Wisconsin - Art

The frame is included. Art size: 25" x 19" This is an original and very rare vintage art poster from a Jacques VILLON's exhibition. It took place ...

The present pair of portraits would make an exceptional addition to any collection of early American art not only because they were painted by the notable William Jennys, but also because the sitters are members of notable and influential New England families. In addition, these pendants have impeccable provenance: they have never left ownership of the decedents of the Kimball family and this is the first time they have been available for purchase. David Kimball (1766-1848) and Nancy Stacy Kimball (1774-1844) were members of historic Massachusetts families. David Kimball is a sixth-generation decedent of Richard Kimball (d. 1675) and Ursula Scott (d. 1659), who emigrated from Rattlasden, Suffolk County, England to Watertown MA around 1634. The family then relocated in 1637 to Ipswich, the city with which the family is now most strongly identified, when Richard was appointed to be a wheelwright.[1] Nancy likewise had early New England ancestry, descended from Simon Stacy and Elizabeth Clark, who were married in London in 1620.[2] Nancy Stacy was the second wife of David Kimball, and the two were married in 1799. Given this, the present pendant portraits were likely completed shortly after the marriage. David had two children by his first wife Mary Morse, who died in September of 1798. David and Nancy would have nine additional children between 1801 and 1815.[3] Most notably, the couple were parents of the Boston politician and showman Moses Kimball (1809-1895).[2][3] Moses would found the Boston Museum, an early for-profit museum and theater opened in 1841 that resembled European curiosity cabinets: the museum displayed paintings of Thomas Scully and Charles Peale alongside Chinese artwork, stuffed animals, dwarves and mermaids. Alongside these exhibits, visitors could attend the theater which held performances by gymnasts and contortionists, followed by performances of Shakespeare and Dickens.[4] This museum set the model for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which when founded in 1870 held a similarly diverse collection and appealed to the interests of a diverse set of visitors.[5] Moreover, some Greek antiquities from Moses Kimball's museum were eventually given to the MFA and Moses donated approximately $5,000 to the MFA's endowment upon his death.[6][7] William Jennys (1774–1859), also known as J. William Jennys, is an important American primitive portrait...

"Swimmers" is an original linoleum print by Clarice George Logan. It features five figures enjoying a swim, jumping off from a small boat. Image: 4.94" x 6" Framed: 13.87" x 14.87" Clarice George Logan was born in Mayville, New York in 1909 but moved to Wisconsin in 1921. She attended the Milwaukee State Teachers College from 1927 to 1931 where she studied with Robert von Neumann...

"Self Portrait" is an original oil painting on masonite board by Francesco Spicuzza. The artist signed the piece in the lower left. It depicts the artist holding a pipe in front of a...

The present artwork is an original etching by American artist Leonard Baskin. Here, he presents a portrait of the Flemish Renaissance artist Peter Breughel the Elder in profile, executed after the engraving by Johannes Wierix published in 1572 by Volcxken Diericx and Hieronymus Cock. In the portrait, Baskin displays a love of line and texture, using the etching technique to exaggerate and draw attention to the wrinkles of the face, while leaving the hair and clothing like a study or sketch. Like in the work of contemporary artist Claude Weisbuch, the result for Baskin is an image that recalls the old masters and displays the mastery of contemporary printmakers, but that also places mid-century formal concerns at the forefront of portraiture and figuration. etching in black in on Rives paper 17.5 x 17.5 inches, plate 29.75 x 22 inches, sheet 33.5 x 25.88 inches, frame Entitled "Breughel" in pencil, lower left Edition 9/50 in pencil, lower center Signed in pencil, lower right "PB" in the plate, upper left "PB" in the plate, upper right (faint) Label for Irving Galleries, Milwaukee on reverse Label for David Barnett Gallery on reverse Framed behind glass in a distressed cassetta-style moulding Artwork in overall good condition; general toning to the paper; some scattered foxing; frame in good condition with some losses to finished surface revealing white ground Born in 1922 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Baskin was reared in Brooklyn, New York. The son of a Rabbi, Baskin was educated at a yeshiva (Jewish religious college), which had a profound effect on his aesthetic. Committed to art at an early age, Baskin had his first exhibition. of sculpture, at the Glickman Studio Gallery, New York, at the age of seventeen. He studied at Yale University from 1941 to 1943 and received his B.A. at the New School for Social Research in 1949. Baskin spent 1950 and 1951 abroad, studying in Paris and Florence. In 1953 he began teaching printmaking and sculpture at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he remained until 1974. It was while he was at Smith College that he founded Gehenna Press, a small private press specializing in fine book production. He moved to England in 1974 and stayed till 1983 when he returned to America.. These nine years were enormously productive and besides sculptures he created a fine selection of prints and paintings. Baskin became intrigued by Greek history, philosophy and mythology at an early age and this study inspired many of his sculptures and paintings. Other influences were early 20th century sculptors, notably Ernst Barlach Leonard Baskin was one of the universal artists of the 20th century. He was a sculptor of renown. He was a writer and illustrator of books ranging from the bible to children's' stories and natural history. He was a talented water-colourist and a superb, prolific print-maker. His prints ranged from woodcuts through lithography and etching; his subjects covered portraits...

