Gisela Falke von Lilienstein / Berndorfer Metallwarenfabrik Vienna Secession covered box c. 1902
GISELA VON FALKE (b. 1874) Austria
SCHOOL OF KOLO MOSER Austria
BERNDORFER METALLWARENFABRIK Berndorf, Austria
E. BAKALOWITS & SÖHNE Vienna, Austria [retailer]
Covered box c. 1902
Silver plate mounts and cover, blown “meteor” glass.
Marks: BEPWF 1481, maker’s touch marks
For more information on Berndorfer Metallwarenfabrik see: Blühender Jugendstil – Österreich (Art Nouveau in Blossom – Austria), Firmen und Marken (Companies and Marks), Waltraud Neuwirth, II (Vienna: Selbstverlag Neuwirth, 1991), p. 221; Metallkunst, Kunst vom Jugendstil zur Moderne (1889-1939), Karl H. Bröhan (Berlin: Bröhan Museum, 1990) pp. 20-44.
Julius Dressler / Art Pottery Black and White Footed bowl c. 1910
JULIUS DRESSLER Biela, Czech Republic
JULIUS DRESSLER BIELA (1888-1945) Czech Republic
Bowl 1910
Black and white glazed earthenware with three ball feet
Marks: JDB, 7764 (underglaze)
H: 4 7/8” x D base: 10 7/8”
Price: $3,750
Julius Dressler was a noted Bohemian ceramics manufacturing company that operated from the late 19th century until the end of World War II. Founded by Julius Dressler in the 1880s in Biela, Bohemia, the company produced high-quality decorative faience, Maiolica and porcelain ware. Dressler gained international renown for the ceramics it produced in the early 1900s in the Art Nouveau style, also known as “Jugendstil” or “Secessionist” ware.
Josef Hoffmann / Wilhelm and Johann Jonasch / Vienna Secession Game table c. 1913
JOSEF HOFFMANN (1870-1956) Austria
WILHELM AND JOHANN JONASCH Austria
Game table with four drawers c. 1913
Oak, leather top with gold tooled detail
Made by Johann Jonasch (Kunsttischler)
Illustrated: Vienna 1900-1930, Art in the Home,
exhib. cat. Historical Design, Inc. (New York, 1996), p. 60-1.
Matching dining table illustrated in: Österreichische Werkkultur,
Max Eisler (Wien: Kunstverlag Anton Schroll & Co., 1916) p. 97.
Related tables by Hoffmann illustrated: Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration, April-September 1914, p. 140-4; Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration, April September 1916, pp. 199-200; Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration, Oct.-March 1917, p. 207-8; Möbel des Jugendstils: Sammlung des Österreichischen Museums für angewandte Kunst, Vera J. Behal (Munich: Prestel-Verlag, 1981), pp. 143-5; Josef Hoffmann e la Wiener Werkstätte, Daniele Baroni and Antonio D’Auria (Milan: Electa Editrice, 1981). pp 124-125.
Josef Riedel / Bakalowits Soehne / Austrian Jugendstil Crystal carafe c. 1900
JOSEF RIEDEL GLASWERKS Dolni Polubny, Bohemia
BAKALOWITS SÖHNE Vienna
Carafe c. 1900
Clear crystal engraved with a peacock feather (gilding)and inset with an applied colored-glass peacock eye
For more information see: Das Böhmische Glas 1700-1950, Band IV Jugendstil in Böhmen, Alena Adlerová, c.s. (Passau: Passauer Glasmuseum, 1995) pp. 202 – 210.
Tubular chrome base with exotic wood and burl, glass inset half tops.
For more information see: Deutsche Stahlrohr Möbel, Alexander von Vegesack (München: Bangert Verlag, 1986), Bauhaus Furniture: A Legend Reviewed, exhibit. cat., Bauhaus-Archiv Museum für Gestaltung, Berlin, 2002.
Smaller table: 22″ H x 17″ D x 26 1/4″ W.
Larger table: 24 1/2″ H x 17 1/2″ D x 29 3/4″ W.
Christian Dell / Bauhaus “Tee-Ei” Tea infusers (Rare set of eight) 1924
CHRISTIAN DELL (1893-1974) Germany
BAUHAUS (1919-1933) Germany
“Tee-Ei” (tea ball) 1924 (rare set of 8)
Silvered brass.
***These are all in fine original, untouched condition.
Illustrated: Christian Dell: Silberschmied und Leuchtengestalter im 20. Jahrhundert, Beate Alice Hofmann, Museum Hanau (Hanau: Heller Druck,1996) illus. 15, p.56; Modernist Design 1880-1940, Alastair Duncan, The Norwest Collection (Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Antique Collectors’ Club, 1998), p. 173; Decorative Arts 1850-1950, Judy Rudoe, (London: British Museum Press, 1991) cover, p. 276; Die Metall Werkstatt am Bauhaus, (Berlin: Bauhaus-Archiv, Museum für Gestaltung, 1992) pp. 140-141 Silver of a New Era, (Rotterdam: Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, 1992) p. 157; cat. no. 140.
Length: 5 1/4″
Price: $9,600
Christian Dell, metal artist and industrial designer, played a formative role in shaping the Bauhaus style. Dell was the master of the metal workshop at the Bauhaus, 1922-25, in Weimar, working closely with László Moholy-Nagy.
Born the son of a locksmith in Offenbach in 1893, he had a great impact as a teacher on the curriculum of the Weimar metal workshop. He had done an apprenticeship as a silversmith in Hanau before and had also attended the drawing academy, followed by a stay at the Weimar School of Applied Art. Henry van de Velde, director of this institution, coined Christian Dell’s early works with his organic-flowing use of forms, a feature that can also be observed on Dell’s later works.
Metal workshop at the Bauhaus in Weimar:
From 1922, the former goldsmith, silversmith and coppersmith workshops of the Weimar phase became a laboratory for design where metal vessels and lamps were made. This is also where the designs for industry, as well as metal furniture, were ultimately created. In 1922, the silversmith Christian Dell took over as master of works. Following Itten’s departure in 1923, the workshop developed in a new direction with the Hungarian Constructivist László Moholy-Nagy. Instead of individual pieces, prototypes were now made for mass production. In order to manufacture the individual models, a production line was established.
