1940
Michael Loew was born on May 8, 1907 and was the son of a New York City baker. After high school, he was an apprentice to a stained-glass maker and from 1926–29, he studied at the Art Students League. In 1929, he traveled to Paris, North Africa, Germany and Italy with a group of artists, including Max Schnitzler and Alfred Jensen. When he returned to New York City in 1931, the Great Depression hit Loew unexpectedly and for the next two years, he paid his apartment rent with his paintings. In 1935, he found work with the Works Progress Administration where he painted murals and partnered up with longtime friend Willem de Kooning in 1939 on a mural for the Hall of Pharmacy at the New York World's Fair. Their friendship lasted for the rest of their lives and in fact, Loew met his wife Mildred through a friend of de Kooning's. He traveled to Mexico in the late 1930s. Loew had a strong interest in artists' rights and activism and as president of the Artists Union, he led a protest which involved artists chaining themselves to poles in Union Square. After Pearl Harbor, Loew joined the Navy and served as the battalion artist for the Seabees in the Pacific. When he returned in 1946, his painting moved quickly toward abstraction. From 1947–49, he studied post-cubism at the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts. In 1948, he joined the Spiral Group, an organization of artists devoted to the exhibition of experimental art. The Artists Gallery in New York hosted his first one-man show in 1949 and one year later, he enrolled at the Atelier Léger in Paris. In 1956, he began teaching in the United States. By 1985 he had been an instructor at the Portland Museum School, University of California at Berkeley and the School of Visual Arts. His works are in the collections of prominent institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He died on November 14, 1985, in New York.
WPA Mural Study American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern Workers
By Seymour Fogel
Located in New York, NY
WPA Mural Study American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern Workers Seymour Fogel (1911-1984) Mural Study, untitled 11 x 49 1/4 inches (sight) Tempera on board Provenance:...
Egg Tempera, Board
WPA Mural Study Mid-Century Modern American Scene Social Realism Workers
By Anton Refregier
Located in New York, NY
WPA Mural Study Mid-Century Modern American Scene Social Realism Workers Anton Refregier (1905-1979) Mural Study, Untitled 7 ¾ x 22 inches (sight) Gouache, pencil, and charcoal on board, c. 1940s Unsigned Provenance: Estate of Seymour Fogel, noted verso Thomas McCormick Gallery...
Charcoal, Gouache, Board, Pencil
Mural Study 1933 Depression Era Mid-Century WPA Modern American Scene Drawing
By Michael Loew
Located in New York, NY
Mural Study 1933 Depression Era Mid-Century WPA Modern American Scene Drawing. Study to Scale Mural Sketch for “Evolution of Textile Production” East. All,...
Egg Tempera, Board
Post Office WPA Mural Study American Scene Social Realism Modern 20th Century
By Carlos Lopez
Located in New York, NY
Post Office WPA Mural Study American Scene Social Realism Modern 20th Century Carlos Lopez (1910-1953) "Bounty" WPA Mural Study for Michigan Post Office 19 ½ x 22 ½ inches Oil on B...
Oil, Board
St, Louis River Mural Study American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century WPA
By Jo Cain
Located in New York, NY
St, Louis River Mural Study American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century WPA Jo Cain (1904-2003) The Drama of the St. Louis Great River 23 1/4 x 25 ½ inches Gouache on board c. 19...
Gouache, Board
WPA Post Office Mural Study American Scene Regionalism Social Realism Modern Art
By Louise Ronnebeck
Located in New York, NY
WPA Post Office Mural Study American Scene Regionalism Social Realism Modern Art Louise Emerson Ronnebeck (1901 - 1980) Oil Riggers, Mural Study Image: 6 1/2 x 37 inches Watercolor ...
Paper, Watercolor, Cardboard
Samuel Greenburg, Rural Scene Mural Study
Located in New York, NY
This Rural Scene Mural Study by Samuel Greenburg is scored in a manner indicating transfer to a larger format. However as yet no related image or mural is...
Tempera, Pencil
Modernist Style Painting by American Artist Raymond O'Neill, 1930's-1940's
Located in San Francisco, CA
Art Deco / Modernist style painting titled "Figures in Meditation" by American artist Raymond O'Neill (b.1893 - d.1962.) Oil on board in painted wood ...
Paint
1945 WPA-Era American Modern Portrait, Hayes Lyon Mid-Century Oil Painting
By Hayes Lyon
Located in Denver, CO
An intimate 1945 portrait by American Modern painter Hayes Lyon depicting the artist’s wife, Bessy Lyon. Executed in oil on canvas, the composition captures a quiet domestic moment w...
Canvas, Oil
Ruth, American Modern Oil Painting on Canvas, Mid-20th Century, Signed
By Joseph Watson Little
Located in New York, NY
Joe Watson Little - (1915 - 1986) Had a considerable run for Hearst publications, doing covers and story arts from the 40s through the 60s. Also did PWPs (Post War Pulps) like Master...
Canvas, Oil
Ricard Opisso, Large 1940s Figurative Oil Painting, Catalan Modernist Narrative
By Ricard Opisso Sala
Located in Sitges, Barcelona
Ricard Opisso i Sala – “Soldiers Flirting in the Park” – Oil on Canvas, 75 × 101 cm (29.5 × 39.7 in) Artist: Ricard Opisso i Sala (1880–1966) Title: Soldiers Flirting in the Park Te...
Oil
![[Bruce Sargeant (1898-1938)] Artist's Studio, Contemporary Figurative Painting](https://a.1stdibscdn.com/mark-beard-paintings-bruce-sargeant-1898-1938-artists-studio-for-sale/a_9323/1726073227289/Beard_Untitled_Artist_s_Studio__master.jpg?width=240)
[Bruce Sargeant (1898-1938)] Artist's Studio, Contemporary Figurative Painting
By Mark Beard
Located in New York, NY
A classical anatomical figure in an artist's studio, surrounded by brushes and a palette, with muted tones creating a contemplative and intimate atmosphere. Contemporary figurative painting by Mark Beard [Bruce Sargeant (1898-1938)] Artist’s Studio n.d. Signed in red, u.r. Oil on canvas 36 x 18 inches $4,000 + $300 framing The pure and brilliant world of Bruce Sargeant’s art seems terribly removed from our own, unhampered by the prevalent inconsistencies of today’s world. Peopled with comely thoroughbreds, his paintings project a world vision unchanged from the models cherished by idealist writers like E. M. Forster and Rupert Brooke in that golden decade that led up to the Great War. Neither buff nor narcissistic, his fair-haired young athletes pose, somewhat uncomfortably, before the painter’s gaze, not wanting the attention yet feeling their duty to submit. Though tantalized by the New World dabbings of Robert Henri and John Sloan, Sargeant found his true inspiration in the art and ethos of fifth-century Athens, where the achievement of the kaloi kagathoi, young men who were “beautiful to look at and worthy of admiration,” were the perfect models for artistic rendering and public adulation. At base, Sargeant’s models, like the sculptures of Lysippus and Praxiteles, are idealized heroes whose achievements on the playing field earn them their renown. However, unlike his precursors, the painter requires no civic responsibility from his ephebes, only physical stamina, gymnastic prowess, and good looks. His work bespeaks a class that existed briefly, but was prolonged and attenuated in the languorous novels of writers such as Denton Welch...
Canvas, Oil
The revered artist created delightful caricatures of stage and screen performers for more than 75 years. This one is a prime example.
The ‘Madeline’ creator and Carlyle Hotel legend was in a New York state of mind in the 1940s when he produced this exuberant and rare oil painting.
