Abstract Black and White Lithograph by Albert Wein

About the Item

Albert Wein was born in 1915. He was very known for his excellent sculptures but was also a prolific easel painter who painted in a purely Abstract Expressionist style. He approached painting much the way he did his sculptural work, from a sound academic-based foundation that gave him the legitimacy and freedom to express his modernist views. His paintings have been widely exhibited and have gained him much notoriety. This lithograph is numbered 3/50 and hand signed by the artist. Raw, vertical, and diagonal lines establish a rhythm throughout the piece. In the upper left corner, an evocative semblance of a bird's wing emerges, seemingly breaking free from abstraction. The visual elements employed in this artwork evoke the texture of drifting wood, imbued with the ageless imprints of time erosion. In 1932 Wein enrolled in classes at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in New York City where he expanded upon his academic education in sculpture while studying under some of the most prominent practitioners in their field. This early architectural-based training proved invaluable throughout Wein’s career as it applied to the large-scale public projects he would later produce. In 1933, Wein's early inclination towards the modernist art movement sweeping America and the rest of the art world led to his decision to enroll in the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts in New York City. It was around this time that Wein, building upon his early unprecedented training in the classical tradition, sculpted "Adam," an early cubist-influenced modernist masterwork. This work was a precursor to his signature modernization/stylization of the classical form. In 1934, at 19, Wein took a pay cut from his secular job as an artist working for an advertising company in New York City to join the WPA. This was an extremely productive period for him, and he was able to produce many fine works for both private commissions and award-winning national competitions. The works of this period gained him widespread recognition among collectors and fellow artists. Among the many honors and awards bestowed upon Albert Wein during his illustrious career included those of the coveted Prix de Rome, the highest award in art, “likened to that of the Nobel Prize” the Tiffany Foundation Fellowship. In 1979 Wein was elected to full Academician of the National Academy of Design, one of the highest honors an American artist can receive. During his prodigious career, he won every major prize in exhibitions held at the National Sculpture Society and the National Academy of Design, the two leading art institutions of the day. Some of his important commissions include those for the Brookgreen Gardens, (the world's largest outdoor Sculpture Garden) Steuben Glass Co., The Bronx Zoo, The Franklin Mint, and The Libby Dam bas-relief, to name just a few. Very few artists of the twentieth century have so successfully achieved a balance between the extremes of Classicism and Modernism, as did Albert Wein. His sound foundation of academic excellence provided the basis for the stylized, modernistic approach that set him apart from his contemporaries. Albert Wein passed away in March of 1991, leaving behind a legacy of spectacular works with universal appeal partly because of his unique ability to forge a union between centuries of artistic style.

Dimensions:

Height: 19.38 in (49.23 cm)Width: 15.63 in (39.71 cm)Depth: 0.5 in (1.27 cm)

Materials and Techniques:

Paper

Place of Origin:

United States

Period:

Mid-20th Century

Date of Manufacture:

1940s

Condition:

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