Hayno Focken / Modernist round covered copper box c. 1935
HAYNO FOCKEN (1905-1968) Germany
Round covered box c. 1935
Hand-wrought and hand-hammered copper with brass details
Marks under the foot: HF (conjoined monogram)
For other works by Hayno Focken see: Metallkunst: Vom Jugendstil zur Moderne (1889-1939), ed. Karl H. Bröhan (Berlin: Bröhan Museum, 1990), illus. 177, p. 183; Avantgarde Design 1880=1930,Torsten Bröhan & Thomas Berg (Köln, Benedict Taschen, 1994) p. 116; , (Berlin 1937) S. 43f, Abb. 37, Abb. S 128, S 146, Sl 243; Die Schaulade 15 Ausg. A (1939) Abb. S. 197, S. 204, S. 213; Die Schaulade 16 Ausg. A (1940) Abb. S. 44, S. 51., S. 54, S. 71, S. 83. S. 89; Die Kunst 84 (1941) S. 136, S. 139-39; Die Schaulade 17 (1941) Abb. S. 13, S. 41, S. 82, S. 229;
H: 4 ¼” x Dia: 4 7/8”
Hayno Focken (1905-1968) was an eminent German metal artist. He completed his training under Professor Karl Müller (1888-1972) at the design and arts school on Giebichenstein Castle in Halle (Saale), which was strongly tied to the ideals of the Deutsche Werkbund and the Bauhaus. In 1932 he established his own workshop in Lahr/Schwarzwald and continued his work until shortly before his death. His artistic work always stood out with a strong preference for large, organic forms, a similar manner of surface design and the same adherence to the principle of handicraft. Even his artist signet was modelled on the simple, square castle mark. In the 1950s he became one of those significant artists who had a major impact on contemporary metal design. The foundation of his creative work was a masterful understanding of proportions.
Münchner Werkstätten / Art Deco Large Glazed Pottery Vase c. 1928
MÜNCHNER WERKSTÄTTEN Germany
Vase c. 1928
Blue and white modeled glazed earthenware with orange red outlines
Marks: “M” over “W” mark, Germany
Provenance: Mr. Ernest L. King (Watkins) “Rockledge” Commission, Winona, MN c.1930’s Phillip Brooks Maher (interior architect), descended in the King Family to Bud (E. L. King Jr.) and Betty King, Winona, MN, Hollander Gallery, Milwaukee, WI, Private Collection, New York, NY
H: 9 ¾” x W: 8 ¼” x D: 8 ¼”
Price: $5,450
ROCKLEDGE, the summer home of Ernest and Grace King (the Watkins Family Company fortune was made from door-to-door sales of health potions and hygiene related products) was built and designed in its entirety from the expansive main home building with all of the furnishings to the custom silver service all the way down to the hand woven carpets and lace curtain designs, is arguably the most famous American Arts and Crafts commissioned home in America and was built and meticulously designed by George Washington Maher. It was finished in 1912, and was used by the Kings for the month of August only for a couple of decades before the interior was completely redone in the fashionable Art Deco design of the 1930’s. George Washington Maher’s son Phillip Brooks Maher, was hired for the project and went shopping for the best of the design of the period in both New York and Paris. He assembled a legendary collection of Art Deco design that comprised many important examples of both American and European Art Deco including the famous Donald Deskey square form telescope table, a Gilbert Rohde “Z” clock, a pair of Mies van der Rohe red lacquer and wicker armchairs, DIM furniture and rugs from Paris and rare Paolo Venini floor lamps and sculptural glass pieces among many other major 20th Century design works. This rare vase was indicative of the avant-garde furnishings throughout the King Home as well as the exquisite quality and attention to the detail of every single object that the Kings surrounded themselves with and became accustomed to enjoying and living with whether they were at their Daytona Beach resort, their lakeside property at Lake Tahoe or their plantation in Hawaii!
Rudolf Rieger / WMF Ikora Germany Art Deco Dinanderie Pair of Vases c. 1930
RUDOLF RIEGER Germany
WMF [WÜRTTEMBERGISCHE METALLWARENFABRIK] Geislingen, Germany
Dinanderie pair of vases c. 1930
Brass with a black patina and stylized silver inlay in a geometric motif
Marks: WMF castle mark
Illustrated: WMF Ikora Metall / Metalwork, Carlo Burschel and Heinz Scheiffele (Stuttgart, Germany: ARNOLDSCHE, 2006), p. 58, 156 and 185.
H: 3 1/4″ x Dia: 4″
Price: $1,950
Rudolf Rieger was in Paul Haustein’s master class and worked as self-employed goldsmith in Stuttgart. Between 1920 and 1930 he submitted designs for metal objects to WMF AG and from 1940 until 1941 he was the master instructor at the WMF art-metal division.
Otto Eckmann (attr.) Pair Of Hand Wrought Iron Floral Candlesticks c. 1900
OTTO ECKMANN attr. (1865-1902) Germany
Pair of candlesticks c. 1900
Hand-wrought iron with floral and foliage design
H: 12 ¼” x W: 8 ¼”
Price: $7,475
Otto Eckmann (19 November 1865 – 11 June 1902) was a German painter and graphic artist. He was a prominent member of the “floral” branch of Jugendstil. Otto Eckmann was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1865. He studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Hamburg and Nuernberg and at the academy in Munich. In 1894, Eckmann gave up painting (and auctioned off his works) in order to concentrate on applied design. He began producing graphic work for the magazines Pan in 1895 and Jugend in 1896. He also designed book covers for the publishers Cotta, Diederichs, Scherl and Seemann, as well as the logo for the publishing house S. Fischer Verlag. In 1897 he taught ornamental painting at the Unterrichtsanstalt des Königlichen Kunstgewerbemuseums in Berlin. In 1899, he designed the logo for the magazine Die Woche. From 1900 to 1902, Eckmann did graphic work for the Allgemeine Elektrizitätsgesellschaft (AEG). During this time, he designed the fonts Eckmann (in 1900) and Fette Eckmann (in 1902), probably the most common Jugendstil fonts still in use today.