Indonesian shadow puppet/Wayang kulit, 19th century Wayang kulit, or Indonesian shadow puppets are typically carved out of water buffalo hide and wood. T...

"Autumn Trees" is an original, unique landscape oil painting on canvas by Michael Boyle. The artist signed the piece lower right and dated it lower left. This piece depicts a line of...

"Le Portrait Equestre" is an original color lithograph by Claude Weisbuch. This piece depicts a number of figures in black robes looking at horses. The a...

This Golek puppet was made by an unknown Indonesian artist using wood and cloth. It is approximately 24" tall. Traditional Wayang Golek plays can be compared to European and North America: most performances revolve around Kings, Queens, Princes and Princesses who fight against evil, mystical, beings to (usually) end happily. Three-dimensional Indonesian puppets...

"Boy With Book Looking Out Window" is an original lithograph print by James Ormsbee Chapin. The artist signed the piece in pencil lower right. This piece depicts a boy looking out th...

"Le Prince Iris" is an original color lithograph by Andre Masson. The artist signed the piece lower right in pencil and wrote the edition number, H.C. XXV/X...

"Flowers in Vase with Handles" is an original pastel drawing on paperboard by Francesco Spicuzza. The artist signed the piece in the lower right. This drawing depicts a bouquet of wa...

Second state in yellow etching of bright abstract stars, by American post-war pop artist James Rosenquist. Signed and dated lower right Titled and edition number 33/78 lower left 17...

Alternative sizes and media available: 16 x 16 16 x 20 16 x 24 20 x 20 20 x 30 28 x 28 28 x 35 30 x 45 40 x 40 40 x 50 40 x 60 Matte photo paper or canvas available on...

"Fashionable Boulevard Montmartre" is an original lithograph poster by Pierre Laurent Brenot. This piece depicts four figures in fashionable costumes in a variety of dynamic poses. T...

This bird sculpture was created by an unknown Baga artist in French Guinea. The bird's head is covered with paint and intricate patterns. Among the less well known Baga art forms are the a-Bamp (or a-Bemp) bird figures. They range from the naturalistic to the abstract and often have small birds or other animals on their backs. Different birds are represented including pelicans, egrets and other fishing birds...

David Barnett’s ‘Buddha Board Water Series’ marks the use of a new medium for the artist. In this series, Barnett experimented with the Buddha Board, a reusable canvas that allows us...

"Koi Fish II" is an original oil painting on linen by Leslie Parke. The artist signed the piece in the lower right. This hyper-realist painting depicts a school of multi-colored koi ...

"Pianos Daude" is an original color lithograph poster. This poster showcases an aerial view of a man in a suit playing a piano. The text and design of the ...

'Boeuf Ecorche' is an original color lithograph, signed by Claude Weisbuch – and it is a quintessential example of the contemporary artist's interest in the old masters. In the image...

"Derriere Le Miroir" is an original color lithograph created by the artist Saul Steinberg. Edition: 53/150 Artwork Size: 14"x 20" Frame Size: 33 1/8"x 25 5/8" From the Saul Steinb...

"Rhinoceros" is an original color chromolithograph by Louis Prang. It depicts two rhinos in a lush jungle forest. 7 1/2" x 5" art 12 1/2" x 9 1/4" paper 18 3/8" x 15 1/2" frame Lo...

This ceramic dish was made by an unknown Chinese artist in the 1860s. It features sepia designs on a white background. The dish has a 5 1/4" diameter.

"Terrasse aux Champs Elysees" is an original color lithograph by Francois Batet. The artist signed the piece in the lower right and wrote the edition number (126/200) in the lower le...

Thai Bronze Head of Buddha (Original) 17th c.

