Florida - Paintings

Original painting on canvas. Hand signed on front; signed and titled on verso by Jozza. Canvas is stretched. Artwork is in excellent condition. Certificate of authenticity included....

Framed 29 X 23 Image 18 X 24 The sweetness that characterizes the work of Mexican painter Jose Maria de Servin (1917-83) is a melancholy and placid one. While he worked in the most modern of styles, he adapted it to an anecdotal folk-art approach distinctly his own. When he was an infant, de Servin's family moved with him to Guadalajara. A city of history and culture, Guadalajara had a thriving artistic community with strong connections to Europe. His brothers Antonio and Miguel became artists as well, and in later years they worked collaboratively. As a teenager, de Servin studied at one of Mexico's Schools of Open-Air Painting, free art-teaching institutions sponsored by the government. Later de Servin became a pupil of the painter Chucho Reyes, known for his improvisational watercolor variations on traditional Mexican themes. This interest in imagery particular to Mexico would be of great significance to de Servin. De Servin also studied under the more traditional painter Jose Vizcarra. In the early 1930s de Servin joined the Pintores Jovenes de Jalisco, or Young Painters of Jalisco. An influence of critical importance to de Servin was Pablo Picasso. One of the originators of Cubism, the Spanish painter soon departed from its quasi-scientific and optical basis to create lively and humorous geometrical abstractions. It was this Cubism, personal and decorative, that de Servin adopted. His earliest Cubist works mimic Picasso, while during the second stage of his career, his works become smooth and polished, with an emphasis on gentle surface textures. After these cautious years, however, a rough boldness enters along with dominating colors of earth and sand. Modernists like de Servin were interested in exploring what they considered primitive artmaking styles. The adoption of a native manner and native themes is in keeping with Modernist tenets, as is the use of nontraditional materials. De Servin's portraits of peasants, large-eyed and simply rendered, recall children's drawings. The rough burlap ground contrasts with the playful imagery and delicate range of color. The figures, all children or child-like adults, are all curves and simple shapes arranged harmoniously. De Servin's cubism is free from grotesquerie as it celebrates the simplicity of its subjects. De Servin worked with the social-realist Jose Orozco on several large mural commissions in Guadalajara, including one at the Legislative Palace. While their styles were dissimilar, both made use of Mexican imagery to glorify the common people. A sought-after muralist in his own right, de Servin brought the rich colors and endearing characters of his panels to his larger-scale work. For 15 years, de Servin taught summer art classes at the University of Arizona. His career was marked by many one-man shows, both in North America and Europe. In recent years, his striking style has attracted increased notice from critics and the public. His style is a unique conglomerate of tradition, history, legends, heroes, old customs and folklore. It is a self-standing style, recognizable, cheerful, whimsical and a happy creation. Naïve art is any form of visual art that is created by a person who lacks the formal education and training that a professional artist undergoes (in anatomy, art history, technique, perspective, ways of seeing). Unlike folk art, naïve art does not necessarily evince a distinct cultural context or tradition. Naïve art is recognized, and often imitated, for its childlike simplicity and frankness. Paintings of this kind typically have a flat rendering style with a rudimentary expression of perspective. One particularly influential painter of "naïve art" was Henri Rousseau (1844–1910), a French Post-Impressionist who was discovered by Pablo Picasso. Naïve art is often seen as outsider art that is by someone without formal (or little) training or degree. While this was true before the twentieth century, there are now academies for naïve art. Naïve art is now a fully recognized art genre, represented in art galleries worldwide. Museums devoted to naïve art now exist in Kecskemét, Hungary; Riga, Latvia; Jaen, Spain; Rio de Janeiro, Brasil; Vicq France and Paris. "Primitive art" is another term often applied to art by those without formal training, but is historically more often applied to work from certain cultures that have been judged socially or technologically "primitive" by Western academia, such as Native American, sub saharan African or Pacific Island art (see Tribal art). This is distinguished from the self-conscious, "primitive" inspired movement primitivism. Another term related to (but not completely synonymous with) naïve art is folk art. There also exist the terms "naïvism" and "primitivism" which are usually applied to professional painters working in the style of naïve art (like Paul Gauguin, Mikhail Larionov, Paul Klee). At all events, naive art can be regarded as having occupied an "official" position in the annals of twentieth-century art since - at the very latest - the publication of the Der Blaue Reiter, an almanac in 1912. Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, who brought out the almanac, presented 6 reproductions of paintings by le Douanier' Rousseau (Henri Rousseau), comparing them with other pictorial examples. However, most experts agree that the year that naive art was "discovered" was 1885, when the painter Paul Signac became aware of the talents of Henri Rousseau and set about organizing exhibitions of his work in a number of prestigious galleries. The Earth Group (Grupa Zemlja) were Croatian artists, architects and intellectuals active in Zagreb from 1929 to 1935. The group included the painters Krsto Hegedušić, Edo Kovačević, Omer Mujadžić, Kamilo Ružička, Ivan Tabaković, and Oton Postružnik, the sculptors Antun Augustinčić, Frano Kršinić, and the architect Drago Ibler. A term applied to Yugoslav (Croatian) naive painters working in or around the village of Hlebine, near the Hungarian border, from about 1930. Some of the best known naive artists are Dragan Gaži, Ivan Generalić, Josip Generalić, Krsto Hegedušić, Mijo Kovačić, Ivan Lacković-Croata, Franjo Mraz, Ivan Večenaj and Mirko Virius. Camille Bombois (1883–1970) Ferdinand Cheval, known as 'le facteur Cheval' (1836–1924) Henry Darger (1892–1973) L. S. Lowry (1887–1976) Grandma Moses, Anna Mary Robertson (1860–1961) Nikifor (1895–1968) Poland, Horace Pippin (1888–1946) Jon Serl (1894-1993) United States Alfred Wallis (1855–1942) Scottie Wilson (1890–1972) Gesner Abelard...

