1940s Abstract Prints

Title: Theme L 16 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 13.15 x 10.04 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publish...

Title: Theme F 1 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 10.04 x 13.15 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...

Title: Theme I 6 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 10.04 x 13.15 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...

James Houston McConnell, 'Sister Kate', color serigraph, 1947, edition 24. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered '24' in pencil. Annotated '10.00 - 19 colors - 24 copies - #24' in pencil. A fine impression, with vibrant, fresh colors, on heavy tan wove paper, with full margins (11/16 to 1 1/2 inches). Tack holes in the four margin corners, well away from the image, otherwise in excellent condition. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Scarce. Image size 8 5/8 x 14 1/16 inches (219 x 357 mm); sheet size 11 1/16 x 15 1/2 inches (281 x 393 mm). Another of McConnell's mid-century modernist, jazz-inspired serigraphs, 'Combo', is featured in the British Museum's 2008 publication (and traveling exhibition) 'The American Scene: Prints from Hopper to Pollock'. ABOUT THE IMAGE "I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate", often simply "Sister Kate", is an up-tempo jazz dance song, written by Armand J. Piron and published in 1922. The lyrics of the song are narrated in the first person by Kate's sister, who sings about Kate's impressive dancing skill and her wish to be able to emulate it. She laments that she's not quite "up to date", but believes that dancing like "Sister Kate" will rectify this, and she will be able to impress "all the boys in the neighborhood" like her sister. Over the years this song has been performed and recorded by many artists, including Frances Faye and Rusty Warren, a 1959 version by Shel Silverstein...

Title: Theme B 4 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 10.04 x 13.15 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...

Alexander Calder (American, 1898-1976) “Untitled, 1947” (from Le Surrealisme) Signed in the plate, lower left Lithograph in Colors on Wove Paper Sheet Size: 9 7/16 x 8" (24 x 20.3 cm...

JAMES CHAPIN (1887 – 1975) COMPOSITION c. 1940 Lithograph signed in pencil, Image 11 7/8 x 7 ¾ inches, sheet 13 5/8 x 10 5/8 inches. Just a hint of mat line in the margins and on the verso. Some remnants of old tape prImarily at the left & right sheet edges. Rather scarce print but possibly published by Associated American Artists. WONDERFUL PORTRAYAL OF AN UP AND COMING ARTIST...

Charles Quest, 'Still Life', 1947, wood engraving, edition 8. Signed, dated, and numbered '3/8' in pencil. Titled and annotated 'wood engraving' in the bottom left margin. A fine impression, on off-white wove paper, with full margins (1 to 2 inches), in excellent condition. Scarce. Matted to museum standards, unframed. ABOUT THE ARTIST Charles Quest, painter, printmaker, and fine art instructor, worked in various mediums, including mosaic, stained glass, mural painting, and sculpture. Quest grew up in St. Louis, his talent evident as a teenager when he began copying the works of masters such as Michelangelo on his bedroom walls. He studied at the Washington University School of Fine Arts, where he later taught from 1944 to 1971. He traveled to Europe after his graduation in 1929 and studied at La Grande Chaumière and Academie Colarossi, Paris, continuing to draw inspiration from the works of the Old Masters. After returning to St. Louis, Quest received several commissions to paint murals in public buildings, schools, and churches, including one from Joseph Cardinal Ritter, to paint a replica of Velasquez's Crucifixion over the main altar of the Old Cathedral in St. Louis. Quest soon became interested in the woodcut medium, which he learned through his study of J. J. Lankes' A Woodcut Manual (1932) and Paul Landacre's articles in American Artist magazine ‘since no artists in St. Louis were working in wood’ at that time. Quest also revealed that for him, wood cutting and engraving were ‘more enjoyable than any other means of expression.’ In the late 1940s, his graphic works began attracting critical attention—several of his woodcuts won prizes and were acquired by major American and European museums. His wood engraving entitled ‘Lovers’ was included in the American Federation of Art's traveling print exhibition in 1947. Two years later, Quest's two prize-winning prints, ‘Still Life with Grindstone’ and ‘Break Forth into Singing’, were exhibited in major American museums in a traveling show organized by the Philadelphia Print Club. His work was included in the Chicago Art Institute's exhibition, ‘Woodcut Through Six Centuries’, and the print ‘Still Life with Vise’ was purchased by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 1951 he was invited by artist-Curator Jacob Kainen to exhibit thirty wood engravings and color woodcuts in a one-person show at the Smithsonian's National Museum (now known as the American History Museum). Kainen's press release praised the ‘technical refinement’ of Quest's work: ‘He obtains a great variety of textural effects through the use of the graver, and these dense or transparent grays are set off against whites or blacks to achieve sparkling results. His work has the handsome qualities characteristic of the craftsman and designer.’ At the time of the Smithsonian exhibition, Quest's work was represented by three New York galleries in addition to one in his home town. He had won 38 prizes, and his prints were in the collections of the Library of Congress, the Chicago Art Institute, the Metropolitan Museum, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In cooperation with the Art in Embassies program, his color woodcuts were displayed at the American Embassy in Paris in 1951. Recognition at home came in 1955 with his first solo exhibition in St. Louis. Press coverage of the show heralded the ‘growth of graphic arts toward rivaling painting and sculpture as a major independent medium’. An exhibition of his prints at the Bethesda Art Gallery in 1983 attracted Curator Emeritus Joseph A. Haller, S.J., who began purchasing his work for Georgetown University's collection. In 1990 Georgetown University Library's Special Collections Division was the recipient of a large body of Quest's work, including prints, drawings, paintings, sculpture, stained glass, and his archive of correspondence and professional memorabilia. These extensive holdings, including some 260 of his fine prints, provide a rich opportunity for further study and appreciation of this versatile and not-to-be-forgotten mid-Western American artist...