This mask was made by an unknown Indonesian sculpture. It is carved out of wood and covered in gold leaf. It features an abstracted face and is 7" tall by 5 1/2" wide.

"Eve Incurs God's Displeasure" is an original double sided lithograph by Marc Chagall. On recto the print features the biblical story of Eve being scolded by God for her sin in the G...

This piece began with squares on point. At some point, I decided to add smaller triangles. The randomness of these shapes felt like dancing firefly wings. Laura Petrovich-Cheney: L...

19th Century Indonesian mask made from wood.

Part of the artist’s ‘The Chaos of My Mind’ series, Ariel McClearin’s painting ‘Ari's Christmas Birthday' is an original signed acrylic work on canvas ...

"Little Wolf's Last Camp" is a colored woodblock A/P signed by Carol Summers. In the image, a mountain looms over a circle of teat the edge of a lake, a scene likely inspired by the life events of the Northern Cheyenne Chief Little Wolf (c. 1820-1904) and his leadership during the Northern Cheyenne Exodus. The drama of the image is enhanced by Summers' signature printmaking technique, which allows the ink from the woodblock to seep through the paper, blurring the edges of each form. Frame: 37 x 37 in This is an artist's proof from the edition of 100 Carol Summers (1925-2016) has worked as an artist throughout the second half of the 20th century and into the first years of the next, outliving most of his mid-century modernist peers. Initially trained as a painter, Summers was drawn to color woodcuts around 1950 and it became his specialty thereafter. Over the years he has developed a process and style that is both innovative and readily recognizable. His art is known for it’s large scale, saturated fields of bold color, semi-abstract treatment of landscapes from around the world and a luminescent quality achieved through a printmaking process he invented. In a career that has extended over half a century, Summers has hand-pulled approximately 245 woodcuts in editions that have typically run from 25 to 100 in number. His talent was both inherited and learned. Born in 1925 in Kingston, a small town in upstate New York, Summers was raised in nearby Woodstock with his older sister, Mary. His parents were both artists who had met in art school in St. Louis. During the Great Depression, when Carol was growing up, his father supported the family as a medical illustrator until he could return to painting. His mother was a watercolorist and also quite knowledgeable about the different kinds of papers used for various kinds of painting. Many years later, Summers would paint or print on thinly textured paper originally collected by his mother. From 1948 to 1951, Carol Summers trained in the classical fine and studio arts at Bard College and at the Art Students League of New York. He studied painting with Steven Hirsh and printmaking with Louis Schanker. He admired the shapes and colors favored by early modernists Paul Klee (Sw: 1879-1940) and Matt Phillips (Am: b.1927- ). After graduating, Summers quit working as a part-time carpenter and cabinetmaker (which had supported his schooling and living expenses) to focus fulltime on art. That same year, an early abstract, Bridge No. 1 was selected for a Purchase Prize in a competition sponsored by the Brooklyn Museum. In 1952, his work (Cathedral, Construction and Icarus) was shown the first time at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in an exhibition of American woodcuts. In 1954, Summers received a grant from the Italian government to study for a year in Italy. Woodcuts completed soon after his arrival there were almost all editions of only 8 to 25 prints, small in size, architectural in content and black and white in color. The most well-known are Siennese Landscape and Little Landscape, which depicted the area near where he resided. Summers extended this trip three more years, a decision which would have significant impact on choices of subject matter and color in the coming decade. After returning from Europe, Summers’ images continued to feature historical landmarks and events from Italy as well as from France, Spain and Greece. However, as evidenced in Aetna’s Dream, Worldwind and Arch of Triumph, a new look prevailed. These woodcuts were larger in size and in color. Some incorporated metal leaf in the creation of a collage and Summers even experimented with silkscreening. Editions were now between 20 and 50 prints in number. Most importantly, Summers employed his rubbing technique for the first time in the creation of Fantastic Garden in late 1957. Dark Vision of Xerxes, a benchmark for Summers, was the first woodcut where Summers experimented using mineral spirits as part of his printmaking process. A Fulbright Grant as well as Fellowships from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation and the Guggenheim Foundation followed soon thereafter, as did faculty positions at colleges and universities primarily in New York and Pennsylvania. During this period he married a dancer named Elaine Smithers with whom he had one son, Kyle. Around this same time, along with fellow artist Leonard Baskin, Summers pioneered what is now referred to as the “monumental” woodcut. This term was coined in the early 1960s to denote woodcuts that were dramatically bigger than those previously created in earlier years, ones that were limited in size mostly by the size of small hand-presses. While Baskin chose figurative subject matter, serious in nature and rendered with thick, striated lines, Summers rendered much less somber images preferring to emphasize shape and color; his subject matter approached abstraction but was always firmly rooted in the landscape. In addition to working in this new, larger scale, Summers simultaneously refined a printmaking process which would eventually be called the “Carol Summers Method” or the “ Carol Summers Technique”. Summers produces his woodcuts by hand, usually from one or more blocks of quarter-inch pine, using oil-based