Phoenix - Figurative Prints

Treva Wheete (1890-1963) Original Color Woodblock created 1936. The edition size is 13 of which this print is no. 5. The title is: “The 5 and 10" The image measures 8"h x 10"w. The...

Original etching by Russian born New York artist Raphael Soyer (1899-1987). Beautiful composition. A pair of lovers holding hands. Created in the 1970's Edition size: 250. In excelle...

Victor Vasarely (1906-1997) Original Serigraph circa 1970 - "Juggler" Pencil signed lower right and numbered lower left. 240 of the edition of 250. Image: 25.88 x 15.88 inches. Paper...

Aquatint by Oklahoma/New Mexico Artist Doel Reed (1895-1985). This etching is in excellent condition and unframed. Signed in pencil lower right. Image measures: 15 3/4" H x 11" W Edition: 100. Created 1948. Titled: "Evening Music" Remembered as an important member of the Taos art Community, Doel Reed achieved an international reputation as a landscape artist and printmaker, and was known as the 20th century master of the aquatint. From 1924-1959, he chaired the art department at Oklahoma State...

Copper etching with aquatint The power of memory and how it recalls individuality begins in such basic experiences as the ability to link internal ideas to external manifestations of those ideas. Memories as simple as an old toy or a street can set off a chain reaction of thoughts that snowball into issues as broad as nationalism, identity politics or a body politic to name a few. Hector Ruiz’s works encompass the broad, complex and often painful world particular to the Arizona and neighboring Mexican landscape. United States and Mexican border...

Whimsical Original Aquatint Etching by German/American artist Hedi Bak (1927 - 2010). The etching presents in a side fold mat and is in excellent condition. Tape adheres the print to...

Lon Megargee 1883-1960 "The Sheepherder" Wood block print Signed in plate, lower right Image size: 10 x 10 inches Frame size 22 x 22 inches Creator of Stetson's hat logo "Last Drop from his Hat" Lon Megargee 1883 - 1960 At age 13, Lon Megargee came to Phoenix in 1896 following the death of his father in Philadelphia. For several years he resided with relatives while working at an uncle’s dairy farm and at odd jobs. He returned to Philadelphia in 1898 – 1899 in order to attend drawing classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Back in Phoenix in 1899, he decided at the age of 16 to try to make his living as a cowboy. Lon moved to the cow country of Wickenburg, Arizona where he was hired by Tex Singleton’s Bull Ranch. He later joined the Three Bar R. . . and after a few years, was offered a job by Billy Cook of the T.T. Ranch near New River. By 1906, Megargee had learned his trade well enough to be made foreman of Cook’s outfit. Never shy about taking risks, Lon soon left Cook to try his own hand at ranching. He partnered with a cowpuncher buddy, Tom Cavness, to start the El Rancho Cinco Uno at New River. Unfortunately, the young partners could not foresee a three-year drought that would parch Arizona, costing them their stock and then their hard-earned ranch. Breaking with his romantic vision of cowboy life, Megargee finally turned to art full time. He again enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of Art and then the Los Angeles School of Art and Design during 1909 – 1910. The now well-trained student took his first trip to paint “en plein air” (outdoors) to the land of Hopi and Navajo peoples in northern Arizona. After entering paintings from this trip in the annual Territorial Fair at Phoenix, in 1911, he surprisingly sold his first oil painting to a major enterprise – the Santa Fe Railroad . . . Lon received $50 for “Navajos Watching the Santa Fe Train.” He soon sold the SFRR ten paintings over the next two years. For forty years the railroad was his most important client, purchasing its last painting from him in 1953. In a major stroke of good fortune during his early plein-air period, Megargee had the opportunity to paint with premier artist, William R. Leigh (1866 – 1955). Leigh furnished needed tutoring and counseling, and his bright, impressionistic palette served to enhance the junior artist’s sense of color and paint application. In a remarkable display of unabashed confidence and personable salesmanship, Lon Megargee, at age 30, forever linked his name with Arizona art history. Despite the possibility of competition from better known and more senior artists, he persuaded Governor George Hunt and the Legislature in 1913 to approve 15 large, historic and iconic murals for the State Capitol Building in Phoenix. After completing the murals in 1914, he was paid the then princely sum of roughly $4000. His Arizona statehood commission would launch Lon to considerable prominence at a very early point in his art career. Following a few years of art schooling in Los Angeles, and several stints as an art director with movie studios, including Paramount, Megargee turned in part to cover illustrations for popular Western story magazines in the 1920s. In the 1920s, as well, Lon began making black and white prints of Western types and of genre scenes from woodblocks. These prints he generally signed and sold singly. In 1933, he published a limited edition, signed and hard-cover book (about 250 copies and today rare)containing a group of 28 woodblock images. Titled “The Cowboy Builds a Loop,” the prints are noteworthy for strong design, excellent draftsmanship, humanistic and narrative content, and quality. Subjects include Southwest Indians and cowboys, Hispanic men and women, cattle, horses, burros, pioneers, trappers, sheepherders, horse traders, squaw men and ranch polo players. Megargee had a very advanced design sense for simplicity and boldness which he demonstrated in how he used line and form. His strengths included outstanding gestural (action) art and strong figurative work. He was superb in design, originality and drawing, as a study of his prints in the Hays collection reveals. In 1944, he published a second group of Western prints under the same title as the first. Reduced to 16 images from the original 28 subjects, and slightly smaller, Lon produced these prints in brown ink on a heavy, cream-colored stock. He designed a sturdy cardboard folio to hold each set. For the remainder of his life, Lon had success selling these portfolios to museum stores, art fairs and shows, and to the few galleries then selling Western art. Drawing on real working and life experiences, Lon Megargee had a comprehensive knowledge, understanding and sensitivity for Southwestern subject matter. Noted American modernist, Lew Davis...