A beautifully presented photogravure by Brassaï, showing one of Picasso’s sculptures with the dramatic clarity and sculptural sensitivity for which the photographer is celebrated. Pu...

Title: Theme M 5 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 10.04 x 13.15 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...

Title: Theme L 15 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 13.15 x 10.04 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publish...

Title: Theme L 10 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 13.15 x 10.04 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publish...

Title: Theme N 1 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 13.15 x 10.04 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...

Title: Theme M 4 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 10.04 x 13.15 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...

Title: Theme L 17 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 13.15 x 10.04 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publish...

Title: Theme L 13 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 10.04 x 13.15 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publish...

Title: Theme L 14 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 13.15 x 10.04 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publish...

Robert Vale Faro, 'Dialogue Erudite', color lithograph, 1945, edition 16. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered '98' and '4/16' in pen. A fine, richly-inked impression with fresh colors, on heavy, off-white wove paper; full margins (1/2 to 1 1/4 inch), in excellent condition. Image size 20 1/2 x 14 3/8 inches; sheet size 22 1/2 x 17 inches. Scarce. Matted to museum standards, unframed. ABOUT THE ARTIST Robert Vale Faro (1902-1988) was a modernist architect and artist associated with the Chicago Bauhaus. He received his degree in architecture and design from the Armour Institute in Chicago and worked at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, from 1924-27, where he was influenced by Harry Kurt Bieg and Le Corbusier. Upon his return to Chicago, Faro worked with the important modernist Chicago architects George and William Keck under Louis Sullivan. Faro founded the avant-garde printmaking group Vanguard in 1945. The group counted Atelier 17 artists Stanley William Hayter, Sue Fuller...

Title: Theme I 5 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 10.04 x 13.15 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...

Title: Theme L 3 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 10.04 x 13.15 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...

Title: Theme D 1 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 10.04 x 13.15 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...

Title: Theme H 1 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 13.15 x 10.04 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...

Title: Theme G 3 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 10.04 x 13.15 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...

Title: Theme G 1 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 10.04 x 13.15 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...

Title: Theme F 9 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 10.04 x 13.15 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...

Title: Theme F 8 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 10.04 x 13.15 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...

Title: Theme F 4 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 13.15 x 10.04 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...

Title: Theme D 5 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 10.04 x 13.15 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...

Title: Theme B 6 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 10.04 x 13.15 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...

Title: Theme D 9 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 10.04 x 13.15 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...

Title: Theme C 2 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 10.04 x 13.15 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...

New Planets-5.7 Lithograph with pink, blue and yellow highlights 1946 Signed in pencil lower right corner (see photo) Dated lower right "'46" (see photo) Very rare surrelist color li...

Joan Miró "Femmes et Oiseaux devant la Lune" Original pochoir stencil print in five colors Reference: Dupin 50. Printed in 1947 in an edition of 1500 by Meriden Gravure and publish...

Drypoint etching on paper, edited in 1945. Limited edition, printed by Galerie Rive Gauche, Paris, as a New Year’s card. The technique (“Pointe sèche d'Asger JORN”) and the date are ...

"Love That Makes the World Go Round" Silk screen on paper, 1`947 Signed in pencil lower left: "de Diego" and dated '47 (see photo) An important American screenprint, showing the grow...