Well executed oil on board painting of a sailboat off the rocky coast. Signed lower right. Circa 1930. Condition is excellent. The painting is housed in a faux wood molded frame wi...

Really kool little gem here. Oil on canvas of a young girl adding her artistic talents to a graffiti wall. It measures 16 inches wide by 12 high. Frame is 18 1/2 by 14 1/2 inches. It...

Original work by the Spanish artist Rafael RUZ. Acrylic on paper. RUZ, Rafael (Barcelona 1956) While contemplating the painting of Ruz, we are inclined to talk about real ‘psychodram...

"VIII.1 Study" BY TIM NORDIN (B. 1945) Acrylic on Canvas over Panel ⚜ Signed ⚜ Frameless Display A VIBRANT STUDY OF COLOR, TRANSPARENCY & STRUCTURE A rare and original acrylic on canvas over panel, Tim Nordin’s "VIII.1 Study" (1976) is a striking example from his renowned Transparent Sumi Brush Mark series. This work is defined by layered organic strokes of deep blues, vibrant greens, and subtle earth tones, forming a rhythmic interplay of color and light. Nordin’s distinctive brushwork creates a composition that shifts dynamically depending on light and perspective, a hallmark of his innovative approach. His technique results in an immersive, pulsating visual field—where each mark remains distinct yet seamlessly integrates into the whole. This meticulous layering and structured spontaneity connect his work to Abstract Expressionism, Op Art, and Color Field painting. This highly collectible piece was exhibited in Nordin’s 1982 Palm Springs Desert Museum exhibition and remains an essential work for collectors seeking dynamic gestural abstraction and structured color play. WHY COLLECT THIS WORK? ✓ Highly Collectible – A rare hand-signed original by Tim Nordin ✓ Exhibited Work – Featured in Nordin’s 1982 Palm Springs Desert Museum exhibition ✓ Optical Depth & Color Play – A dynamic surface with layered transparency & gestural brushwork ✓ Historical Provenance – From the Collection of Mr. & Mrs. Ricardo Sanchez, acquired directly from the artist ✓ Frameless Display – Ready to Hang – Presented in its original artist-preferred format ARTWORK DETAILS: ▸ Title: VIII.1 Study ▸ Artist: Tim Nordin (b. 1945) ▸ Medium: Acrylic on Canvas over Panel ▸ Year of Creation: 1976 ▸ Signature: Hand-signed, titled, and dated on verso ▸ Provenance: Collection of Mr. & Mrs. Ricardo Sanchez, acquired directly from the artist ▸ Country of Origin: United States ▸ Dimensions: — ◼︎ Image Size: 12 x 12.125 inches — ◻︎ Panel Size: 12 x 12.125 x 1.625 inches ▸ Condition: Excellent – Vibrant colors with well-preserved surface clarity ▸ Framing: Frameless Display (Artist’s Standard Presentation) – Ready to Hang INCLUDED DOCUMENTATION: ✓ Certificate of Authenticity ✓ Artist Biography Document ✓ Excerpts from the 1982 Palm Springs Desert Museum Exhibition Catalog THE ARTIST: Tim Nordin is an American abstract painter best known for his exploration of transparency, repetition, and structured mark-making. His work draws inspiration from a wide range of influences, including Mark Rothko, Sam Francis, Josef Albers, Kazimir Malevich, and the Optical Art movement pioneered by Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley. While elements of his work reflect the gestural expressiveness of Abstract Expressionism, his approach to composition and structure aligns with Color Field painters such as Morris Louis and Helen Frankenthaler. Born in 1945, Nordin traveled extensively before settling in California, where he studied fine arts at Cerritos College and later earned his MFA at Claremont Graduate School, concentrating on printmaking and experimental painting techniques. Early in his career, he experimented with plexiglass, vinyl, and alternative surfaces, seeking ways to push the boundaries of traditional painting. By the 1970s and 1980s, Nordin became known for his Transparent Sumi Brush Mark series, in which he developed a meticulous method of layering individual brushstrokes to form structured, organic compositions. These works, featuring veils of fluid color and precise gestural marks, evoke the optical depth and rhythmic movement found in Bridget Riley’s Op Art...