printing inks and porous mulberry papers. His woodcuts reveal a sensitivity to wood especially its absorptive qualities and the subtleties of the grain. In several of his woodcuts throughout his career he has used the undulating, grainy patterns of a large wood plank to portray a flowing river or tumbling waterfall. The best examples of this are Dream, done in 1965 and the later Flash Flood Escalante, in 2003. In the majority of his woodcuts, Summers makes the blocks slightly larger than the paper so the image and color will bleed off the edge. Before printing, he centers a dry sheet of paper over the top of the cut wood block or blocks, securing it with giant clips. Then he rolls the ink directly on the front of the sheet of paper and pressing down onto the dry wood block or reassembled group of blocks. Summers is technically very proficient; the inks are thoroughly saturated onto the surface of the paper but they do not run into each other. The precision of the color inking in Constantine’s Dream in 1969 and Rainbow Glacier in 1970 has been referred to in various studio handbooks. Summers refers to his own printing technique as “rubbing”. In traditional woodcut printing, including the Japanese method, the ink is applied directly onto the block. However, by following his own method, Summers has avoided the mirror-reversed image of a conventional print and it has given him the control over the precise amount of ink that he wants on the paper. After the ink is applied to the front of the paper, Summers sprays it with mineral spirits, which act as a thinning agent. The absorptive fibers of the paper draw the thinned ink away from the surface softening the shapes and diffusing and muting the colors. This produces a unique glow that is a hallmark of the Summers printmaking technique. Unlike the works of other color field artists or modernists of the time, this new technique made Summers’ extreme simplification and flat color areas anything but hard-edged or coldly impersonal. By the 1960s, Summers had developed a personal way of coloring and printing and was not afraid of hard work, doing the cutting, inking and pulling himself. In 1964, at the age of 38, Summers’ work was exhibited for a second time at the Museum of Modern Art. This time his work was featured in a one-man show and then as one of MOMA’s two-year traveling exhibitions which toured throughout the United States. In subsequent years, Summers’ works would be exhibited and acquired for the permanent collections of multiple museums throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. Summers’ familiarity with landscapes throughout the world is firsthand. As a navigator-bombardier in the Marines in World War II, he toured the South Pacific and Asia. Following college, travel in Europe and subsequent teaching positions, in 1972, after 47 years on the East Coast, Carol Summers moved permanently to Bonny Doon in the Santa Cruz Mountains in Northern California. There met his second wife, Joan Ward Toth, a textile artist who died in 1998; and it was here his second son, Ethan was born. During the years that followed this relocation, Summers’ choice of subject matter became more diverse although it retained the positive, mostly life-affirming quality that had existed from the beginning. Images now included moons, comets, both sunny and starry skies, hearts and flowers, all of which, in one way or another, remained tied to the landscape. In the 1980s, from his home and studio in the Santa Cruz mountains, Summers continued to work as an artist supplementing his income by conducting classes and workshops at universities in California and Oregon as well as throughout the Mid and Southwest. He also traveled extensively during this period hiking and camping, often for weeks at a time, throughout the western United States and Canada. Throughout the decade it was not unusual for Summers to backpack alone or with a fellow artist into mountains or back country for six weeks or more at a time. Not surprisingly, the artwork created during this period rarely departed from images of the land, sea and sky. Summers rendered these landscapes in a more representational style than before, however he always kept them somewhat abstract by mixing geometric shapes with organic shapes, irregular in outline. Some of his most critically acknowledged work was created during this period including First Rain, 1985 and The Rolling Sea, 1989. Summers received an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, Bard College in 1979 and was selected by the United States Information Agency to spend a year conducting painting and printmaking workshops at universities throughout India. Since that original sabbatical, he has returned every year, spending four to eight weeks traveling throughout that country. In the 1990s, interspersed with these journeys to India have been additional treks to the back roads and high country areas of Mexico, Central America, Nepal, China and Japan. Travel to these exotic and faraway places had a profound influence on Summers’ art. Subject matter became more worldly and nonwestern as with From Humla to Dolpo, 1991 or A Former Life of Budha, 1996, for example. Architectural images, such as The Pillars of Hercules, 1990 or The Raja’s Aviary, 1992 became more common. Still life images made a reappearance with Jungle Bouquet in 1997. This was also a period when Summers began using odd-sized paper to further the impact of an image. The 1996 Night, a view of the earth and horizon as it might be seen by an astronaut, is over six feet long and only slightly more than a foot-and-a-half high. From 1999, Revuelta A Vida (Spanish for “Return to Life”) is pie-shaped and covers nearly 18 cubic feet. It was also at this juncture that Summers began to experiment with a somewhat different palette although he retained his love of saturated colors. The 2003 Far Side of Time is a superb example of the new direction taken by this colorist. At the turn of the millennium in 1999, “Carol Summers Woodcuts...

