Skip to main content

Charles Elmer Harris Art

Charles Elmer Harris or Beni E. Kosh was born in Cleveland, Ohio. In the 1960s, he legally changed his name to Beni E. Kosh, which translates to the son of Ethiopia. He was a student of Cleveland artist Paul Travis at the Cleveland Institute of Art and later connected to the Sho-Nuff Art Group, a group of African-American artists and the Karamu House artist group, which was a center for artists, writers, dancers and the oldest African-American theater in the United States. Kosh rarely exhibited or sold his work and it was not until after his death that his stylistically diverse oeuvre was rediscovered to receive critical recognition. Kosh’s work is noted in the catalog Yet Still, We Rise: African American Art in Cleveland 1920–1970 and included in exhibitions at the Cleveland State University and the Butler Institute of American Art.

to
3
2
1
1
2
Overall Height
to
Overall Width
to
3
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
3
1
2
3
6,886
3,213
2,514
1,217
3
3
1
1
Artist: Charles Elmer Harris
'African Idol' — Mid-Century African-American artist
By Charles Elmer Harris
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Charles Elmer Harris (Beni E. Kosh), Untitled (African Idol), watercolor, c. 1950s. Estate stamped verso, 'Beni E Kosh COLLECTION' and numbered '570' in ink. A fine, spontaneous wat...
Category

1950s American Modern Charles Elmer Harris Art

Materials

Watercolor

'6th City Wire Works' — Mid-Century African-American Artist
By Charles Elmer Harris
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Charles Elmer Harris (Beni E. Kosh), '6th City Wire Works', watercolor, c. 1950s. Estate stamped verso, 'Beni E Kosh COLLECTION' and numbered '859' in ink. A fine, spontaneous waterc...
Category

1950s American Modern Charles Elmer Harris Art

Materials

Watercolor

'Central Railroad' — Mid-Century African-American Artist
By Charles Elmer Harris
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Charles Elmer Harris (Beni E. Kosh), Untitled (Central Railroad), watercolor, c. 1945. Estate stamped verso, 'Beni E Kosh COLLECTION' and numbered '697' in ink. A fine, modernist re...
Category

1940s American Modern Charles Elmer Harris Art

Materials

Watercolor, India Ink

Related Items
Dystopian MALE NUDE ATHLETE Surreal
Located in New York, NY
Here we have a partial male nude by admired American artist John Brock Lear, Jr. He was able to contrast the earthy reality of the flesh with vividly c...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Charles Elmer Harris Art

Materials

Watercolor

The Vendor of Masques (Masks), Modernist Gouache Painting by Boardman Robinson
By Boardman Robinson
Located in Denver, CO
"The Vendor of Masques", 1930s modernist painting by Boardman Robinson (1876-1952) of a Mask vendors display with male and female figures (lik...
Category