Joseph Kardonne (1911-1985). Portrait of Man in Trench Coat, 1950. Ink on paper, measuring 8 x 12 inches. Signed, dated and titled lower right. Unframe...

This is a unique original textured acrylic painting on canvas in a fantasy abstract style by Serg Graff Titled "Curly Curls". It comes signed, dated, and...

David Rankin, American (b. 1946) Rocky Hillside, (1990) Oil on paper Hand signed lower right, signed and titled verso. 30 x 22 1/2 inches David Rankin is a New York-based, British-born Australian post-war and contemporary artist known for his expressionistic abstract paintings. His work can be categorized by his use of quick, loose brushstrokes, reminiscent of scribbles on a page. Rankin works predominantly in oil painting and acrylic on canvas, but also works with paper, prints, sculptures and ceramics. Rankin has held over 100 one-person exhibitions in cities across the world, including New York, London, Paris, Beijing, Mexico, Vienna, Berlin and Cologne, as well as all over Australia. Represented in many of the world’s leading public and private collections and museums, David Rankin’s work is featured in Australia’s leading institutions, including the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Victoria and Queensland Art Gallery. David Rankin was born in Plymouth, Devon, England in 1946 then emigrated to Australia with his family in 1948. He spent his childhood in the 1950s in the semi-rural Port Hacking region South of Sydney and his teenage years in country New South Wales, from Hay, Wagga Wagga and Albury in the South to Bourke and Brewarrina in the North. Rankin is self-taught, developing his techniques and ideas in the outback towns of his youth. He was inspired by the greats from Leonardo da Vinci to Paul Klee as well as being influenced by the history of Buddhism and Asian art. In his travels before he arrived in Sydney in 1967 he developed a concept of what he wanted to achieve as an Australian artist. His dream was to express the anima, the life spirit or the essence of God in all nature. As an Australian artist he believed could bring the elements of Western Art together with an understanding and love for the cultures of Asia and the Australian Aborigine. He also felt that as Australia was closer to Asia than Europe it made sense to think about the art of Indian, Chinese and Japanese artists, and that one could not be an authentic articulate Australian artist without a love and respect for the artistic and spiritual expressions of the various Aboriginal artists, peoples and cultures. His work combined elements of Abstract Expressionist painting with Jewish and Aboriginal influences. In 1979 his first wife, Jennifer Mary Roberts (née Haynes) died. Rankin subsequently met his current wife Lily Brett, whose own life was etched by tragedy with her parents being survivors of the Holocaust. She too migrated to Australia as a child after the Second World War in 1948. The artist recounts that his empathy for Lily and the pity for his first wife's death fused into what he calls "the dark blessing of my life." The darkness was transformed into images. The author Dore Ashton writes that the events of 1979 and the fire which ravished his studio in 1997 and burnt his art works and many personal possessions, had a profound impact on his work. Having personal life experiences as his subject matter, Rankin's paintings contemplate these things. For example, his Jerusalem series followed a trip to Jerusalem in 1988, which then led to his Golgotha works. His travels to the Australian, American and Mexican deserts became the subject matter for many of his canvases, such as Ridge – Mungo, Golden Prophecy – San Antonio, Grey Sonora Landscape and then led to his Witness Series. From the fire in his studio he then painted Buddha and Flames. He illustrated two books by Lily Brett on the holocaust and explored the theme further in his huge work The Drowned and The Saved from a book by Primo Levi of the same name. Through Brett he encountered Jewish mythology and painted judaica imagery, Black...