"Fulham A.K.A. Chelsea" is an original etching by James Abbott MacNeill Whistler. The artist signed the piece in the plate with his butterfly monogram in the lower right. IT was publ...

Art: 30" x 24" Frame: 36.50" x 30.50" Oil on canvas signed and dated lower right.

"Play" is an original etching by Kenneth Hayes Miller. The artist signed the piece in pencil and in the plate. This piece features a nude figure with two smaller doll-like figures. ...

"Cadillac" is an original photorealistic watercolor painting by Bruce McCombs. The artist signed the piece lower left. It features a deep blue car on a car lot with a domed building ...

Indonesian mask Barong, or a masked figure, is an important part of traditional Indonesian dances. Native tribes still perform traditional masked dances to represent nature or ances...

"Retour (L'Estampe Moderne I)" is a color lithograph by Georges de Feure. It features a woman with red hair in an environment of flora and fauna with muted colors and the Art Nouveau...

"Sheridan Herd" is an original oil painting on masonite by Heather Foster. The artist initialed the work in the lower right. This painting depicts a herd of cows in a yellow hilly me...

Alternative sizes and media available: 16 x 16 16 x 20 16 x 24 20 x 20 20 x 30 28 x 28 28 x 35 30 x 45 40 x 40 40 x 50 40 x 60 Matte photo paper or canvas available on...

A lovely landscape oil painting on a wooden board. This is a small but highly detailed piece. It is most certainly in the category of "photos do not do this work justice". The rolling hills lead you into the rainy clouds and it tricks the brain into thinking you can smell the wet fields. It is most wonderful to see this work in person. It brings the sense of falling through a portal or peeking through one into a different part of the world. Signed and dated by the artist on the lower right. Artwork Size: 7 x 12" Frame Size: 14 1/2" x 17 1/2" Artist Bio: DOUGLAS B. SMITH Doug received his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1958. He then studied for a year in the Joseph Albers program at Yale University. After working for nine years in advertising and package design, Doug joined Avon Products and served as Creative Director of Design from 1971-1996. Doug's training as a professional illustrator led him to produce realistic renditions of many everyday scenes whether they arepure landscapes, architectural elements or figures. His painting evolved into natural and plein air landscapes suitable for the New England environment where he painted for over two decades. Doug's work is housed in numerous public and private collections throughout the United States and has been exhibited at the Salmagundi Club in New York City, and the Society of Illustrators in New York City. His paintings have been exhibited across the USA in Annual National Juried Exhibitions of the Oil Painters of America. He has exhibited at the Flinn Gallery in Greenwich, CT, the David Barnett Gallery in Milwaukee, WI, and at the Worthington...

Harold Altman was born in New York City in 1924. He attended the Art Students League, the Black Mountain College, the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris, and was a graduate of ...

"Bon Apetit" is an original black and white woodcut by Carol Summers. It depicts a table set for four people. The artist signed the piece in t...

Harold Altman was born in New York City in 1924. He attended the Art Students League, the Black Mountain College, the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris, and was a graduate of ...

Window 7 is from a series of 7 painted aluminum wall sculptures. These wall sculptures are abstractions on the windows we use in our daily lives. We look into windows as well as out ...

"Door County" is an original silkscreen by Pamela Bachman. IT depicts an aerial view of different attractions in Door County, Wisconsin. The artist signed ...

"Flood Waters" is an original wood engraving by Harold Wescott, It features a tree in the center, with its roots wrapping languidly over a form. High waters rise up from the back. Un...