1930s American Modern Charles Elmer Harris Art

Materials

Gouache

Simka Simkhovitch WPA Artist Oil Painting Gouache American Modernist Powerline
By Simka Simkhovitch
Located in Surfside, FL
Simka Simkhovitch (Russian/American 1893 - 1949) This came with a small grouping from the artist's family, some were hand signed some were not. These were studies for larger paintings. Simka Simkhovitch (Симха Файбусович Симхович) (aka Simka Faibusovich Simkhovich) (Novozybkov, Russia May 21, 1885 O.S./June 2, 1885 N.S.—Greenwich, Connecticut February 25, 1949) was a Ukrainian-Russian Jewish artist and immigrant to the United States. He painted theater scenery in his early career and then had several showings in galleries in New York City. Winning Works Progress Administration (WPA) commissions in the 1930s, he completed murals for the post offices in Jackson, Mississippi and Beaufort, North Carolina. His works are in the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, the National Museum of American Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Born outside Kyiv (Petrograd Ukraine) into a Jewish family who owned a small department store. During a severe case of measles when he was seven, Simcha Simchovitch sketched the views outside his window and decided to become an artist, over his father's objections. Beginning in 1905, he studied at the Grekov Odessa Art School and upon completion of his studies in 1911 received a recommendation to be admitted to the Imperial Academy of Arts. Though he enrolled to begin classes in architecture, painting, and sculpture at the Imperial Academy, he was dropped from the school roster in December because of the quota on the number of Jewish students and drafted into the army. Simchovitch served as a private in the 175th Infantry Regiment Baturyn [ru] until his demobilization in 1912. Re-enrolling in the Imperial Academy, he audited classes. Simka Simkhovitch exhibited paintings and sculptures in 1918 as part of an exhibition of Jewish artists and in 1919 placed 1st in the competition "The Great Russian Revolution" with a painting called "Russian Revolution" which was hung in the State Museum of Revolution. In 1922, Simkha Simkhovitch exhibited at the International Book Fair in Florence (Italian: Fiera Internazionale del Libro di Firenze). In 1924, Simkhovitch came to the United States to make illustrations for Soviet textbooks and decided to immigrate instead. Initially he supported himself by doing commercial art and a few portrait commissions. In 1927, he was hired to paint a screen for a scene in the play "The Command to Love" by Fritz Gottwald and Rudolph Lothar which was playing at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway. Art dealers began clamoring for the screen and Simkhovitch began a career as a screen painter for the theater. Catching the attention of the screenwriter, Ernest Pascal, he worked as an illustrator for Pascal, who then introduced him to gallery owner, Marie Sterner. Simkhovitch's works appeared at the Marie Sterner Gallery beginning with a 1927 exhibit and were repeated the following year. Simkhovitch had an exhibit in 1929 at Sterner's on circus paintings. In 1931, he held a showing of works at the Helen Hackett Gallery, in New York City and later that same year he was one of the featured artists of a special exhibit in San Francisco at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park. The exhibit was coordinated by Marie Sterner and included four watercolors, including one titled "Nudes". He is of the generation of Russian Soviet artists such as Isaac Pailes, Serge Charchoune, Marc Chagall, Chana Orloff, Isaac Ilyich Levitan, and Ossip Zadkine. In 1936, Simkhovitch was selected to complete the mural for the WPA Post office project in Jackson, Mississippi. The mural was hung in the post office and courthouse in 1938 depicted a plantation theme. Painted on the wall behind the judge’s bench, “Pursuits of Life in Mississippi”, a depiction of black workers engaged in manual labor amid scenes of white professionals and socialites, was eventually covered over in later years during renovations due to its stereotypical African American imagery. Simka painted what he thought was typical of Jackson. His impression of pre-civil rights Mississippi was evidently Greek Revival column houses, weeping willow trees, working class families, and the oppression of African Americans. He painted African American men picking cotton, while a white man took account of the harvest and a white judge advised a white family, calling it Pursuits of Life in Mississippi. Though clearly endorsed by the government and initially generally well-received, the mural soon raised concerns with locals as the climate toward racial segregation began to change. The main concern was whether depictions that show African Americans in subjugated societal roles should be featured in a courtroom. The following year, his painting "Holiday" won praise at an exhibition in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1940, Simkhovitch's second WPA post office project was completed when four murals, "The Cape Lookout Lighthouse and the Orville W. Mail Boat", "The Wreck of the Crissie Wright", "Sand Ponies" and "Canada Geese" were installed in Beaufort, North Carolina. The works were commissioned in 1938 and did not generate the controversy that the Jackson mural had. The main mural is "The Wreck of the Crissie Wright" and depicts a shipwreck which had occurred in Beaufort in 1866. "The Cape Lookout Lighthouse and the Orville W. Mail Boat" depicted the lighthouse built in 1859 and the mail boat that was running mail during the time which Simkhovitch was there. The boat ran mail for the area until 1957. "Sand Ponies" shows the wild horses common to the North Carolina barrier islands and "Canada Geese" showed the importance of hunting and fishing in the area. All four murals were restored in the 1990s by Elisabeth Speight, daughter of two other WPA muralists, Francis Speight...
Category

