hungary early the next morning. That was their first miracle in their quest for survival. They survived with relative ease until late 1943, when the father was taken away to a forced labor camp. He subsequently died in a death march. Things became even more precarious in early 1944, when the Holocaust made its full-blown presence felt in Hungary. “It wasn’t the Germans, it was the Hungarian Nazis who did the dirty work,” Pressburger points out. The family lived in so-called “safe houses” that were protected by Switzerland, Finland and Sweden. The havens were dismantled in late 1944, and the Pressburgers moved into one of the two Jewish ghettos in Budapest. The Nazis had found two houses with Jews, including the one where we had been, and took them all out and shot them next to the Danube. Today there is a monument by the river [called Shoes on the Danube Bank]. We should have been with the Jews who were killed by the river,” he says. After the war, Pressburger and his siblings were farmed out to various orphanages run by the Jewish Agency, and things took a decidedly better turn. “We finally had food to eat,” he recalls. “After a while we were put on trains that were protected by the Jewish Brigade [of the British Army], and we were sent to Austria, and then to Germany.” “My uncle was a famous artist, and I learned a lot from him,” he says. While in Germany, Pressburger also took some lessons with a local artist. His mother managed to get him and two of his siblings berths on the Exodus, which set sail from Marseilles for Palestine in July 1947. Pressburger was 13 at the time and clearly recalls the aborted attempt to get to the Promised Land. “It was so crowded on the boat. This was a ship that was made to ply rivers in the United States, with a few hundred people on board, and we had over 4,500 passengers crammed in.” As we know, the British prevented the Exodus from docking in Palestine, and the passengers were shipped – in three far more seaworthy vessels – back to France. After the French government refused to cooperate with the British, Pressburger and the others found themselves back in Germany. The teenager eventually made it here in 1948, just one month before the Declaration of Independence. After a short furlough in Tel Aviv, during the first lull in the fighting in the War of Independence, he moved to Kibbutz Kfar Ruppin, where he worked in the cowshed. All the while he continued feverishly drawing and honing his artistic skills, which he says came in handy when he joined the IDF. After completing his military service, which included a spell as one of the founding members of the Flotilla 13 naval commando unit, he worked in Sdom for a while at the Dead Sea Works before starting his formal arts training in earnest. I was in the first group of students at the Avni Institute [in Tel Aviv],” he says. “There was quite a famous bunch of students and teachers like Moshe Mokadi and Isidore Ascheim and Aaron Giladi.” In such illustrious company, one might have thought Pressburger was set to unleash his burgeoning talents on art connoisseurs across the globe, but it was a while before that happened. Pressburger arrived in the French capital in 1964 and spent close to 15 years there, with a short interlude in Germany, before returning to Israel. His time in Paris was a professionally rewarding period of his life, and he also found love. “[Avni Institute teacher] Yochanan Simon gave me the name and address of a French-Israeli family in Paris, but when I got to the house, a young woman opened the door and told me the family was on vacation in Israel,” he explains. Despite missing his expected hosts’ welcome, he and the German-born young lady who greeted him soon fell for each other, and romance quickly led to wedding bells. By all accounts, Pressburger did well in Europe. He secured a rare three-year berth at Cité Internationale des Arts, where artists are normally provided with accommodation and studio space for between two months and a year. He was also accepted to the prestigious Beaux Arts academy of fine arts, mounted solo exhibitions, and took part in group shows all over Europe. One of these last was a group exhibition at Rathaus Charlottenburg in Berlin in 1966 – the first exhibition of Israeli artists in Germany after the Holocaust. When he arrived in Berlin, the lineup for the Israeli show was already signed and sealed, but somehow his work came to the attention of the German culture minister, who arranged for him to join. The Pressburgers’ year-long sojourn came to an abrupt end following an encounter he had one day while walking through the crowded Berlin streets...