In 1974, Tom Lieber attended the University of Illinois and earned his M.F.A. Lieber then moved to San Francisco to fulfill his afinity with Ba...

Interior Landscapes - Abstract Acrylic on canvas Painting Original work by the Spanish painter Rafael RUZ. Acrylic on canvas . Perfect condition. While contemplating the painting o...

"WHEAT FIELD" original expressionist acrylic canvas painting. In this colorist work we see reflected the Spanish expressionism, being AMER one of its maximum representatives. AMER...

sin titulo. acrylicc painting (CARLOS MENDEZ, ARGENTINA, 1943) Carlos Méndez is an Argentine plastic artist of great projection, based in Barcelona since the eighties. It uses a f...

This captivating 19th-century neoclassical oil painting on canvas depicts the legendary Greek poet Homer serenely playing his lyre beneath a canopy of ancient trees. Seated barefoot ...

Oil on canvas painting by the well known American artist, Charles Levier. Signed lower left. Titled and signed verso. Circa 1970. This painting shows Levier at his best combining t...

RUZ, Rafael (Barcelona 1956) While contemplating the painting of Ruz, we are inclined to talk about real ‘psychodrama’, in the same sense that Julius Bissier referred to some of the...

Luminations Series Gallery wrap, artist signed and titled. Frank Monaco. Studied and worked with Marilyn Stiles of The Art Institute of Chicago/ Art History Painting, Museum Restor...

Color Derivatives #149, 2016 by Natasha Zupan From the series Color Derivatives Oil, fabric, medium, on canvas Size: 9.5 in. H x 7.5 in. W x 3 in D. Canvas on a stretcher Natasha Z...

" Cubist composition" original abstract mixed media acrylic painting RAVENTÓS Mª Assumpció – (San Sadurní d’Anoia, Barcelona 1930). Raventos trained at the elite Sant Jordi School of...

His The panel paintings "Expanded Metal Paintings" are the closest to the classic art of painting. Firstly paint is applied by a brush on a primed canvas. Then wire mesh is dunked in...

Beautiful abstract painting by American artist, James Floyd Clymer (1893-1982). At the Weir Trap, ca. 1930. Watercolor and pencil on paper measures 15 x 20 inches. Signed lower margi...

Ruz- original abstract acrylic painting. Virtual frame Original work of the artist RUZ Acrylic on paper Perfect state While contemplating the painting of Ruz, we are inclined to ta...

This warm portrait looks like it could have been painted by Corot. Francis Luis Mora paints in that tradition. It's a small painting that invites the viewer to look closer. The art...

Surrounded by limestone cliffs sunbathers take in the midday sun along the coast of Portugal. An elevated view of one of the country's most iconic beaches – Praia de Marinha. This o...

Midnight, by Sergio Bazan Oil on canvas Image Size: 63 H x 63 W inches Unframed Signed by artist _______ The paintings of Sergio Bazán have a strong gesture and expressionist impr...

Genre: Modern Subject: Klezmer Musicians Medium: Oil Surface: Board, size includes artist decorated frame without frame 16X12 Country: United States The imagery of Maurice Kish (189...

Alex Balaguer BALAGUER , Alex ( Barcelona 1968 ) During early childhood, Àlex Balaguer began to sketch motorcars symbolic of Maranello’s trademark vehicle. Self-taught in the art wor...

Brandon Friend and Jason Griffin (Gentleman's Game). Fields of Gold, 2011. Acrylic, mixed media collage on canvas. Measures 30 x 36 inches. Framed measur...

Original work of the artist RUZ.. framed Acrylic on paper Perfect state While contemplating the painting of Ruz, we are inclined to talk about real ‘psychodrama’, in the same sense ...