Karl Raichle / Bauhaus Hand Hammered Pewter Candlestick c. 1928
Karl Raichle(1889 – 1965) Meersburg, Germany.
Candlestick c. 1928
Hand hammered pewter in a half sphere and cone form
Marks: Meersburg, 6 7 8 2
For more information on Karl Raichle see: Avantgarde Design 1880-1930,Torsten Bröhan & Thomas Berg (Köln, Benedict Taschen, 1994) p. 101.
H: 3 1/8″ x Dia: 3 1/2″
Price: $2,250
Karl Raichle (1889 – 1965) attended the Bauhaus as a student in the late 1920’s before opening his own metalworkshop in Meersburg. Raichle was a student of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy at the Bauhaus in Dessau.
Silver-plated copper with with red patinated squares and rectangles on a black-patinated textured background
Marks: WMF castle mark, IKORA
Illustrated: WMF Ikora Metall / Metalwork, Carlo Burschel and Heinz Scheiffele (Stuttgart, Germany: ARNOLDSCHE, 2006), p. 142, 90/585.
For more information see: WMF Glas Keramik Metall 1925-1950, Jörg Schwandt, (Berlin: Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museum Preussischer Kulturbesitz, 1981). Metallkunst, Band IV (Berlin: Bröhan-Museum, 1981) pp. 546-579.
Signed: ROSE COVARRUBIAS, 28 FEB 1932, V (in pencil on back); PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL VAN VECHTEN, 146 CENTRAL PARK WEST, CANNOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION (ink stamp on back)
Signed: Henri Matisse (in pencil on back); May 30, 1933, XXIII c:10 (in red ink on back); PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL VAN VECHTEN, CANNOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION (blue ink stamp on back)
Signed: Leontyne Price as Bes, Porgy & Bess, XVII KK 20, May 19, 53 (in ink on back); PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL VAN VECHTEN, 101 CENTRAL PARK WEST, CANNOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION (ink stamp on back)
Jaroslav Rössler, Untitled, Gelatin silver print c. 1930’s
JAROSLAV RÖSSLER (1902-1990) Czech Republic
Untitled c. 1930’s
Gelatin silver print
Signed: -1G- (in green ink on back); JAR. RÖSSLER, PRAHA XI, Ti mars.
Koneva 174 (blue stamp on back); CZ 12 and other annotations in pencil on back
Provenance: Monah L Gettner, New York
H: 8 1/8” x W: 6 1/8” (unframed)
H: 18 5/8” x W: 16 1/8” (framed)
Price: $17,500
Jaroslav Rössler was undoubtedly one of the most important representatives of Czech avant-garde photography during the 1920s and 1930s. His works rank among the most progressive examples of the use of abstract art and Constructivism in photography. Rössler‘s work has been included in numerous international exhibitions and can be found in major museum collections including the J. Paul Getty Museum, Museum Folkwang and Houston Museum of Fine Arts.
Signed: Xanti Schawinsky 1943 (script signature and date in ink on back of photo)
Photograph: H: 7 7/8” x W: 8”
Frame: H: 16 9/16” x W: 16 9/16”
Price: $24,000
Xanti Schawinsky is usually known either for the activities of his early career, as a young ‘enfant terrible’ of Bauhaus theatre, or for the work he produced at its close as a respected and mature abstract artist. However these two perspectives ignore his tremendous versatility, and the important role he had to play in bringing Modernist ideas to different parts of the inter-war world. Schawinsky was born in Switzerland, the son of a Polish Jew. His creative nature was obvious from an early age, and in his teens he studied art and music in Zurich, before travelling to Berlin and Cologne to learn about design and architecture. In 1924 he enrolled at the Bauhaus, and became involved in the school’s vibrant theatrical scene, also focusing on photography and painting. From the mid 1920s Schawinsky undertook wide range of professional commissions, working as a stage designer, a municipal studio director and a freelance designer. He also returned to the Bauhaus to teach. In 1933 Germany’s growing intolerance forced him to move to Milan, where he spent several years producing commercial graphic design, principally for the typewriter company Olivetti. An invitation to join the progressive Black Mountain College brought him to the USA in 1936. He spent two years at Black Mountain introducing Bauhaus ideas to his American students, before moving to New York to take up freelance design and pursue painting – an activity which absorbed almost all of his attention in his final years. As innovative in commercial art as he was in his unpaid pieces, Schawinsky’s work demonstrated the huge creative power of the inter-war meeting of art and industry.
Stephen Longstreet “Jazz Festival Trio – Night Faces”, Paper cut-out, mixed media and paper collage
STEPHEN LONGSTREET (1907-2002)
“Jazz Festival Trio – Night Faces” c. 1970’s
Paper cut-out, mixed media and paper collage
Signed: Longstreet (lower right), titled in pencil (upper left)
Artist’s printed address label verso
H: 38″ x W: 28 3/8″
Stephen Longstreet was born on April 18, 1907 in New York City and attended Rutgers University (1926) and Harvard University (1927), and graduated from the New York School of Fine and Applied Art (1929); also studied in Paris with Matisse and Bonnard, as well as in Rome, London and Berlin; became painter, writer, art critic, and lecturer on art; literary critic for Reader’s Syndicate (1952-80) and for the Los Angeles Daily News; designed stage sets for RexRoth poetry jazz, 1952; president, Los Angeles Art Association. (1972-75); professor of modern writing, University of Southern California (1975-80); wrote radio plays, screenplays, and dozens of books ranging from novels to biography to travel, including: Decade, 1929-1939 (1940), The Pedlocks: A Family (1951), Gettysburg (1961), The World Revisited (1953), and The Real Jazz, Old and New (1956).
The world of jazz was a constant theme throughout Longstreet’s life.