Alternative sizes and media available: 16 x 16 16 x 20 16 x 24 20 x 20 20 x 30 28 x 28 28 x 35 30 x 45 40 x 40 40 x 50 40 x 60 Matte photo paper or canvas available on...

Lisa Fellerson’s paintings provoke an interplay and tension between line, shape, and color. With no preconceived idea in mind, she begins by dripping, scrapping, and gouging acrylic ...

The present woodcut print comes from 'Klänge (Sounds),' a book of original graphics and poetry by Wassily Kandinsky. This first edition was released in an edition of 300, each book signed and numbered by the artist. The title of the album and this particular print, 'Improvisation,' demonstrated Kandinsky's interest in music and how abstract musical forms could be translated into images on a two-dimensional surface. This particular composition is difficult to read, but through the abstraction, one can make out various figures and a landscape beyond. 7.5 x 5 inches, image 22 x 19.5 inches, frame Woodcut in black ink on laid paper (watermark Van Gelder Zonen) Signed with encircled 'K' in the block, lower right Framed to conservation standards using 100 percent acid free archival materials including silk-lined matting with 1/4 inch bevel, museum glass, and a gold-gilded moulding Ref. Roethel 124 The Museum of Modern Art described 'Klänge (Sounds)' as follows: Vasily Kandinsky's self-described "musical album," Klänge (Sounds), consists of thirty-eight prose-poems he wrote between 1909 and 1911 and fifty-six woodcuts he began in 1907. In the woodcuts Kandinsky veiled his subject matter, creating increasingly indecipherable images (though the horse and rider, his symbol for overcoming objective representation, runs through as a leitmotif). This process proved crucial for the development of abstraction in his art. Kandinsky said his choice of media sprang from an "inner necessity" for expression: the woodcuts were not merely illustrative, nor were the poems purely verbal descriptions. Kandinsky sought a synthesis of the arts, in which meaning was created through the interaction of, and space between, text and image, sound and meaning, mark and blank space. The experimental typography shows his interest in the physical aspects of the book. Klänge is one of three major publications by Kandinsky that appeared shortly before World War I, alongside Über die Geistige in der Kunst (Concerning the Spiritual in Art) and the Blaue Reiter almanac...

This piece is a pot made by an unknown artist in Pre-Columbian Peru. It takes the shape of an owl and has a circular handle with the opening on its back. This pot is a light beige an...

"Teepee/Indian Village" is an original oil painting on wood panel by Charles Damrow. The artist signed and dated the piece in the lower left. This paint...

9.25 x 12 inches (sheet), 8.75 x 12 inches (block) Linoleum block print on laid paper Framed 16 x 18.88 in Signed to lower margin

"Original Lithograph X" is an original color lithograph by Joan Miro, published in "Miro Lithographs II, Maeght Publisher" in 1975. It depicts Miro's signature biomorphic abstract st...

This cotton fabric was made by an unknown Ashanti artist. It is mostly black and white. The Ashanti are a major ethnic group of the Akans in Ghana, a fairly new nation, barely more than 50 years old. Ghana, previously the Gold Coast, was a British colony until 1957. It is now politically separated into four main parts. Ashanti is in the center and Kumasi is the capital. The Ashanti have a wide variety of arts. Bark cloth was used for clothing before weaving was introduced. With weaving, there is cotton and silk. Women may pick cotton...

"Louis Armstrong Blowing His Trumpet" is a unique painted fiberglass sculpture depicting the jazz musician Louis Armstrong. The sculpture is 32" x 48". Louis Daniel Armstrong was a...

"Lake Michigan Beach Scene" is an original oil painting by Francesco Spicuzza. The artist painted this scene on canvas and then glued that canvas to a b...

Framed 19.38 x 16.50 in 8.88 x 12 inches (sheet), 8.88 x 11.88 inches (block) linoleum block print on green laid paper signed in plate