Dennis Hollingsworth (American, b. 1956) large scale painting, 1994 "Leaf Blower #15", oil & alkyd on canvas over wood panel, Hand signed and dated verso, Dimensions: 72" X 72" Dennis Hollingsworth, Born 1956 in Madrid, Spain he has lived and worked in Los Angeles, California. He currently lives and works in New York City and Tossa De Mar Spain. He attended Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, USA, 1991, B.A. Architecture, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, USA, 1985 Dennis Hollingsworth is a painter whose works combine abstraction with a pop art sensibility. The newer pieces bring to mind other artists whose work also investigates the structure and support, including Molly Zuckerman-Hartung, Elizabeth Murray, Ron Gorchov, James Hyde, Rosy Keyser, and Fabian Marcaccio. His first exhibition was Painting Beyond The Idea at Manny Silverman Gallery in Los Angeles, CA in 1995, and the most recent exhibition was TEN at Hionas Gallery in New York City, NY in 2021. Dennis Hollingsworth is most frequently exhibited in United States, but also had exhibitions in Germany, Spain and elsewhere. Hollingsworth has at least 27 solo shows and 67 group shows over the last 26 years. Hollingsworth has also been in no less than 14 art fair. A notable show was Dennis Hollingsworth - Wet On Wet at Blum & Poe in Los Angeles, CA in 1996. He was included in the show “Under Erasure” at Pierogi Gallery curated by Heather and Raphael Rubinstein. Artists included: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Mel Bochner, Jane Hammond, Dennis Hollingsworth, Glenn Ligon, Richard Prince, Robert Rauschenberg, Nicole Eisenman and Antoni Tapies. His work was exhibited in 1999 at the Kunsthalle Basel as part of the group show ‘Nach-Bild’, which also featured artists Richard Hamilton and Laura Owens. Other notable shows were at Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery in New York City, NY and Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles, CA. Dennis Hollingsworth has been exhibited with Katharina Grosse and Herbert Brandl. Dennis Hollingsworth’s art is in museum collections, including MOCA Grand Avenue in Los Angeles, CA and Columbus Art Foundation in Ravensburg among others. He is represented by Hionas Gallery, New York, NY 1956, BORN IN MADRID, SPAIN 1985, BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURE, CALIFORNIA POLYTECHNIC STATE UNIVERSITY 1991, MASTERS OF FINE ARTS, CLAREMONT GRADUATE SCHOOL LIVES AND WORKS IN NEW YORK CITY, USA AND TOSSA DE MAR, SPAIN SOLO EXHIBITIONS: GALERIA MIGUEL MARCOS, BARCELONA, SPAIN GALERIE RICHARD, NYC, USA HIONAS GALLERY, NYC, USA FRONT GALLERY, HOUSTON, TEXAS, USA TOMIO KOYAMA GALLERY (HIKARIE),TOKYO, JAPAN MICHAEL KOHN GALLERY, LOS ANGELES, CA, USA CIRRUS GALLERY, LOS