Longstreet was introduced to ragtime and jazz by future singing legend Paul Robeson, then an All-American football player at Rutgers University. Their friendship began in 1918, when Robeson spotted the 11-year-old Longstreet sketching him as he practiced dropkicking. In his 1986 book “Storyville to Harlem: Fifty Years in the Jazz Scene,” Longstreet explained that Robeson made him “aware of the gap between the music taught on paper and the ‘razzmatazz’ sounds of the scratchy jazz recordings.” While studying at the School of Fine and Applied Arts in New York in the late ’20s, Longstreet drew the musical scenes in Greenwich Village, the speak-easies and the Cotton Club in Harlem. “I had hoped to capture with black marks on white paper, this music created by these people, and set down what they looked like, felt and did before they were gone,” he later wrote. By the late ’20s, Longstreet was furthering his artistic studies in Paris, where he met Picasso, Matisse and other artists. He also met and drew James Joyce, Gertrude Stein and the American “jazzmen” who were, he later wrote, “escaping from Judge Lynch and the back of the bus.” After returning to the United States in 1930, he traveled south to New Orleans, discovering the “strange and wonderful sounds” of jazzmen playing in Storyville, the city’s red light district, and capturing them in his work. He later drew and painted Count Basie, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and other jazz greats. Of Longstreet’s depictions of the century’s jazz scene, Louis Armstrong wrote in 1971: “You want to feel the smell–the color–the great ‘OH MY’ feeling of the jazzmen, and stomp around in the smoke and dusk of the joints … then you just go and locate some of the drawings and paintings of this cat Steve Longstreet and steal you a few.”
Over the years, Longstreet’s jazz-era works, including collages, watercolors and ink drawings, were exhibited in museums and galleries, including the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution. The University of Chicago Library, The Graphic Arts Collection and Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Princeton University Library, as well as UCLA all have extensive collections of Longstreet’s artwork.
Prof. Theodor Wende, Cubist Self-portrait, original charcoal drawing on paper c. 1927
PROF. THEODOR WENDE (1883-1968) Germany
Cubist self-portrait c. 1927
Original charcoal drawing on paper
Paper size H: 21” x W: 17”
Sight size H: 16 ½” x W: 12 ¾”
Framed H: 27” x W: 23 ¼”
Theodor Wende was born in 1883. Wende began his studies in 1905 at the Hanau design academy and the Berlin museum’s school of applied arts before becoming an independent gold- and silversmith in 1912.
Edmund F. Ward “The Swimming Hole” Oil on canvas c. 1930
EDMUND F. WARD (b. 1892 – 1991) USA
“The Swimming Hole” c. 1930
Oil on canvas
Marks: signed Edm. F. Ward (lower right); partial labels verso:Westchester Arts and Crafts Guild; 4 Edmund F. Ward
For more information on the artist see: Who Was Who in American Art,Peter Hastings Falk, ed. (Madison, Conn.: Sound View Press, 1985), p. 658.
Canvas H: 18” x W: 24”
Framed H: 27 9/16” x W: 33 9/16”
Price: $14,000
Ward studied at the Arts Student’s League with Edward Dufner, George Bridgeman, and Thomas Fogarty. He was an illustrator for several national magazines and books. In 1925, Ward exhibited an award winning work at the Art Institute of Chicago. He is perhaps best known for his WPA mural in the Federal Building, White Plains, New York.
Jean Marion Gates Hall, “Napa Valley” Oil on canvas 1940
JEAN MARION GATES HALL (1911-2001) USA
Napa Valley 1940
Oil on canvas, original wood frame
Signed: with her monogram initials JGH (lower right)
Marked on back: Jean Gates Hall, June 18, 1940, Napa Valley
Canvas: H: 14″ x W: 17 1/4″
Framed: H: 17 1/2″ x W: 20 1/2″
Price: $4,250
Born in Memphis, TN on May 19, 1911. Jean Gates studied at the Cummings School of Art in Des Moines. At age 14 she moved to Los Angeles with her family. There she continued at the Chouinard Art School while working for Warner Bros, Walt Disney, and Mintz Studios. Upon moving to San Francisco, she married writer James D. Hall in 1938. Her illustrations were used in her husband’s children’s books. She established a studio in the “Monkey Block” (now the Transamerica Pyramid) and was active in the local art scene. She later earned her B.A. degree at San Jose State University (1955) and M.A. degree at UC Davis (1966). Working in oil and watercolor, her painting style and subject matter evolved with the years from descriptive realism to linear pictures, and finally an entirely new medium called Magpage. Mrs. Hall was a resident of Oakland in the 1980s and died in Cedar Ridge, CA on June 23, 2001.
Exhibitions: Iowa State Fair, 1926; California State Fair, 1937; GGIE, 1939; Paul Elder Gallery (SF), 1939 (solo); NMAA, 1941; SFMA, 1942 (solo); De Young Museum, 1944 (solo); California WC Society, 1945-53; UC Davis, 1946, 1965 (solos); Kingsley Art Club (Sacramento), 1965.
Isobel Steele MacKinnon, Weimar Portrait, Gouache, tempera and oil on paper c.1927
ISOBEL STEELE MACKINNON (1896 – 1972) USA
Weimar Portrait c.1927
Gouache, tempera and oil on paper, lemon gold frame.
