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Martin Lewis Signed Limited Ed. Etchng Street Booth, Tokyo New Years Eve, 1927

Name: Martin Lewis Signed Limited Ed. Etchng Street Booth, Tokyo New Years Eve, 1927
Brand: Martin Lewis
Price: 12500 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

A beautiful and exceedingly engaging limited edition etching/print titled "Street Booth, Tokyo New Years Eve" by famed Australian/American painter/artist/master printmaker Martin Lewis (1881-1962). This image was created in 1927. Lewis was born in Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia in 1881 but migrated to the United States in 1900. After working in San Francisco and New York he then traveled to Japan to study Japanese art for two years. Lewis eventually returned to the US and settled back in New York in the early 1920s where he would experience his most artistically productive breakthrough period (between 1925-1935) in which he would create some of his most well-known works including this piece. Today, Lewis is universally considered to be one of the most important American printmakers of the twentieth century - a master of light and shadow. This work is a drypoint etching, printed in black ink on cream wove paper with full margins. A brilliant, luminous, and richly-inked impression. From a noted (McCarron, Paul. The Prints of Martin Lewis: A Catalogue Raisonne, p. 60) edition of 40 recorded impressions. According to McCarron, this is the most accomplished of Lewis' Japan prints: "New Year''s Day is an important holiday in Japan. The Japanese traditionally decorate their streets and homes with shimenawa, knotted straw ropes blessed and purified by Shinto priests to commemorate the new year, as depicted here." The work is hand signed by Lewis in graphite/pencil in the lower right margin. Martin Lewis' works can be found in numerous prominent collections and museums including the Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and The Philadelphia Museum of Art to name a few. This piece can be found in the The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) in New York and the Art Gallery of New South Whales in Sydney Australia. From a Los Angeles Family Trust art collection. Would be a great addition to any collectors of Lewis' work or American Modern art collection or be a very eye-catching stand-alone accent piece in about any setting. The piece has been professionally custom matted and framed. Framed dimensions: 21.5" High, 18" Wide, 1.5" deep Viewable art approximately: 14.5" High, 11.25" Wide.

Creator:

Martin Lewis (Artist)

Dimensions:

Height: 21.5 in (54.61 cm)Width: 18 in (45.72 cm)Depth: 1.5 in (3.81 cm)

Materials and Techniques:

Paper,Wood,Etched

Place of Origin:

United States

Period:

1920-1929

Date of Manufacture:

1927

Condition:

The print is in excellent vintage condition. A good state and deep, rich impression with no discernible flaws. The frame may have light if any wear consistent with age and use (please see photos). Luminous and engaging overall.

Seller Location:

Studio City, CA

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU2254334153612

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Shop All Martin Lewis

Martin Lewis

Martin Lewis was born in Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia, on June 7th, 1881. He was the second of eight children and had a passion for drawing.

At the age of 15, Lewis left home and traveled in New South Wales, Australia, and in New Zealand, working as a pothole digger and a merchant seaman. He returned to Sydney and settled into a Bohemian community outside Sydney. Two of his drawings were published in the radical Sydney newspaper, The Bulletin. He studied with Julian Ashton at the Art Society's School in Sydney. Ashton was an English-born Australian artist and teacher known for his support of the Heidelberg School and for his influential art school in Sydney.

In 1900, Lewis left Australia for the United States. His first job was in San Francisco, painting stage decorations for William McKinley's presidential campaign of 1900. By 1909, Lewis was living in New York, where he found work in commercial illustration. His earliest known etching is dated 1915. However, the level of skill in this piece suggests he had been working in the medium for some time previously. It was during this period that he helped Edward Hopper learn the basics of etching.

In 1920, after the breakup of a romance, Lewis traveled to Japan, where for two years he drew and painted and studied Japanese art. The influence of Japanese prints is very evident in Lewis's prints after that period. In 1925, he returned to etching and produced most of his well-known works between 1925 and 1935. Lewis's first solo exhibition in 1929 was successful enough for him to give up commercial work and concentrate entirely on printmaking.

Lewis is most famous for his black and white prints, mostly of night scenes of non-tourist, real-life street scenes of New York City. During the Depression, however, he was forced to leave the city for four years between 1932 and 1936 and move to Newtown, Connecticut. His work from this period includes a number of rural, night-time, and winter landscape scenes in this area.

Lewis returned to Manhattan in 1936 and continued to etch and paint. He taught printmaking at the Art Students League of New York from 1944 until his retirement in 1952. Now he is considered one of the most important American printmakers of the twentieth century.

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(Biography provided by Allinson Gallery, Inc.)