Product Description
Michael Powolny / Gmundner Keramik / Vienna Secession Vase Model No. 289 c. 1912
MICHAEL POWOLNY (1871-1954) Austria
GMUNDNER KERAMIK Vienna
Vase c. 1912
White glazed pottery with black striped division and four black glazed ball feet
Marks: GK (in a square) 289, D/3
For more information see: Michael Powolny: Keramik und Glas aus Wien 1900 bis 1950, Elisabeth Frottier (Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 1990); Wiener Keramik, Historismus, Jugendstil, Art Déco, Waltraud Neuwirth (Braunschweig: Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1974).
H: 6 1/8″
Price: $3,850
Michael Powolny / Gmundner Keramik / Vienna Secession Vase Model No. 289 c. 1912
ANDREE FLAMANT-DUCANY-GIDE (1882-1970) France
VALSUANI FONDEUR (1899-1981) Paris, France
Cubist mask sculpture 20th Century
Cast bronze with rich brown-black patina (possibly cast at a later date by the Valsuani Foundry)
Marks: G. Flamant, 2/8 C. Valsuani Cire Perdue (signed on chin)
H: 11” x W: 7” x D: 5 ½”;
On stand: H: 18 ½”
Price: $35,000
ANDREE FLAMANT-DUCANY-GIDE
Flamant-Gide was born in Nimes, France on January 2nd, 1892 and died on March 28th 1970. She was both a painter and sculptor and exhibited regularly at the Salon des Artists Francais beginning in 1923. She sculpted in an angular Cubist style influenced by African Art and was a fellow artist of Joseph Csaky, Gustave Miklos, Jacques Lipchitz and Henri Laurens who were considered the leading Art Deco sculptors in Paris during the 1920’s.
CUBISM
Cubism drew its influence from: Cezanne’s structural analysis in his oil landscapes, e.g. ‘La Montagne Sainte Victorie’ c.1887; Gauguin’s figurative landscapes, e.g. ‘Haymaking’ 1889; and African tribal Art such as Gabon masks. European artists were greatly influenced by African and Oceanic Art during the late 1890s and early 1900s. African sculpture, with its bold shapes and lines, had a great impact on the development of Cubism. Maurice de Vlaminck became a keen admirer and collector of African masks after seeing them in a Paris anthropological museum. He purchased similar masks and his excitement for these works displaying bold primitive expressions and simplistic design filtered through to Matisse, Derain, Gris and Picasso, who all became collectors as well. By the 1920s African art exhibitions were common in Paris and other cities throughout Europe.
Cubist sculpture brought the simplified shapes of Cubist painting together with the three-dimensional modeling medium of sculpture. The first Cubist sculpture, which could be properly deemed as such was made by Picasso in 1909 and was titled ‘Head of a Woman’. However Picasso did experiment with sculptural forms as early as 1907 when he found himself fascinated and deeply influenced by African masks. Cubist sculpture was mostly reminiscent of Analytical Cubism in its stripping away of illusionist details to reveal the fundamental form contained in each individual subject, be it human or still-life.
VALSUANI FOUNDRY
The Valsuani foundry was started by the brothers Claude and Attilio Valsuani who learned the foundry trade while employed at the Hebrard foundry. While working for Hebrard, Claude Valsuani showed great promise as a finisher and eventually worked his way up to become the Technical Director of the Hebrard foundry. In 1899 Claude Valsuani started his own foundry in Chatillon, casting mostly small works for various artists primarily using the lost wax technique of casting (cire perdue). In 1905 he moved his foundry to 74 Rue des Plantes in Paris. Among the famous sculptors who had the Valsuani foundry cast their works were: Renoir, Picasso, Despiau, Paul Troubetzkoy, Matisse, and Gaugin. Claude Valsuani died in 1923 in his native Italy but his son, Marcele then took over the foundry and continued the tradition of producing extremely fine bronzes until the 1970’s.
LINDA LEE JOHNSON (1944-2018) Washington, DC
Sculpted silver bowl “Vessel XII” c. 2004
Irregular organic shaped lost wax cast silver bowl with an irregular shaped top and one pierced hole (3/4 inch). Approx. silver weight is 80 troy ounces.
Marks: Logo monogram, 5/20, initial monogram
H: 5 1/4″ x W: 8 1/2″ x D: 7 1/4″
At the age of three Linda Lee Johnson was given a handmade Native American bracelet from her father, a naval aviator, and subsequently another every time they crossed the country. By the time she was seven, she had seven bracelets which she never removed. She was an American field service exchange student to Greece in high school. It was here that she developed her love of theater, sculpture and ancient
jewelry. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in English literature and dramatic art and immediately began to study sculpture making.
She was a founding member of the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and a professional actress for nineteen years with many major roles in New York city and regional theaters around the country and abroad.
She studied jewelry making in New York City 1984-88.
In 1986, she was asked to place her pieces in Tiffany & Co. in all major stores. At the same time she had many featured pieces of jewelry, small sculpture and functional objects in the Museum of Modern Art design store.
Barney’s New York began to represent her in l989, where her jewelry and limited edition decorative art work are still found today.
She lived in Washington DC and the Adirondack Mountains where she continued to craft and sculpt her jewelry and decorative works of art until her passing in 2018.