Norman Carton (1908 – 1980) was an American artist and educator known for abstract expressionist art. He was born in the Ukraine region of Imperial Russi...

Ruz- original abstract acrylic painting. Virtual frame Original work of the artist RUZ Acrylic on paper Perfect state While contemplating the painting of Ruz, we are inclined to ta...

Gouache and ink on paper artwork of horses by Alexander Calder framed under glass in gold leaf frame. Signed and dated "Calder 76" in lower right corner....

Original painting on canvas. Hand signed on front by the artist. Canvas is stretched. Artwork is in excellent condition. Certificate of Authenticity included. All reasonable offer...

In this painting, I explored the serenity and depth of oceanic expanses. Using acrylics and resin, I harnessed a blend of minimalism and semi-abstract styles to capture the dynamic u...

"Dans Le Jardin"Sunflower garden with children canvas 36x36 framed 45x45x1.5 signed in the lower-left corner. Sotiris was born in Athens, Greece i...

This is a lovely vintage oil painting on canvas capturing a tender moment between two young children and their pet rabbits. One child, dressed in a brown suit, is lying on the floor,...

The work is executed at the heyday of abstract expressionsim in the mid-50s. Colors are saturated and bright. Goldfield (of Goldfield Gallery). Written on the stretcher. Goldfield G...

James Austin Murray’s paintings are made using the most basic of means: ivory black oil paint, a canvas and wood-panel support, and wallpaper brushes—up to nine affixed to a long han...

Provenance: Private Collection, Naples Fl, to Andrew Ford Collection, Sarasota, Fl. 2018 Description: Georges Washington was born out of wedlock and held a...

Artwork by the Spanish artist Alex Balaguer Perfect state BALAGUER , Alex ( Barcelona 1968 ) During early childhood, Àlex Balaguer began to sketch motorcars symbolic of Maranello’s t...

For Jose Ignacio Suarez an abyss of time and space distances him from those who were the first inhabitants of the Brazilian coasts and of this vast American continent. His initial la...

Performer Artist signed lower right, canvas 28"x31"75 Nicola Simbari was born in Italy and grow up in Rome. He studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma, and in the 1940s he beg...

ADOLF ARTHUR DEHN (American, 1895-1969) San Francisco Bay Area street scene, with Trolley, Streetcar, Cable Car with bay and Alcatraz Island in background. Hand signed LRC. Sight 19" x 15", overall 23" x 19". Adolf Dehn (November 22, 1895 – May 19, 1968) was an American artist known mainly as a lithographer. Throughout his artistic career, he participated in and helped define some important movements in American art, including regionalism, social realism, and caricature. A two-time recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, he was known for both his technical skills and his high-spirited, droll depictions of human foibles. Adolph Dehn was born in 1895 in Waterville, Minnesota. He began creating artwork at the age of six, and by the time of his death had created nearly 650 images. Dehn went to the Minneapolis School of Art (known today as the Minneapolis College of Art and Design), where he met and became a close friend of Wanda Gag. In 1917 he and Gág were two of only a dozen students in the country to earn a scholarship to the Art Students League of New York. He was drafted to serve in World War I in 1918, but declared himself a conscientious objector and spent four months in a guardhouse detention camp in Spartanburg, SC and then worked for eight months as a painting teacher at an arm rehabilitation hospital in Asheville, NC. Later, Dehn returned to the Art Students League for another year of study and created his first lithograph, The Harvest. In 1921 Dehn's lithographs were featured in his first exhibition at Weyhe Gallery in New York City. From 1920 to 1921 in Manhattan, he was connected to New York's politically left-leaning activists. In 1921, he went to Europe. In Paris and Vienna he belonged to a group of expatriate intellectuals and artists, including Andrée Ruellan, Gertrude Stein, and ee cummings...

"Heart Spin Painting" acrylic on paper painting by artist Damien Hirst. Created with public collaboration at the Damien Hirst Spin Workshop to celebrate the opening of "Requiem" at t...

"Luis Miguel Valdes (Cuba, 1949) 'Victoria II', 2018 acrylic on canvas 61.1 x 41.4 in. (155 x 105 cm.) ID: VAL- "

Work of the Spanish artist Juan Manuel PAJARES. Mixed technique on canvas. PAJARES, Juan Manuel (Lleida 1957 ) Pajares was introduced to the impact of large-scale canvas painting usi...