1930s American Modern Charles Elmer Harris Art

Materials

Gouache, Oil, Board

R.E.M. - Murmur (Grammy, Album Art, Iconic, Rock and Roll, Pop, Legendary)
By Kerry Smith
Located in Kansas City, MO
Kerry Smith R.E.M. - Murmur Mixed Media on Crescent board Year: 2022 Size: 21x20in Signed, dated by hand COA provided Ref.: 924802-1633 --------------------------------------- "Of...
Category

2010s American Modern Charles Elmer Harris Art

Materials

Acrylic, Gouache, Board, Mixed Media

1950s "Forest Through Window" MidCentury Abstract Gouache University of Paris
By Donald Stacy
Located in Arp, TX
Donald Stacy "Forest Through the Window" c.1950s Oil pastel and gouache paint on paper 14" x 17" unframed Unsigned Came from artist's estate Donald Stacy (1925-2011) New Jersey Studied: Newark School of Fine Art The Art Students League Pratt Graphic Arts Center University of Paris 1953-54 University of Aix-en-Provence 1954-55 Faculty: Art Department of the New School Museum of Modern Art School of Visual Arts Stacy Studio Workshop Exhibitions: Grand Central Moderns George Wittenborn The New School Print Exhibitions, Chicago University of Oklahoma Honolulu Museum Monclair Museum Wisconsin State College Louisiana Art...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Charles Elmer Harris Art

Materials

Paper, Gouache, Oil Pastel

Johnny Hodges - The Big Sound (Grammy, Album Art, Iconic, Rock and Roll, Pop)
By Kerry Smith
Located in Kansas City, MO
Kerry Smith Johnny Hodges - The Big Sound Mixed Media on Crescent board Year: 2016 Size: 21x20in Signed, dated by hand COA provided Ref.: 91-0194 ----------------------------------...
Category

2010s American Modern Charles Elmer Harris Art

Materials

Mixed Media, Acrylic, Gouache, Board

Modernist Watercolor Painting Judaica Kiddush Levana Blessing New Moon
By Emanuel Glicenstein Romano
Located in Surfside, FL
Genre: Judaic prayer scene Subject: Landscape Medium: watercolor Surface: Paper Country: United States EMANUEL ROMANO Rome, Italy, b. 1897, d. 1984 Emanuel Glicenstein Romano was born in Rome, September 23, 1897. His father Henryk Glicenstein was a sculptor and was living in Rome with his wife Helena (born Hirszenberg) when Emanuel was born his father obtained Italian citizenship and adopted the name Enrico. Emanuel was brought up in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, England and Poland. In 1926 Emanuel and his father sailed for New York. They briefly visited Chicago. Romano's sister, Beatrice, and mother only joined them in New York years later. Romano changed his name on his arrival to America and some have erroneously speculated that this was to avoid antisemitic anti Jewish discrimination. In truth, as the son of a highly-regarded artist, Romano changed his name to ensure that any success or recognition he would later attain, would be the result of nothing other than his own merit as an artist, and not on account of his father's fame. In 1936 Romano was worked for the Federal Art Project creating murals. During and immediately after World War II, Romano created a series of allegorical works depicting graphic holocaust images that were held closely by the family until after his passing. One of these works is now on permanent display in the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg Florida. Emanuel's father died in 1942 in a car accident before they could realize their shared dream of visiting Israel. In 1944 Romano, having completed his degree at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Art Institute of Chicago, began teaching at the City College of New York. Romano moved to Safed, Israel in 1953 and established an art museum in his father's memory, the Glicentein Museum. COLLECTIONS Indianapolis Museum of Art Metropolitan Museum of Art Boston Fine Arts Museum Fogg Museum Musée Nacional de France Recently his work has been added to the Florida Holocaust Museum collection. His notable works include his holocaust themed allegorical paintings as well as portraits of Marianne Moore, his father and William Carlos Williams...
Category