Signed: MacKinnon
Exhibited: Weimar Portraits, Riviera Landscapes: A Chicagoan in Hofmann’s Studio, 1925–1929, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, IL, March 28 – May 3, 2008
Illustrated: Weimar Portraits, Riviera Landscapes: A Chicagoan in Hofmann’s Studio, 1925–1929, exhibition catalog, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, IL, March 28 – May 3, 2008
Painting: H: 16 1/2″ x W: 13″
Frame: H: 20 1/2″ x W: 17 1/4″
SOLD
***This colorful and mesmerizing painting rather closely foreshadows the famous portraiture of the renowned American artist Alice Neel (1900-1984). Isobel Steele MacKinnon’s adventures as an American artist living and working in Europe echo those of many other expatriates of the epoch. MacKinnon and her husband Edgar Rupprecht were, by the time they left Chicago in 1925, both established figures in Chicago’s art world, and especially in Saugatuck, Michigan, where they taught at Ox-Bow Summer School. What the couple encountered in the studio of German artist Hans Hofmann would rock the impressionist foundations of their artwork and transform them into committed modernists. Hofmann’s Munich-based school was a magnet for foreign students after World War I, ever after Hofmann left Germany in the early Thirties. Indeed, over the period of four years (1925 to 1929) during which Steele and Rupprecht worked alongside Hofmann, their fellow students included renowned abstract artist Vaclav Vytlacil and painter Worth Ryder, the artist who would invite Hofmann to teach in the US for the first time in 1930. A small, elegant, realistic profile drawing Rupprecht made of MacKinnon in 1925 makes fascinating contrast with the work she produced while in Europe. In Chicago, her approach had been as conventional as his, but under Hofmann she took to the new ideas with startling ease, absorbing his “push and pull” spatial concept and his deep investigations of the compositional consequences of hot and cold colors. The portraits of German and other expat sitters made at the time have the analytic angularity associated with Hofmann, drawn and painted with a palpable power and sureness. Some resemble expressionists like Oskar Kokoschka or Ludwig Meidner. For instance, the small portrait of a rat-like man with a whiskery mustache or the jutting, harsh jaw of a stern woman with a fur collar, and a rosy-cheeked girl in red (this painting), straight from a German cabaret. More radical than her portraits, MacKinnon’s slashing charcoal gesture drawings of figures are sometimes exceptionally abstract, hauntingly presaging the abstract expressionist women of Willem de Kooning. These works represent an artist in the throes of letting herself loose, shaking off the constrictions of academicism, experimenting with vital energy and displaying an unwavering hand. During their European summers, MacKinnon and Rupprecht traveled with Hofmann. MacKinnon had quickly risen to become his premier student. On Capri and St. Tropez, she painted bright, abstracted landscapes, often based on carefully plotted line drawings. The warm environs often drew out her old impressionist tendencies, but in the most advanced of these works she blocked colors into shapes and patterns that suggest Marsden Hartley, Milton Avery or, in some cases, Jan Matulka. In one drawing, probably from Paris, she has sculpted the trees into architectural forms. After their sojourn, which extended from their studies with Hofmann to several years as active artists in Paris, MacKinnon and Rupprecht returned to Chicago. They were rejuvenated, heads full of new ideas, portfolios brimming with the work they’d done. When WWII was over, Steele began a long and fruitful teaching career at the School of the Art Institute. From this post she introduced many young artists, from Jack Beal to Tom Palazzolo, to Hofmann’s concepts at the same time he was teaching the future abstract expressionists of America from his schools in New York and Provincetown. In recognition of her unwavering interest in issue of space in pictoral composition, MacKinnon’s closest students were known as the “space cadets.” A larger-than-life character, she died in Chicago in 1972 after a protracted battle with Alzheimer’s.
Handbuilt earthenware sculpture with a golden light brown glaze.
Marks: Hulda Rotier Fischer 36 (hand incised)
H: 6 1/2″ x W: 7″ x D: 5 1/2″
Price: $2,300
Hulda Rotier Fisched studied at the Milwaukee Normal School and was a student of Robert von Neumann Sr. In 1921 she also studied with Carl Holty. She worked as an Art Instructor at Shorewood Opportunity School for 30 years. Rotier Fischer was a Member of the Milwaukee Art institute.
She is the recipient of many Milwaukeee Journal Awards.
Tim Liddy, Airport (1972), The Airline Game, Oil and enamel on copper, plywood back 2008
TIM LIDDY (b. 1963) Missouri
“Airport” (1972) The Airline Game 2008
Oil and enamel on copper, plywood back
Signed in script: Tim Liddy, red circular ring, “circa 1972”,
H: 12 7/8” x W: 8 7/8” x D: 2”
With his recent paintings, Liddy has both reasserted the construct of hyperrealist painting and developed a thoroughly unique advancement of that mode by extending the cultural reality of the indexed original. Based on the illustrated box lids of vintage board games, Liddy has recontextualized a subject, which evokes the underlying rules of life. Painted on copper or steel in the precise dimensions of the original, the metal is then manipulated to demonstrate the exact rips and tears from years of usage and includes trompe-l’oeil renditions of the scotch tape that might be holding the cardboard box together, the assorted stains, or the various graffiti of time. Liddy leaves no possibility of ambivalence, these works speak to a concurrent understanding of their original object identity and to themselves as works of art engaged in historical and psychological dialogue.
Tim Liddy Monopoly (1936) A Parker Trading Game 2007 Oil and enamel on copper, plywood back
TIM LIDDY
“Monopoly” (1936) A Parker Trading Game 2007
Oil and enamel on copper, plywood back
Signed in script: Tim Liddy “circa 1936” 2007, red circular ring
Provenance: Kidder-Smith Gallery (Boston, MA)
H: 7 5/8” x W: 6 ½” x D: 1 ½”
With his recent paintings, Liddy has both reasserted the construct of hyperrealist painting and developed a thoroughly unique advancement of that mode by extending the cultural reality of the indexed original. Based on the illustrated box lids of vintage board games, Liddy has recontextualized a subject, which evokes the underlying rules of life. Painted on copper or steel in the precise dimensions of the original, the metal is then manipulated to demonstrate the exact rips and tears from years of usage and includes trompe-l’oeil renditions of the scotch tape that might be holding the cardboard box together, the assorted stains, or the various graffiti of time. Liddy leaves no possibility of ambivalence, these works speak to a concurrent understanding of their original object identity and to themselves as works of art engaged in historical and psychological dialogue.
Tim Liddy Game of Boom or Bust (1951) Presidential Sweepstakes 2006 Oil and enamel on copper, plywood back
TIM LIDDY
“Game of Boom or Bust” (1951) Presidential Sweepstakes 2006
Oil and enamel on copper, plywood back
Signed in script: Tim Liddy “circa 1951” 2006, red circular ring
Provenance: William Shearburn Gallery (St. Louis, MO)
H: 15 1/8” x W: 15 1/8” x D: 2”
With his recent paintings, Liddy has both reasserted the construct of hyperrealist painting and developed a thoroughly unique advancement of that mode by extending the cultural reality of the indexed original. Based on the illustrated box lids of vintage board games, Liddy has recontextualized a subject, which evokes the underlying rules of life. Painted on copper or steel in the precise dimensions of the original, the metal is then manipulated to demonstrate the exact rips and tears from years of usage and includes trompe-l’oeil renditions of the scotch tape that might be holding the cardboard box together, the assorted stains, or the various graffiti of time. Liddy leaves no possibility of ambivalence, these works speak to a concurrent understanding of their original object identity and to themselves as works of art engaged in historical and psychological dialogue.