. Ruz. acrylic canvas painting Original artwork by Spanish artist Rafael Ruz. Acrylic on canvas in perfect condition. While contemplating the painting of Ruz, we are inclined to tal...

Hans Weingaertner (1896-1970). Oil on canvas measures 8 x 10 inches; 14 x 16 inches in a frame of the period. Signed lower right. Excellent, clean condition with no damage or restoration. Signed with monogram and dated 1966 en verso. Biography: Birth place: Krailburg, Germany Addresses: Lynhurst, NJ; Belleville, NJ Profession: Painter Studied: Royal Acad., Munich, Germany, and with Ludwig Klein, Moritz Hyman, A. Jank. Exhibited: Soc. Indep. Artists, 1929-40; BM, 1932; New Haven PCC, 1934-39; AIC, 1936; traveling exhib., 1936-37; Corcoran Gal biennial, 1939; Montclair AM, 1938, 1939; New Jersey State Mus., Trenton, 1939; Newark Mus., 1940, 1944; Carnegie Inst., 1941; VMFA, 1946; Penn. State Teachers College, 1944, 1946; PAFA Ann., 1951; WMAA; NAD; CAFA; Salons of Am. Awards: prizes, Montclair AM, 1949, 1950; New Haven PCC, 1950; Newark Art Club, 1951; Bamberger purchase, 1964 Member: Mod. Artists, New Jersey; Soc. Indep. Artists; New Haven PCC; New Jersey AA; Audubon Artists; New Jersey WCS Work: Newark Mus.; Rutgers Univ.; Jefferson H...

abstract. light and black background Original artwork by Spanish artist Rafael Ruz. virtual frame Acrylic on paper in perfect condition. RUZ, Rafael (Barcelona 1956) While contempl...

After Napoleon introduced Europe to the different and exotic life of the Middles East, it was Delacroix who was the first to return. He brought back vivid images to an unbelieving pu...

home. field. poppies. Mallorca- original expressionist watercolor painting Work of the Spanish artist BENAVENTE SOLIS. Watercolor on paper. Perfect state . During its first exhibi...

ANTONI TAPIES was the maximum representative of Spanish abstract art of the 20th century. His works are represented in museums and foundations around the world. Antoni Tàpies Puig (...

Estrada-Duran combines realism and surrealism in his work, the artists paintings are often monochromatic pencil drawings with overlays of gold paint that depict goddess-like women w...

The mermaid who couldn't climb the iceberg painting by Suzzane Law Image size: 12.6 in. H x 17.1 in W Framse size: 18.1 in. H x 22.4 in W x 1 in D W...

"Street Scene" by Olivier B. Foss is an iconic artwork representational of mid-century French Expressionist painting. The artist's personal visionary style is at once gestural, power...

A contemporary depiction of Chinese-style landscape painting. This is painted on the theme of nostalgia.

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...