20th Century American Modern Charles Elmer Harris Art

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

1950s "Shapes with Figure" Mid Century Cubist Nude Gouache Painting
Located in Arp, TX
From the estate of Jerry Opper & Ruth Friedmann Opper Shapes with Figure c. 1950's Gouache on paper 15" x 18", Unframed From the estate of Ruth Friedmann Opper & Jerry Opper. Ruth was the daughter of Bauhaus artist, Gustav Friedmann. San Francisco Abstract Expression A free-spirited wave of creative energy swept through the San Francisco art community after World War II. Challenging accepted modes of painting, Abstract Expressionists produced highly experimental works that jolted the public out of its postwar complacency. Abstract Expressionism resulted from a broad collective impulse rather than the inspiration of a small band of New York artists. Documenting the interchanges between the East and West Coasts, she cites areas of mutual influence and shows the impact of San Francisco on the New York School, including artists such as Mark Rothko and Ad Reinhardt. San Francisco's Beat poets...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Charles Elmer Harris Art

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Glassblowers WPA American Scene Mid- 20th Century Modern Figurative Workers 1932
By Harry Gottlieb
Located in New York, NY
Glassblowers WPA American Scene Mid- 20th Century Modern Figurative Workers. Dated and signed "32 Harry Gottlieb" lower right. Sight: 13 1/8" H x 18 1/4" W. Harry Gottlieb, painter, screenprinter, educator, and lithographer, was born in Bucharest, Rumania. He emigrated to America in 1907, and his family settled in Minneapolis. From 1915 to 1917, Gottlieb attended the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. After a short stint as an illustrator for the U.S. Navy, Gottlieb moved to New York City; he became a scenic and costume designer for Eugene O"Neill's Provincetown Theater Group. He also studied at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts and the National Academy of Design. He was one of America's first Social Realist painters, influenced by that Robert Henri-led movement in New York City where Gottlieb settled in 1918. He was also a pioneer in screen printing, which he learned while working for the WPA. He married Eugenie Gershoy, and the couple joined the artist colony at Woodstock, New York. He lectured widely on art education. In 1923, Gottlieb settled in Woodstock, New York and in 1931, spent a a year abroad studying under a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1935, he joined the Federal Art Project...
Category

1930s American Modern Charles Elmer Harris Art

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Listed Signed Female Vintage Modernist Paris Cafe Street Scene
Located in Buffalo, NY
Listed female vintage modernist Paris cafe street scene by Elise Shaw. Oil on board. Framed.
Category

1950s American Modern Charles Elmer Harris Art

Materials

Board, Gouache

Central City, Colorado, 1950s Semi-Abstract Cityscape Gouache Painting, Red Blue
Located in Denver, CO
'Central City, Colorado' by Leonard Silverstein is an original gouache on paper from 1954. Hand signed, titled, and dated by the artist in the lower right...
Category

1950s American Modern Charles Elmer Harris Art

Materials

Gouache, Archival Paper

Fetishes, 1940s Abstract Figurative Southwestern Mixed Media Painting, Red Gray
By Howard Schleeter
Located in Denver, CO
An original gouache and wax painting by New Mexico modernist, Howard Schleeter (1903-1976) signed and dated lower right from November 18, 1949. Presented in a custom frame created b...
Category

1940s American Modern Charles Elmer Harris Art

Materials

Wax, Gouache, Archival Paper

Charles Elmer Harris art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Charles Elmer Harris art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Charles Elmer Harris in paint, watercolor, india ink and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the modern style. Not every interior allows for large Charles Elmer Harris art, so small editions measuring 10 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Ruth Gikow, William Harnden, and Charles Quest. Charles Elmer Harris art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $1,800 and tops out at $2,400, while the average work can sell for $1,800.

Artists Similar to Charles Elmer Harris

Recently Viewed

View All