Product Description
Arrigo Varettoni de Molin, “Conflict”, Oil on canvas 1945
ARRIGO VARETTONI DE MOLIN (1902-1985)
Conflict 1945
Oil on canvas
Signed: de molin 1945 (lower left on front of canvas)
For more information see: Who’s Who in America, Series II, no. 11 (November 1, 1941) p. 6.
Canvas: H: 38” x W: 44”
Framed: H: 45 ½” x W: 51”
The work of Arrigo De Molin shows a genuine understanding of everyday people. His paintings have sympathy, humor and a touch of gentle irony. The artist himself, after immigrating to the United States from Borca di Cadore, Italy in 1921, had the opportunity to study art and design at Cooper Union and the Art Students’ League. His first enterprises as a theatrical designer and painter of community and church murals heavily influenced his later portrayals of New York City life. These, his most revered works, were exhibited at the Vendome Art Galleries in 1941. Later in life, de Molin, persevered as an independent artist, diversifying his talents to span design and invention.
Arrigo Varettoni de Molin, “Conflict”, Oil on canvas 1945
JOSEPH RASKIN (1897-1981) USA
Seaside scene c. 1920 -1925
Oil on canvas, gold leaf frame
Signed: Jos. Raskin (lower left)
For more information see: Who Was Who in American Art,
(Madison, Conn.: Sound View Press, 1985), p. 505
Canvas: 25 1/4” x 21 1/4”
Frame: 31 1/4” x 26 3/4”
Price: $35,000
Born in Nogaisk, Russia, Joseph Raskin made a name for himself as a painter in New York City, where he was also recognized as an etcher, teacher and writer. He studied at the National Academy of Design and, in 1921, received a fellowship from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation. A member of the American Artists Congress, Raskin’s work was exhibited at the Schervee Gallery (Boston) in 1927, Tricker Gallery in 1939, the Schneider-Gabriel Gallery in 1941, Steinway Hall in 1942, and the American Artists Association in 1945. Raskin’s work may be found in several museum collections including the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art and National Academy of Design, both in Washington, D.C.
OTIS OLDFIELD (1890-1969) USA
“Water pipes and shadows” c. 1920
Oil on canvas, walnut frame
Signed: Otis Oldfield (lower left)
For more information see: Otis Oldfield 1890-1990, Centennial retrospective exhibition (San Francisco, CA: Inkwell Publishing, 1990).
Painting: H: 16 1/8” x W: 13”
Framed: H: 28 ¼” x W: 25 1/8”
Price: $42,500
***The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York owns a famous Gelatin silver print photograph by Morton Schamberg from 1916 entitled “God”. This image is akin to Duchamp’s “Fountain” and is an iconic Dadaist assemblage of plumbing pipes mounted on a miter box. The “Water Pipes and Shadows” painting by Otis Oldfield similarly brings a certain animation and personality to an under sink composition of mundane drain pipes in a sophisticated “Rayonist” or “Cubist” stylization. Otis Oldfield was born in Sacramento, California in 1890. He enrolled in the Best Art School in San Francisco in 1909 and continued his studies at the Academie Julian in Paris. Returning to the U.S., Oldfield settled briefly Sacramento before returning to San Francisco to accept a post as a teacher at the California School of Fine Art. Oldfield developed a bold modernist style, which caused some controversy among critics covering his exhibits. In 1936 Oldfield was one of a group of San Francisco artists chosen for a WPA project to paint murals in San Francisco’s Coit Tower. Following WW II, Oldfield taught at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. He died in San Francisco in 1969.