South Carolina - Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

Lawrence Kupferman, 'De Rerum Natura', ink and encaustic, 1954. Signed 'Kupferman' in ink, lower right sheet edge. Signed and titled (twice) in ink, verso, and annotated '#ED:742.C' (the artist’s inventory number) 'March 1954' and 'Lucretius', in the artist’s hand. Ink and encaustic on heavy cream wove watercolor paper, with fresh colors, the image extending to the sheet edge. Slight toning to the sheet verso, otherwise in very good condition. Image size/sheet size 25 3/8 x 19 1/4 inches (645 x 489 mm). Archivally matted to museum standards, unframed. ABOUT THIS WORK Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting, dates back to ancient Greece. Traditionally colored pigments were added to heated beeswax, the oldest known pigment binder, to create the paint medium. The encaustic medium, similar in appearance to oil painting, can be applied to any number of surfaces from paper to stone. It allows for a great variety of texture and has the advantage of not yellowing, of weathering well, and of being unaffected by moisture. De Rerum Natura (usually translated as On the Nature of Things) is a philosophical epic poem written by the Roman poet Lucretius in Latin around 55 BCE. The poem was lost during the Middle Ages, rediscovered in 1417, and first printed in 1473. Its earliest published translation into any language (French) did not occur until 1650; in English — although earlier partial or unpublished translations exist — the first complete translation to be published was that of Thomas Creech, in heroic couplets, in 1682. A pioneering figure in the history of philosophical poetry, Lucretius has come to be our primary source of information on Epicurean physics, the official topic of his poem. Among numerous other Epicurean doctrines, the atomic ‘swerve’ is known to us mainly from Lucretius’ account of it. His defense of the Epicurean system is deftly and passionately argued and is particularly admired for its eloquent critique of the fear of death in book 3. Lucretius' work would have had a special resonance with Kupferman, who in his expressionist explorations was concerned with the mystery and essence of life itself. ABOUT THE ARTIST Lawrence Kupferman (1909 - 1982) was born in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston and grew up in a working-class family. He attended the Boston Latin School and took part in the high school art program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In the late 1920s, he studied drawing under Philip Leslie Hale at the Museum School—an experience he called 'stultifying and repressive'. In 1932 he transferred to the Massachusetts College of Art, where he first met his wife, the artist Ruth Cobb...

Abraham Walkowitz, Untitled (Figurative Abstraction of Isadora Duncan #6), pen and ink, pencil, 1918. Signed in ink, dated in pencil, bottom center. A f...

Abraham Walkowitz, Untitled (Figurative Abstraction of Isadora Duncan #5), pen and ink, pencil, 1918. Signed in ink, dated in pencil, bottom center. A f...

Abraham Walkowitz, Untitled (Figurative Abstraction of Isadora Duncan #4), pen and ink, 1918. Signed in ink, dated in pencil, bottom center. A fine, spo...

Abraham Walkowitz, Untitled (Figurative Abstraction of Isadora Duncan #3), pen and ink, 1918. Signed in ink, dated in pencil, bottom center. A f...

Abraham Walkowitz, Untitled (Figurative Abstraction of Isadora Duncan #2), pen and ink, 1918. Signed in ink, dated in pencil, bottom center. A fine, spo...

'Dramatic', watercolor and pencil, c. 1940s. Signed 'R.S.' in pencil, lower left image, and again in the lower right sheet corner. Titled in the lower left margin. A fine, modernist ...

A unique and wonderfully expressive visual interpretation of Scarletti’s sonata juxaposing the harmonious interplay of color with a complexity of layered geometric shapes. Gouache, c. 1950. Signed and titled in ink. A fine mid-century modernist abstraction, with fresh, undiminished colors, on heavy illustration bristol; the full sheet with 3 inch margins all around, in excellent condition. Archival matting to museum standards. Image size 12 x 16 inches (305 x 406 mm); sheet size 18 x 22 inches (457 x 559 mm). Baroque-age composer Domenico Scarletti (1685-1757) was himself a gifted and renowned harpsichordist. Born in Naples, Italy the same year as Bach and Handel, he was a great admirer of Handel’s work. He served as the composer and organist for Naples' royal chapel beginning in 1701; He was Maestro Di Cappella at St. Peter's in the Vatican from 1715 to 1719 and in 1719 he travelled to London to direct his opera 'Narciso' at the King's Theatre. In 1719 he went to Lisbon to teach music to the Portuguese princess Maria Magdalena Barbara. He lived briefly in Rome and Seville and in 1733 went to Madrid as music master to Princess Maria Barbara, who had married into the Spanish royal house. The Princess later became Queen of Spain. Scarlatti remained in the country for the remaining twenty-five years of his life, and had five children there. After the death of his first wife in 1742, he married a Spaniard, Anastasia Maxarti Ximenes. Among his compositions during his time in Madrid were a number of the 555 keyboard sonatas for which he is best known. The many sonatas which were unpublished during Scarlatti's lifetime have appeared in print irregularly in the two and a half centuries since. Scarlatti’s compositions have attracted renowned admirers and interpreters worldwide, including Béla Bartók, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Johannes Brahms, Frédéric Chopin, Emil Gilels, Enrique Granados, Marc-André Hamelin, Vladimir Horowitz, Franz Liszt, Ivo Pogorelić, Heinrich Schenker and Dmitri Shostakovich. Born in Frankfort, Germany, Hildegarde Haas moved to the US with her parents in 1937. Her education included summer classes at the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center followed by two years at the University of Chicago. Receiving a scholarship to the Art Students League, she studied under Vaclav Vytlacil and Morris Kantor. She was a self-taught woodcut printmaker and became a member of The Printmakers, an established group of New York graphic artists. Her woodcuts which lean toward rhythmic and calligraphic abstraction were included in the exhibition 'Young American Printmakers' at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1953. She exhibited nationally at juried exhibitions and her work frequently drew favorable comments by critics reviewing these shows. The physical demands of carving her own blocks and hand printing each impression became too great and after seven years she exchanged printmaking for painting. Haas moved to Northern California in 1951 and became affiliated with the San Francisco and Oakland Art Associations and the Arts and Crafts Coop in Berkeley. Haas continued to exhibit in national and local painting and print exhibitions and she had solo exhibitions at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts and the Kaiser Aluminum...

Gouache and pencil on buff wove paper, c. 1940. Signed in pencil, lower left. Image size 9 1/2 x 10 7/8 inches (241 x 267 mm); sheet size 12 x 13 1/4 inches (305 x 337 mm). A fine mi...