"Pura Vida" is an original color woodcut signed by Carol Summers. A multi-colored piece shows a waterfall with red flames behind it in the middle of the piece. On the left stands a tree with yellow leaves on a hill. To the right is a rainbow. This is an excellent example of Summer's printmaking, not just because of the technique and imagery, but because it numbered 1 of the edition of 125. In addition, it contains a personal inscription to the Milwaukee gallerist David Barnett, who has championed the work of Summers and produced catalogs of his work. Indeed, this print appears as no. 189 in the David Barnett Gallery's 1988 catalogue raisonné of Summer's woodcuts. Feel free to inquire if you would like to purchase a copy of the catalogue raisonné along with your Carol Summers print. Art: 24.25 x 24.75 in Frame: 36 x 35 in signed lower right titled and inscribed to David [Barnett] lower right edition (1/125) lower right Carol Summers (1925-2016) has worked as an artist throughout the second half of the 20th century and into the first years of the next, outliving most of his mid-century modernist peers. Initially trained as a painter, Summers was drawn to color woodcuts around 1950 and it became his specialty thereafter. Over the years he has developed a process and style that is both innovative and readily recognizable. His art is known for it’s large scale, saturated fields of bold color, semi-abstract treatment of landscapes from around the world and a luminescent quality achieved through a printmaking process he invented. In a career that has extended over half a century, Summers has hand-pulled approximately 245 woodcuts in editions that have typically run from 25 to 100 in number. His talent was both inherited and learned. Born in 1925 in Kingston, a small town in upstate New York, Summers was raised in nearby Woodstock with his older sister, Mary. His parents were both artists who had met in art school in St. Louis. During the Great Depression, when Carol was growing up, his father supported the family as a medical illustrator until he could return to painting. His mother was a watercolorist and also quite knowledgeable about the different kinds of papers used for various kinds of painting. Many years later, Summers would paint or print on thinly textured paper originally collected by his mother. From 1948 to 1951, Carol Summers trained in the classical fine and studio arts at Bard College and at the Art Students League of New York. He studied painting with Steven Hirsh and printmaking with Louis Schanker. He admired the shapes and colors favored by early modernists Paul Klee (Sw: 1879-1940) and Matt Phillips (Am: b.1927- ). After graduating, Summers quit working as a part-time carpenter and cabinetmaker (which had supported his schooling and living expenses) to focus fulltime on art. That same year, an early abstract, Bridge No. 1 was selected for a Purchase Prize in a competition sponsored by the Brooklyn Museum. In 1952, his work (Cathedral, Construction and Icarus) was shown the first time at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in an exhibition of American woodcuts. In 1954, Summers received a grant from the Italian government to study for a year in Italy. Woodcuts completed soon after his arrival there were almost all editions of only 8 to 25 prints, small in size, architectural in content and black and white in color. The most well-known are Siennese Landscape and Little Landscape, which depicted the area near where he resided. Summers extended this trip three more years, a decision which would have significant impact on choices of subject matter and color in the coming decade. After returning from Europe, Summers’ images continued to feature historical landmarks and events from Italy as well as from France, Spain and Greece. However, as evidenced in Aetna’s Dream, Worldwind and Arch of Triumph, a new look prevailed. These woodcuts were larger in size and in color. Some incorporated metal leaf in the creation of a collage and Summers even experimented with silkscreening. Editions were now between 20 and 50 prints in number. Most importantly, Summers employed his rubbing technique for the first time in the creation of Fantastic Garden in late 1957. Dark Vision of Xerxes, a benchmark for Summers, was the first woodcut where Summers experimented using mineral spirits as part of his printmaking process. A Fulbright Grant as well as Fellowships from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation and the Guggenheim Foundation followed soon thereafter, as did faculty positions at colleges and universities primarily in New York and Pennsylvania. During this period he married a dancer named Elaine Smithers with whom he had one son, Kyle. Around this same time, along with fellow artist Leonard Baskin, Summers pioneered what is now referred to as the “monumental” woodcut. This term was coined in the early 1960s to denote woodcuts that were dramatically bigger than those previously created in earlier years, ones that were limited in size mostly by the size of small hand-presses. While Baskin chose figurative subject matter, serious in nature and rendered with thick, striated lines, Summers rendered much less somber images preferring to emphasize shape and color; his subject matter approached abstraction but was always firmly rooted in the landscape. In addition to working in this new, larger scale, Summers simultaneously refined a printmaking process which would eventually be called the “Carol Summers Method” or the “ Carol Summers Technique”. Summers produces his woodcuts by hand, usually from one or more blocks of quarter-inch pine, using oil-based printing inks and porous mulberry papers. His woodcuts reveal a sensitivity to wood especially its absorptive qualities and the subtleties of the grain. In several of his woodcuts