De Hirsh Margules (1899-1965). North on West Street , 1939. Watercolor on Arches wove paper. Signed and dated in pencil by artist lower margin. Sheet measures 15 x 22 inches. Framed measurement: 27 x 34 inched. Incredibly vibrant and saturated color with no fading or toning of sheet. Provenance: Babcock Galleries, NYC De Hirsh Margules (1899–1965) was a Romanian-American "abstract realist" painter who crossed paths with many major American artistic and intellectual figures of the first half of the 20th century. Elaine de Kooning said that he was "[w]idely recognized as one of the most gifted and erudite watercolorists in the country". The New York Times critic Howard Devree stated in 1938 that "Margules uses color in a breath-taking manner. A keen observer, he eliminates scrupulously without distortion of his material." Devree later called Margules "one of our most daring experimentalists in the medium" Margules was also a well-known participant in the bohemian culture of New York City's Greenwich Village, where he was widely known as the "Baron" of Greenwich Village.[1] The New York Times described him as "one of Greenwich Village's best-known personalities" and "one of the best known and most buoyant characters about Greenwich Village. Early Life De Hirsh Margules was born in 1899 in the Romanian city of Iași (also known as Iasse, Jassy, or Jasse). When Margules was 10 weeks old, his family immigrated to New York City. Both of his parents were active in the Yiddish theater, His father was Yekutiel "Edward" Margules, a "renowned Jewish actor-impresario and founder of the Yiddish stage." Margules' mother, Rosa, thirty-nine years younger than his father, was an actress in the Yiddish theater and later in vaudeville. Although Margules appeared as a child actor with the Adler Family[11] and Bertha Kalich, his sister, Annette Margules, somewhat dubiously continued in family theater and vaudeville tradition, creating the blackface role of the lightly-clad Tondelayo (a part later played on film Hedy Lamarr) in Earl Carroll's 1924 Broadway exoticist hit, White Cargo. Annette herself faced stereotyping as an exotic flower: writing about her publicist Charles Bouchert stated that "Romania produces a stormy, temperamental type of woman---a type admirably fitted to portray emotion." His brother Samuel became a noted magician who appeared under the name "Rami-Sami." Samuel later became a lawyer, representing magician Horace Goldin, among others. A family portrait including a young De Hirsh, a portrait of Rosa and Annette together, and individual photos of Rosa and Edward can be found on the Museum of the City of New York website. At around age 9 or 10, Margules took art classes with the Boys Club on East Tenth Street, and his first taste of exhibition was at a student art show presented by the club. By age 11, he had won a city-wide prize (a box camera) at a children's art show presented by the department store Wanamakers. As a young teenager, Margules was already displaying a characteristic kindness and loyalty. Upon hearing that two friends (one of them was author Alexander King), were in trouble for breaking a school microscope, the nearly broke Margules gave them five dollars to repair the microscope . Margules had to approach a wealthy man that Margules had once saved on the subway from a heart attack. Margules didn't reveal the source of the five dollars to King until twenty-five years later. In his late teens, Margules studied for a couple of months in Pittsburgh with Edwin Randby, a follower of Western painter Frederic Remington. Thereafter he pursued a two-year course of studies in architecture, design and decoration at the New York Evening School of Art and Design, while working as a clerk during the day at Stern's Department Store. He was encouraged in these artistic pursuits by his neighbor, the painter Benno Greenstein (who later went by the name of Benjamin Benno). Artistic career In 1922, Margules began work as a police reporter for the City News Association of New York .Margules then considered himself something of an expert on art, and the painter Myron Lechay is said to have responded to some unsolicited analysis of his work with the remark "Since you seem to know so much about it, why don't you paint yourself?" This led to study with Lechay and a flurry of painting. Margules' first show was in 1922 at Jane Heap's Little Review Gallery. Thereafter Margules began to participate in shows with a group including Stuart Davis, Jan Matulka, Buckminster Fuller (exhibiting depictions of his "Dymaxion house") in a gallery run by art-lover and restaurateur Romany Marie on the floor above her cafe. Jane Heap, left, with Mina Loy and Ezra Pound During the 1920s, Margules traveled outside of the country a number of times. In 1922, with the intent of reaching Bali, he took a job as a "'wiper on a tramp steamer where [he] played nursemaid to the engine." He reached Rotterdam before he turned back. He would return to Rotterdam shortly thereafter. In 1927, Margules took a lengthy leave of absence from his day job as a police reporter in order to travel to Paris, where he "set up a studio in Montmartre's Place du Tertre, on the top floor of an almost deserted hotel, a shabby establishment, lacking both heat and running water." He studied at the Louvre and traveled to paint landscapes in provincial France and North Africa. Margules also joined the "Noctambulist" movement and experimented with painting and showing his artwork in low light.Jonathan Cott wrote that: the painter De Hirsch Margulies sat on the quays of the Seine and painted pictures in the dark. In fact, the first exhibition of these paintings, which could be seen only in a darkened room, took place in [ Walter Lowenfels'] Paris