ANGELES, CA, USA GALERIA PELAIRES, PALMA DE MALLORCA, SPAIN NICOLE KLAGSBRUN GALLERY, NEW YORK, NY, USA GALERIA ANA SERRATOSA, VALENCIA, SPAIN GALERIE ANDRÉ BUCHMANN, COLOGNE, GERMANY GALERIE TANYA RUMPFF, HAARLEM, NETHERLANDS GALERIE MARK MULLER, ZURICH SWITZERLAND CHAC MOOL GALLERY, LOS ANGELES, CA, USA BRETT/MITCHELL SHAHEEN GALLERY, CLEVELAND, OH BARBARA FARBER/LA SERRE, TRETS FRANCE THE BOX, TORINO, ITALY STEENDRUKKERIJ AMSTERDAM, M.V., HOLLAND BARBARA FARBER/ROB JURKA GALLERY, AMSTERDAM, HOLLAND LAWING GALLERY, HOUSTON, TX, USA SCHMIDT CONTEMPORARY ART, ST. LOUIS, MI MEYERSON & NOWINSKI GALLERY, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON BLUM POE GALLERY, SANTA MONICA, CA, USA SCARABB GALLERY, CLEVELAND, OH BENNETT ROBERTS FINE ART, LOS ANGELES, CA, USA LEE ARTHUR STUDIO, NEW YORK, NY STUDIO RAID GALLERY, LOS ANGELES, CA, USA GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2020 “OEUVRES CHOISIES”, GALERIE RICHARD, PARIS GALERIE RICHARD, NYC, PARIS Rainer Gross, Dennis Hollingsworth, Kim Young-Hun, Jeremy Thomas. “UNTITLED”, GALERIE RICHARD, NYC, PARIS 2019 “LITTORAL”, MUNICIPAL MUSEUM OF TOSSA DE MAR, TOSSA DE MAR, SPAIN “DIVINE INTERVENTIONS”, CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN SAG HARBOR, LONG ISLAND, USA “ANGLES DE REFLEXIÓ”, GALERIE RICHARD VANDERAA, GIRONA, SPAIN 2018 “UNDER/ERASURE”, PIEROGI GALLERY, NYC, USA “COLOR MATTERS”, GALERIE RICHARD, NYC,USA “EVOLUTION”, GALERIA MIGUEL MARCOS, BARCELONA, SPAIN “WORKS FROM THE GALLERY ARTISTS AND THE COLLECTION 3”, TOMIO KOYAMA GALLERY, TOKYO, JAPAN 2012 “NEXUS”, GALERIA MIGUEL MARCOS, BARCELONA, SPAIN “FOR EXAMPLE PAINTING”, GALERIE MARK MÜLLER, ZÜRICH, SWITZERLAND “FRÜHLING”, GALERIE EUGEN LENDL, GRAZ, SWITZERLAND 2011 GROUP SHOW, GALERIE MARK MÜLLER, ZÜRICH, SWITZERLAND “ALUSIONES-ILUSIONES”, GALERIA MIGUEL MARCOS, BARCELONA, SPAIN “THE WORKING TITLE”, BRONX ART CENTER, BRONX, NEW YORK, USA “GREATER LA”, NEW YORK, NEW YORK, USA 2010 25TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW, MICHAEL KOHN GALLERY, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA “CRYSTAL WORLD”, ANDRE BUCHMANN GALLERY, BERLIN, GERMANY GROUP SHOW, TOMIO KOYAMA GALLERY, TOKYO, JAPAN PINTURA SIN TREGUA GALERIE MIGUEL MARCOS, BARCELONA, SPAIN GROUP SHOW, TANYA RUMPFF GALLERY, HAARLEM, NETHERLANDS PALM PAINTINGS, ANDRÉ BUCHMANN GALLERY, BERLIN, GERMANY 2007 “QUIRKY”, WESTPORT ART CENTER, WESTPORT, CONNECTICUT “ROOM 3: ACCROCHAGE”, GALERIE MARK MÜLLER, ZÜRICH, SWITZERLAND “POP ART 1960’S TO 2000’S”, HIROSHIMA CITY MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, HIROSHIMA, JAPAN An important exhibition from Misumi Art Collection of post-war American art, including Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, David Hockney, Christopher Wool, Vic Muniz...