throughout his career he has used the undulating, grainy patterns of a large wood plank to portray a flowing river or tumbling waterfall. The best examples of this are Dream, done in 1965 and the later Flash Flood Escalante, in 2003. In the majority of his woodcuts, Summers makes the blocks slightly larger than the paper so the image and color will bleed off the edge. Before printing, he centers a dry sheet of paper over the top of the cut wood block or blocks, securing it with giant clips. Then he rolls the ink directly on the front of the sheet of paper and pressing down onto the dry wood block or reassembled group of blocks. Summers is technically very proficient; the inks are thoroughly saturated onto the surface of the paper but they do not run into each other. The precision of the color inking in Constantine’s Dream in 1969 and Rainbow Glacier in 1970 has been referred to in various studio handbooks. Summers refers to his own printing technique as “rubbing”. In traditional woodcut printing, including the Japanese method, the ink is applied directly onto the block. However, by following his own method, Summers has avoided the mirror-reversed image of a conventional print and it has given him the control over the precise amount of ink that he wants on the paper. After the ink is applied to the front of the paper, Summers sprays it with mineral spirits, which act as a thinning agent. The absorptive fibers of the paper draw the thinned ink away from the surface softening the shapes and diffusing and muting the colors. This produces a unique glow that is a hallmark of the Summers printmaking technique. Unlike the works of other color field artists or modernists of the time, this new technique made Summers’ extreme simplification and flat color areas anything but hard-edged or coldly impersonal. By the 1960s, Summers had developed a personal way of coloring and printing and was not afraid of hard work, doing the cutting, inking and pulling himself. In 1964, at the age of 38, Summers’ work was exhibited for a second time at the Museum of Modern Art. This time his work was featured in a one-man show and then as one of MOMA’s two-year traveling exhibitions which toured throughout the United States. In subsequent years, Summers’ works would be exhibited and acquired for the permanent collections of multiple museums throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. Summers’ familiarity with landscapes throughout the world is firsthand. As a navigator-bombardier in the Marines in World War II, he toured the South Pacific and Asia. Following college, travel in Europe and subsequent teaching positions, in 1972, after 47 years on the East Coast, Carol Summers moved permanently to Bonny Doon in the Santa Cruz Mountains in Northern California. There met his second wife, Joan Ward Toth, a textile artist who died in 1998; and it was here his second son, Ethan was born. During the years that followed this relocation, Summers’ choice of subject matter became more diverse although it retained the positive, mostly life-affirming quality that had existed from the beginning. Images now included moons, comets, both sunny and starry skies, hearts and flowers, all of which, in one way or another, remained tied to the landscape. In the 1980s, from his home and studio in the Santa Cruz mountains, Summers continued to work as an artist supplementing his income by conducting classes and workshops at universities in California and Oregon as well as throughout the Mid and Southwest. He also traveled extensively during this period hiking and camping, often for weeks at a time, throughout the western United States and Canada. Throughout the decade it was not unusual for Summers to backpack alone or with a fellow artist into mountains or back country for six weeks or more at a time. Not surprisingly, the artwork created during this period rarely departed from images of the land, sea and sky. Summers rendered these landscapes in a more representational style than before, however he always kept them somewhat abstract by mixing geometric shapes with organic shapes, irregular in outline. Some of his most critically acknowledged work was created during this period including First Rain, 1985 and The Rolling Sea, 1989. Summers received an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, Bard College in 1979 and was selected by the United States Information Agency to spend a year conducting painting and printmaking workshops at universities throughout India. Since that original sabbatical, he has returned every year, spending four to eight weeks traveling throughout that country. In the 1990s, interspersed with these journeys to India have been additional treks to the back roads and high country areas of Mexico, Central America, Nepal, China and Japan. Travel to these exotic and faraway places had a profound influence on Summers’ art. Subject matter became more worldly and nonwestern as with From Humla to Dolpo, 1991 or A Former Life of Budha, 1996, for example. Architectural images, such as The Pillars of Hercules, 1990 or The Raja’s Aviary, 1992 became more common. Still life images made a reappearance with Jungle Bouquet in 1997. This was also a period when Summers began using odd-sized paper to further the impact of an image. The 1996 Night, a view of the earth and horizon as it might be seen by an astronaut, is over six feet long and only slightly more than a foot-and-a-half high. From 1999, Revuelta A Vida (Spanish for “Return to Life”) is pie-shaped and covers nearly 18 cubic feet. It was also at this juncture that Summers began to experiment with a somewhat different palette although he retained his love of saturated colors. The 2003 Far Side of Time is a superb example of the new direction taken by this colorist. At the turn of the millennium in 1999, “Carol Summers Woodcuts...