Product Description
Arthur N. Colt, “The Wrestlers”, Oil on canvas c. 1938
ARTHUR N. COLT (1889-1972) USA
The Wrestlers c. 1938
Oil on canvas
Signed: A. N. Colt in lower right corner
For more information on Colt see: Who Was Who in American Art (Madison, Conn.: Sound View Press, 1985). p.125. Hove, Arthur, ed. Wisconsin Alumnus Vol. 61, No. 9 (January 1960), “Portrait Patterns” Art Digest v. 9 (December 15, 1934) p. 7
Canvas: H: 29 ½” x W: 34”
Framed: H: 38 ½” x W: 43”
Arthur Colt studied painting at the Art Institute of Chicago and in Paris. He was not only an important Wisconsin painter but also an influential teacher. He taught at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, founded a summer art colony at Black River and Devil’s Lake, WI and went on to form the Colt School of Art. Arthur Colt exhibited at the Madison Salon of Art Exhibition in 1934.
Arthur N. Colt, “The Wrestlers”, Oil on canvas c. 1938
ZYGMUND SAZEVICH (1899-1968)
Portrait of Victor Arnautoff 1925
Oil on canvas
Signed: Z. Sazevich 1925 (lower right)
Framed: H: 34 5/16” x W: 29 9/16”
Price: $65,000
Zygmund Sazevich was born in Russia in 1899, and studied briefly at the University in Kazan in 1917, before traveling to Manchuria where he lived and worked as an actor and stage scenery painter. He emigrated to the U.S. via Japan in the early 1920s and entered the School of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, supporting himself by working as a house painter and helping stage plays for a local Russian theater company. Sazevich met Russian artist Eugene Ivanoff, and together they shared living quarters and studied at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Sazevich was awarded two scholarships, one in painting and one in sculpture. During the 1920’s Sazevich exhibited with the San Francisco Art Association, and in 1929 won first prize at their annual exhibit, followed by several sculpture commissions. That same year Sazevich and Ivanoff traveled to live and work in Paris. Back in San Francisco in 1931, his work was included in a show of garden sculptures at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, along with works by Adaline Kent, Ruth Cravath, and others. By 1935 he was working as a W.P.A. muralist. Sazevich and his wife Zena, a decorator, purchased a home in the City, which they filled with Sazevich’s sculptures, woodcarvings, and hand-made furniture. In 1939 Sazevich exhibited at San Francisco’s Golden Gate International Exposition. His cast terrazzo sculpture Mississippi won the 1940 purchase prize at the annual San Francisco Art Association exhibition, and he had a one-man show at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1941. During World War II, Sazevich worked in a shipyard creating wood patterns, and in later years he designed and made hand-blocked Christmas cards that were in great demand. His clients included celebrities such as Greer Garson, Joan Fontaine, and Red Skelton. From the late 1940s until the 1960s, Sazevich taught art classes, both at the California School of Fine Arts and at Mills College in Oakland. He continued to exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Art through the 1950s, and in 1953 was featured in the museum’s Four Sculptors of the West show. Sazevich also had two solo shows at Mills College in 1950 and 1954, and a show at Raymond & Raymond in San Francisco in 1951. Zygmund Sazevich passed away in San Francisco in 1968. In 1982 his work was included in The Oakland Museum’s seminal exhibition 100 Years of California Sculpture.
Though his works are rare today, Zygmund Sazevich was a prolific, versatile and highly-regarded San Francisco Bay Area artist and instructor whose passion for his medium was evident not only in his sculptures and carvings, but also in his drawings and paintings. Sazevich believed that the two-dimensional rendering of the subject was integral to the process of sculpture, along with the necessity for the artist to have a feeling for the material with which he worked. His convictions were reflected in the great variety of woods, metals, and stone he used to create his sculptures, as well as in his paintings.
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.