Signed: P. Canty 2001, Santa Cruz, CA 5 (in a circle on back)
Canvas size: H: 30” x L: 40”
Framed size: H: 38” x L: 48”
Peter Canty received his BA in art from the Chouniard Art Institute, Los Angeles (now California Institute of the Arts) and an MA from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1969. Heavily influenced by the Post-Impressionist masters Van Gogh, Gauguin and Cezanne, in his own he words he describes his interest in landscapes, believing they are, “the best vehicle for motion, force, and color dynamics.” Although his work reference realistic subjects, Canty’s imagery is drawn strictly from his own imagination.
Peter Canty received his BA in art from the Chouniard Art Institute, Los Angeles (now California Institute of the Arts) and an MA from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1969. Heavily influenced by the Post-Impressionist masters Van Gogh, Gauguin and Cezanne, in his own he words he describes his interest in landscapes, believing they are, “the best vehicle for motion, force, and color dynamics.” Although his work reference realistic subjects, Canty’s imagery is drawn strictly from his own imagination.
David Simpson “Little Ibicenco” – California Hard-Edge Abstract painting 1979
DAVID SIMPSON (1928-) California, US
“Little Ibicenco” – California Hard-Edge Abstract painting 1979
Acrylic on canvas
Marks: David Simpson (script signature) on back of canvas, 1979, #14/79 “Little Ibicenco”, two arrows
H: 29″ x W: 28 3/4″
David Simpson has explored varieties of abstraction since the early 1950s, enjoying acknowledgement and success in the art world. In 1963 he was chosen by New York’s Museum of Modern Art curator, Dorothy Miller, to appear in what turned out to be the last in her legendary series of group shows of contemporary American art. In 1964 he appeared in Clement Greenberg’s famous exhibition Post Painterly Abstraction at Los Angeles County Museum of Art. At that time Simpson painted landscape-derived abstractions and, in the 70s, he practiced a reductive but relational mode of abstraction. But with his discovery of a new acrylic medium in 1987, he was able to embrace finally and successfully the monochrome’s radicality.
Simpson uses an acrylic paint with interference properties. The paint is composed of titanium dioxide electronically coated with mica particles. Simpson tends to mix complementaries, but admits that orange and blue also work together well. He also mixes black acrylic with the interference pigments, finding that a little bit of black helps the colour jump out. Interference pigments cause optical effects that are comparable to iridescence. When you look at the painting from one angle, you receive one set of colour sensations. When you shift your position, you get another. As you move back and forth in front of the canvas – and the paintings make you want to do so – the experience changes. The change of light also dramatically affects the optical experience, and the play of light across the canvas surface is subtly kinetic.
***David Simpson was associated with the California Hard-Edge Movement.
Hard Edge Abstraction:
It encompasses rich solid colors, neatness of surface, and arranged forms all over the canvas. The Hard-edge painting style is related to Geometric abstraction, Post-painterly Abstraction, and Color Field painting. Hard edge is also a simply descriptive term, as applicable to past works as to future artistic production. The term refers to the abrupt transition across “hard edges” from one color area to another color area. Color within “color areas” is generally consistent, that is, homogenous. Hard-edged painting can be both figurative or nonrepresentational.
Important solo exhibitions include: Studio la Città, Verona (2008); Light Wells +, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe (2007-08); Sonta Roesch Gallery, Houston (2007); Light Wells, Haines Gallery, San Francisco (2007); Iridescent Interference, Gallery Sonja Roesch, Houston (2005); Surrealist Landscape and other Departures, Haines Gallery, San Francisco (2005); Cheryl Haines Gallery, San Francisco (2004); James Kelly Contemporary, Santa Fe (2003); Artotek, Köln (2002); Renate Schröder Galerie, Köln (2002); Renate Schröder Galerie, Köln (2001); Studio la Città, Verona (2001); Modernism Gallery, San Francisco (2001); University Art Museum, San Francisco (2000); Renate Schröder Galerie, Köln (2000); Haines Gallery, San Francisco (2000).
Important group shows include: Galerie Lausberg, Dusseldorf (2007); West Coast Abstraction, Modernism Gallery, San Francisco (2007); Fundamental Abstraction, Haines Gallery, San Francisco (2007); The Panza Collection – An experience in light colour, Albright Knox Gallery, Buffalo, with catalogue (2007); Inneres Leuchten-Farbe als Malerei, Kunstverein Lingen Kunsthalle, Lingen (2005); Recent Paintings, Galleria G7, Bologna (2005); Je ne Regrette Rien, Studio la Città, Verona (2005); The Forman Collection, Albright Knox Gallery, Buffalo (2005); Modernism Gallery, San Francisco (2004); San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA (2004); Albright Knox Art Gallery, N.Y. (2003); La percezione dello spazio , Palazzo della Gran Guardia, Verona (2002); Le stanze dell’arte , MART, Rovereto (curated by Gabriella Belli) (2002); Artisti americani ed europei dalla collezione Panza , Palazzo Ducale, Sassuolo (2001); Nebeneinander III (Painting Today – Overseas and Here ), Galerie Renate Schröder, Köln, with catalogue (2001); La collezione Panza di Biumo: artisti degli anni ’80 – ’90 , Museo del Palazzo Ducale, Gubbio, with catalogue (1997).
Peter Canty received his BA in art from the Chouniard Art Institute, Los Angeles (now California Institute of the Arts) and an MA from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1969. Heavily influenced by the Post-Impressionist masters Van Gogh, Gauguin and Cezanne, in his own he words he describes his interest in landscapes, believing they are, “the best vehicle for motion, force, and color dynamics.” Although his work reference realistic subjects, Canty’s imagery is drawn strictly from his own imagination.