MELISSA MEYER (American, b. 1946), 'Chance' Oil on Canvas 2006 Hand signed, dated and titled, verso Height: 30 inches, Width: 28 inches Provenance: Rebecca Ibel Gallery, Columbus, OH Melissa Meyer (born May 4, 1946) is an American artist and painter. The Wall Street Journal has referred to her as a "lighthearted Abstract Expressionist". She works in various formats, large abstract paintings, watercolors, prints, monotype, monoprint and drawings made up of fields of gestures. This one is abstract swirling hues of purple, red, blue, orange and yellow, Selected solo shows: Lennon, Weinberg, Inc., New York, NY; List Gallery, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA; New York Studio School, New York, NY; Rebecca Ibel Gallery, Columbus, OH. Selected Group shows: “The Maslow Collection: Context and Content”, The Maslow Study Gallery for Contemporary Art, Scranton, PA; “Summer Reverie Invitational,” William Siegel Gallery, Santa Fe, NM.; "One of a Kind; Monoprints, Monotypes", The Gallery, Spencertown Academy...

Ralph Rosenborg (American, 1913-1992) "American Landscape, Sky and Shore, 1973" Oil on canvas. Signed 'Rosenborg' (lower right). Titled (verso). 30 x 40 in Ralph Rosenborg (1913–1992) was an American artist whose paintings were described as both expressionist and abstract and who was a colleague of the New York Abstract Expressionists in the 1940s and 1950s. Unlike them, however, he preferred to make small works and tended to explicitly draw upon natural forms and figures for his abstract subjects. Called a "highly personal artist," he developed a unique style that was considered to be both mystical and magic. His career was exceptionally long, covering more than 50 years. Rosenborg was born in Brooklyn, New York, on June 9, 1913. In 1929, while he was a high school student, he began to work with the designer, artist, and instructor, Henriette Reiss. When Rosenborg encountered her, Reiss was serving as an instructor for the School Art League in the American Museum of Natural History. She was then engaged in instructing both students and their teachers in the city school system by a method she called Rhythmic Design. She believed inspiration for abstract designs could be found in rhythms—rhythms that could be perceived in ordinary perceptions much as they are when listening to music. In May 1930 Reiss selected a drawing by Rosenborg to be shown in an exhibition of creative design by City high school students. From 1930 to 1933, aged 17 to 20, Rosenborg studied with Reiss in what Vivien Raynor of the New York Times called a "pupil-apprentice" relationship. During this time she instructed him in music appreciation, literature, and art history as well as giving technical training in art. In April 1934 Rosenborg was one of 1,500 artists to participate in the annual Salons of America exhibition, which was held that year in Rockefeller Center RCA Building. Each paid two dollars for the privilege of hanging up to three works and none was given prominence over the others. The New York Times reported that by the time the show closed a month later, some 30,000 people had viewed it. The following year he was given a solo exhibition (his first) at the Lounge Gallery of the Eighth Street Playhouse. The year after that he participated in a group show held by the Municipal Art Committee and in 1937 was given a second solo exhibition, this time in the Artists Gallery. That year he also became a founding member of and participated in a group show held by American Abstract Artists, a loose assembly of artists that aimed to promote abstract art and artists in New York. Its founders included Josef Albers, Ilya Bolotowsky, Werner Drewes, Ibram Lassaw, Mercedes Matter, Louis Schanker, Vaclav Vytlacil and Rudolph Weisenborn. At roughly the same time Rosenborg associated himself with a group of abstractionists that called itself "The Ten" (It included Ben-Zion, Mark Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb and Joe Solman) and in May 1938 joined with its other members in what would be his first appearance in a commercial gallery: the Gallery Georgette Passedoit. In 1938 he his work appeared in a group show at the Lounge Gallery, in 1939 in group shows at the Artists Gallery and at the Bonestell Gallery with David Burliuk, Earl Kerkam, Karl Knaths and Jean Liberte...

Predominantly recognized as a self-taught painter, he also worked in architectural murals, sculptures, ceramics, prints and drawings. Vigas is one...

“Moving 5” is 60”x 48”. The vibrant yellow surface tones of this piece are broken in several places allowing random glimpses of Arnold’s dreamlike underpainting for a multi-dimension...

“Mod 7” is 20”x 16”. The heavy handed application of pigment renders an impasto portrait from another place in the deeper mind of the artist. Frank Arnold is one of the foremost abst...

“OTL 8” is 60”x 60”. Central figure of Vibrant to deep reds on a split field of warm beige/coral and deep red/black. The foreground exhibits heavy strokes and Arnold’s “8” and “X” fi...