apartment. Elaine de Kooning remarked that studying the works of the Noctambulists confirmed Margules' "direction toward the use of primary colors for perverse effects of heavy shadow." It was also in Paris that Margules initially conceived his idea of "Time Painting", where a painting is divided into sectors, each representing a different time of day, with color choices meant to evoke that time of day. In Paris, his social circle included Lowenfels, photographer Berenice Abbott, publisher Jane Heap, composer George Anthiel, sculptor Thelma Wood, painter André Favory, writer Norman Douglas, writer and editor George Davis, composer and writer Max Ewing, and writer Michael Fraenkel. Upon his return to New York in 1929, Margules attended an exhibition of John Marin's paintings. While at the exhibition, he "launched into an eloquent explanation of Marin to two nearby women", and was overheard by an impressed Alfred Stieglitz. The famous photographer and art promoter invited Margules to dine with his wife, the artist Georgia O'Keeffe, and his assistant, painter Emil Zoler. Stieglitz thereafter became a friend and mentor to Margules, becoming for him "what Socrates was to his friends." Alfred Stieglitz Stieglitz introduced Margules to John Marin, who quickly became the most important painterly influence upon Margules. Elaine de Kooning later noted that Margules was "indebted to Marin and through Marin to Cézanne for his initial conceptual approach - for his constructions of scenes with no negative elements, for skies that loom with the impact of mountains." Margules himself said that Marin was his "father and ... academy." The admiration was by no means unreciprocated: Marin said that Margules was "an art lover with abounding faith and sincerity, with much intelligence and quick seeing." Stieglitz also introduced Margules to many other artistic and intellectual figures in New York. With the encouragement of Alfred Stieglitz, Margules in 1936 opened a two-room gallery at 43 West 8th Street called "Another Place." Over the following two years there were fourteen solo exhibitions by Margules and others, and the gallery was well-respected by the press. It was in this gallery that the painter James Lechay, Myron's brother, exhibited his first painting. In 1936, Margules first saw recognition by major art museums when both the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston purchased his works. In 1942, Margules gave up working as a police reporter, and apparently dedicated himself thereafter solely to an artistic vocation. "The Baron of Greenwich Village"[edit] Margules made his mark not only as an artist, but also as an outsized personality known throughout Greenwich Village and beyond. To local residents, Margules was known as the "Baron", after Baron Maurice de Hirsch, a prominent German Jewish philanthropist. Margules was easily recognizable by the beret he routinely wore over his long hair. Writer Charles Norman said that he "dressed with a flair for sloppiness." He was said to "know everybody" in Greenwich Village, to the extent that when the novelist and poet Maxwell Bodenheim was murdered, Margules was the first one the police sought to identify the body. Margules' letters show him interacting with art world figures such as Sacha Kolin, John Marin and Alfred Stieglitz, as well as with prominent figures outside the art world such as polymath Buckminster Fuller and writer Henry Miller. Most of his friends and acquaintances found Margules a generous and voluble man, given to broadly emotionally expressive gestures and acts of kindness and loyalty. In 1929, he exhibited an example of this loyalty and fellow-feeling when he appeared in court to fight what the wrongful commitment of his friend, writer and sculptor Alfred Dreyfuss, who appeared to have been a victim of an illicit attempt to block an inheritance. The Greenwich Village chronicler Charles Norman described the bone-crushing hugs that Margules would routinely bestow on his friends and acquaintances, and speaks of the "persuasive theatricality" that Margules seemed to have inherited from his actor parents. Norman also wrote about Margules' routine acts of kindness, taking in homeless artists, constantly feeding his friends and providing the salvatory loan where needed. Norman also notes that Margules was blessed with a loud and good voice, and was apt to sing an operatic air without provocation. The writer and television personality Alexander King said I think the outstanding characteristics of my friend's personality are affirmation, emphasis, and overemphasis. He chooses to express himself predominantly in superlatives and the gestures which accompany his utterances are sometimes dangerous to life and limb. Of the bystanders, I mean. King also spoke with affectionate amusement about Margules' pride in his cooking, speaking of how "if he should ever invite you to dinner, he may serve you a hamburger with onions, in his kitchen-living room, with such an air of gastronomic protocol, such mysterious hints and ogliing innuendoes, as if César Ritz and Brillat-Savarin had sneaked out, only a moment before, with his secret recipe in their pockets." Margules was such a memorable New York personality that comic book writer Alvin Schwartz imagined him at the Sixth Avenue Cafeteria in a risible yet poignant debate with Clark Kent about whether Superman had the ability to stop Hitler. Margules' entrenchment in the Greenwich Village milieu can be seen in a photograph from Fred McDarrah's "Beat Generation Album" of a January 13, 1961 writers' and poets' meeting to discuss "The Funeral of the Beat Generation", in Robert Cordier [fr]'s railroad flat at 85 Christopher Street. Among the people in the same photograph are Shel Silverstein...