Peter Canty received his BA in art from the Chouniard Art Institute, Los Angeles (now California Institute of the Arts) and an MA from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1969. Heavily influenced by the Post-Impressionist masters Van Gogh, Gauguin and Cezanne, in his own he words he describes his interest in landscapes, believing they are, “the best vehicle for motion, force, and color dynamics.” Although his work reference realistic subjects, Canty’s imagery is drawn strictly from his own imagination.
Karl Benjamin, “Geo-metricized figure”, Oil on canvas 1954
KARL BENJAMIN (1925-2012) USA
Geometricized figure 1954
Oil on canvas
Signed: Benjamin 54 (lower left)
For more information see: Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, Vol. 1 to 10, E. Bénézit (Paris: Librairie Gründ, 1976).
Canvas: H: 17″ x W: 6″
Framed: H: 24 1/2″ x W: 13 1/2″
Karl Benjamin was born in Chicago, IL in 1925. He received his BA from the University of Redlands, CA and his MFA at Claremont Graduate School, CA. Benjamin belonged to the Hard Edge group of West Coast painters led by John McLaughlin during the 1950s, 60s and early 70s. He was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Grant for Visual Arts in both 1983 and 1989. His work has been featured in numerous museum exhibitions and is included in the public collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Modern Art, Israel; Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; Seattle Art Museum, WA; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, among others. For many years, Benjamin taught painting at Pomona College and Claremont Graduate School, and currently is Professor Emeritus. He lived in Claremont, CA.
Oscar B. Erickson, “Early Morning Rockport”, Oil on canvas c. 1940
OSCAR B. ERICKSON (1883 – 1970) American
Early Morning Rockport c. 1940
Oil on canvas
Marks: Original exhibition label verso: THE NORTHWEST ART LEAGUE,
INC., Oscar B. Erickson, Early Morning Rockport, oil
For brief bibliographical listing see: Who Was Who in American Art,
(Madison, Conn.: Sound View Press, 1985), p. 189.
Canvas (sight): H: 21” x W: 23”
Frame: H: 26 1/2” x W: 28 1/2”
Oscar Erickson was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He studied painting and printmaking at the Milwaukee Art League and later at the Herron Art Institute of Chicago. He exhibited at the Chicago Academy of the Fine Arts, the Hoosier Salon from 1927 to 1942, the Illinois State Museum, and the Norwegian Club.
Harold Christopher Davies, “Pacific seascape”, Oil on canvas c. 1915
HAROLD CHRISTOPHER DAVIES (1891 – 1976) USA
Pacific seascape c.1915
Oil on canvas
Marks: HHG #4010, Hoover Gallery, 1681 Folson Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 (on wooden stretcher), the estate mark of the Harold Christopher Davies estate is on the reverse of the canvas
Exhibited: Hoover Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 1975
For more information: Harold Christopher Davies 1891-1976: A Retrospective Exhibition (Stockton, CA: The Haggin Museum, 1982); Susan Landauer: The San Francisco School of Abstract Expressionism (Berkeley/Los Angeles, CA and London, UK: University of California Press, Laguna Beach, CA: Laguna Art Museum, 1996)p. 8;Art in the San Francisco Bay Area 1945-1980: An Illustrated History (Berkeley, CA: University California Press, 1985)
H: 16” x W: 20”
Framed: H: 27 11/16” x W: 23 5/8”
Born in Seattle, WA on May 26, 1891, the Davies family moved to Cherrydale, VA when Harold was an infant. Davies began his formal art education at the age of fourteen, enrolling in the Corcoran Art Institute in Washington, D.C. Later he continued his studies at the San Francisco Institute of Art.
The talent of Harold Christopher Davies was evident in his early California Impressionist landscapes such as this Pacific Ocean seascape which demonstrates his remarkable use of color and the bravura of his brushstrokes. An Abstract Expressionist, his later works are similar to those of De Kooning and Hans Hofmann. Harold Christopher Davies was a member of the Oakland Art League, the San Francisco Art Association and the Huntsville (Ala.) Art Association.
After living in a variety of cities around the United States, Davies moved to Inverness, California in 1969 where he was free to devote all his time to his art.
Louis F. Berneker, The Three Graces, Oil on Canvas c. 1910
LOUIS F. BERNEKER (1872-1937) USA
“The Three Graces” c. 1910
Oil on canvas, gilt Arts & Crafts style frame
Signed: Louis F. Berneker (lower left)
For more information see: Who Was Who in American Art
(Madison, Conn.: Sound View Press, 1985) p. 50
Canvas: H: 25 1/8” x W: 30 1/8”
Frame: H: 35 5/8” x W: 40 5/8”
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Louis Berneker first began his art training at the St. Louis School of Fine Art. From 1903 to 1904, he studied at the prestigious Académie Julian in Paris under J.P. Laurens. Upon his return to the United States, he lived primarily in New York City and later in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where he died in 1937. An accomplished painter in oils and watercolors, he was a member of the New York Watercolor Club, American Watercolor Society, the National Arts Club, and an associate member of the National Academy of Design. In 1930, the painter won prizes for works exhibited at both the National Academy of Design and Allied Artists of America’s juried shows. Berneker exhibited his work at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1910 to 1914 and again in 1921, as well as at the National Academy of Design in 1930 (prize), Art Institute of Chicago, and the Society of Independent Artists. His works are housed in the Church of St. Gregory the Great, New York City; the Belmont Theatre, both in New York City, the Chicago Theatre, and the Dallas Art Academy.
Gerrit V. Sinclair “Town along Railroad”, Oil on board, gilt frame c. 1942
GERRIT V. SINCLAIR (1890-1955) USA
Town along Railroad c. 1942
Oil on board, gilt frame
Signed: GV Sinclair (lower right corner on front of painting)
For more information see: Who Was Who in American Art (Madison, Conn.: Sound View Press, 1985) p. 571.
Painting H: 15” x W: 20”
Framed H: 20 7/16” x W: 25 7/16”
Price: $29,500
Gerrit V. Sinclair was born in Grand Haven, Michigan in 1890. He studied art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1910 to 1915. His most well known teachers at the Art Institute were John Vanderpoel and John Norton. In 1917 the artist enlisted in the Army Ambulance Corps and served in northern Italy and Austria. Scenes from his experience abroad are recorded in his works of the early 1920s. Following the war, Sinclair settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he became a member of the faculty of the Layton School of Art upon the school’s founding in 1920. He continued to teach at the Layton School and at the Oxbow Summer School of Art in Saugatuck, Michigan until his retirement in 1954. Sinclair is recognized both as an important artist and teacher from the Great Lakes region. During his lifetime Sinclair’s paintings were exhibited at the Salon d’Automne in Paris, the Salon Printemps in Paris, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the National Academy of Design, the Whitney Museum in New York, the New York Watercolor Club, the Brooklyn Museum, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, the Art Institute of Chicago and in many other museums and galleries. He received numerous prizes and commissions for his work including a W.P.A. mural commission for the Federal Building in Wassau, Wisconsin. Sinclair was a member of Wisconsin Painters & Sculptors, Wisconsin Federation of the Arts and the Wisconsin Painting Museum. His style is a blend of realism and Impressionism but is clearly modern in its abstract concern for composition and color. Sinclair is best known for his regionalist paintings of rural and urban Wisconsin. His farm scene entitled ”Spring in Wisconsin” was exhibited at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. Gerrit V. Sinclair died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1955.
Arrigo Varettoni de Molin, “Cocktail Hour”, Oil on canvas 1937
ARRIGO VARETTONI DE MOLIN (1902-1985)
Cocktail Hour 1937
Oil on canvas
Signed: Arrigo V de Molin (on front of canvas), #4 Cocktail Hour, Arrigo Varettoni de Molin, 323 West 4th Street, 79 Horatio Street (paper label attached to back of frame)
Listed: Who’s Who in America, Series II, no. 11 (November 1, 1941) p. 6.
Exhibited: The Society of Independent Artists, 1939; Vendome Art Galleries, 1941
Painting reviewed: “Three Newcomers Enliven the Season’s Beginning” Roy Finch, The New York Herald Tribune (September 7, 1941).
Grosfeld House New York (attr.) Modern / Art Deco Lucite Stool c. 1940
Grosfeld House New York
Lucite stool circa 1940.
Cylindrical lucite base stool with gold lucite wrap like connecting elements, silk upholstery.
H: 16 1/4″ x W: 13 1/2″ x D: 16 1/2″
Grosfeld House Furniture Company manufactured some iconic designs of the twentieth century. Some of the great designers that work for the company were Vladimir Kagan and Lorin Jackson. They produced some of the earliest chairs using Lucite starting in the 1930’s and through the Post War Era.
Guttierez Vega / South American Art Deco Sterling Modernist Coffee / Tea Set c. 1935
GUTTIEREZ VEGA (active 1930s) Bogotá, Columbia
Four-piece modernist coffee / tea set c. 1935
Radical form cone and triangular shaped four piece sterling silver with bold design exotic handles.
Marks: T.A.N. Sterling (Maker’s mark), serial number F925
Coffee pot H: 5″ x L: 10 1/2″
Teapot H: 4 3/8″ x L: 10 1/2″
Creamer H: 3″ x L: 8″
Sugar bowl H: 4 1/2″ x L: 7 3/4″
In the 1930s, Colombia began to embrace modern and Art Deco architecture. The new Liberal Party government tore down many older buildings to reject the conservative past. In their place, it constructed modern buildings with an international flavor and interiors and decorative arts were designed to complement these newly stylized buildings.
Robert Schellin American Studio Pottery Hand Thrown Floor Vase 1958
ROBERT SCHELLIN (1910 – 1985) USA
“Calligraphy” Floor Vase 1958
Hand thrown earthenware with a light and dark brown glaze with a stylized abstract calligraphic motif encircling the body
Marks: various marks and estate stamps Robert Schellin, Made in 1958, P88, C118 (paper labels)
For more information see: Schellin, A Retrospective (Milwaukee: School of Fine Arts, The University of Wisconsin, 1975); Who Was Who in American Art, (Madison, Conn.: Sound View Press, 1985), p. 547.
H: 23 1/2″ x Dia: 7″
Price: $9,000
Robert Schellin’s life as an artist was consistent, productive, and based on firm philosophical foundations. Regarding his own progress, he had always been aware, as a young art student and later as a mature artist, that deliberately narrowing the focus of his interests to assure a more constant public notice would run the risk of his becoming highly expert, but sterile in expression. From the beginning of art student days Schellin moved from very satisfying periods of drawing and painting to work in three-dimensional
Media, frequently in the medium of ceramics.
Schellin left the W.P.A. in 1937 to teach at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. After a year he moved to East Orange, New Jersey, supervising art in the public schools. It was during this stay in the New York metropolitan area that he studied with Hans Hoffmann at his Eighth Street School and witnessed at first hand the changing art scene and the growing commercialism of the artists market. Robert Schellin later returned back to Milwaukee rejoining the faculty of the University of Wisconsin (UWM). His works have been exhibited for many years in Wisconsin and national shows including the Wisconsin State Fair; the Art Institute of Chicago, 1944; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 1946; and the Milwaukee Art Institute numerous times between 1939-1960. He was included in the USIA European Traveling exhibition 1959-61.
Jan Van Der Vaart / Dutch Avant-Garde Pottery “I-beam” Vase, 1991
JAN VAN DER VAART (1931-2000) The Netherlands
I-beam vase 1991
Matte bronze glazed stoneware
Signed: 91 VD VAART (incised)
For more information on Van der Vaart and his work see: Jan van der Vaart, Ceramics, Marjan Unger, et al. (The Netherlands: Stichting Harten Fonds, 1991); Jan van der Vaart Multipels 1967-1997, Allaard Hidding (Leeuwarden: Keramiekmuseum Het Princessehof, 1997), illus. 88, p. 88.
H: 9 1/2” x W: 10 1/8” x D: 5 1/2”
Price: $8,000
Jan van der Vaart, born in 1931, is one of the Netherlands’ best known potters. He was not only a trend-setting artist and industrial designer, he also taught an entire generation of Dutch ceramicists while teaching at the Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam (1968-1990). His work is in the collection of many Dutch museums, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
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