Robert Vale Faro, 'Easter Sunday', color lithograph, 1946, edition 31. Signed, dated, titled and numbered '116' and '17/31' in pen. A fine impression, with fresh colors, on heavy, off-white wove paper; full margins (1 1/4 to 2 inches), in excellent condition. Image size 21 x 13 1/2 inches; sheet size 24 3/4 x 16 1/4 inches. Scarce. Matted to museum standards, unframed. ABOUT THE ARTIST Robert Vale Faro (1902-1988) was a well-known modernist architect and artist associated with the Chicago Bauhaus. He received his degree in architecture and design from the Armour Institute in Chicago and worked at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, from 1924-27, where he was influenced by Harry Kurt Bieg and Le Corbusier. Upon his return to Chicago, Faro worked with the important modernist Chicago architects George and William Keck under Louis Sullivan. Faro founded the avant-garde printmaking group Vanguard in 1945. The group counted Atelier 17 artists Stanley William Hayter, Sue Fuller...

Published in France in 1948, this framed photogravure by Brassaï reproduces one of Picasso’s sculptural works with striking clarity and tonal depth. Issued by Editions du Chêne for T...

Edward Landon 'Nocturnal Adversary', color serigraph, 1946, edition 50, Ryan 137. Signed in pencil in the image, lower right. Titled, dated, and annotated '6 COLORS EDITION 50' in th...

Bright vibrant blue, yellow lithograph in color. This is signed in the plate and dated. Dufy's abstract drawing lithograph was drawn by the artist direct on to plastic plates newly d...

James Houston McConnell, 'Equus Uirumpu' (The Man's Horse), color serigraph, c. 1945, edition not stated but small. Signed and titled in pencil. Initialed in the image, lower right. ...

Robert Vale Faro, 'Kindergarten', color lithograph, 1945, edition 12. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered '99' and '5/12' in pen. A fine, richly-inked impression, with fresh colors, on heavy, coated off-white wove paper; the full sheet with margins (1/2 to 1 1/2 inch), in excellent condition. Scarce. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Image size 13 1/2 x 7 9/16 inches (343 x 192 mm); sheet size 17 x 12 1/4 inches (432 x 311 mm). ABOUT THE ARTIST Robert Vale Faro (1902-1988) was a well-known modernist architect and artist associated with the Chicago Bauhaus. He received his degree in architecture and design from the Armour Institute in Chicago and worked at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, from 1924-27, where he was influenced by Harry Kurt Bieg and Le Corbusier. Upon his return to Chicago, Faro worked with the important modernist Chicago architects George and William Keck under Louis Sullivan. Faro founded the avant-garde printmaking group Vanguard in 1945. The group counted Atelier 17 artists Stanley William Hayter, Sue Fuller, and Anne Ryan as New York members and Francine Felsenthal of Chicago. The Brooklyn Museum mounted a show of Vanguard artists' work in 1946, which subsequently toured several other institutions in the United States. Faro's visionary graphics from the 1940s are a sophisticated blend of Abstract Expressionism, Surrealism, and Indian Space...

Etching and aquatint on paper, edited in 1942. Limited edition, numbered as 30/50 in lower left corner. Signed on the plate in lower right corner. Plate size: 23,8 x 29,9 cm Framed ...

Robert Vale Faro, untitled (African Idol), serigraph, c. 1940, edition 6. Signed in pencil. A fine impression, with fresh colors, on buff wove paper; the full sheet with margins(5/8 to 1 3/8 inches), in excellent condition. Very rare. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Image size 8 3/4 x 6 inches (222 x 152 mm); sheet size 11 x 7 1/2 inches (279 x 192 mm). ABOUT THE ARTIST Robert Vale Faro (1902-1988) was a well-known modernist architect and artist associated with the Chicago Bauhaus. He received his degree in architecture and design from the Armour Institute in Chicago and worked at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, from 1924-27, where he was influenced by Harry Kurt Bieg and Le Corbusier. Upon his return to Chicago, Faro worked with the important modernist Chicago architects George and William Keck under Louis Sullivan. Faro founded the avant-garde printmaking group Vanguard in 1945. The group counted Atelier 17 artists Stanley William Hayter, Sue Fuller, and Anne Ryan as New York members and Francine...

Abstract Composition is an original screenprint realized by Henry Miller in the late 1940s for the illustrated book "Into the Night Life" (published in 1947 by Miller himself and by Bezazel Schatz). Bon à...

Robert Vale Faro, 'Going My Way?', lithograph, 1946, edition 14. Signed in pen, recto. Titled, numbered '#118 14/14' and dated '5/5/46' in pen, verso. A fine, richly-inked impression, on heavy, off-white wove paper, with full margins (1 5/8 to 2 15/16 inches), in excellent condition. Image size 13 1/8 x 7 3/8 inches; sheet size 17 x 12 3/8 inches. Scarce. Matted to museum standards, unframed. An impression of this work is in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art. ABOUT THE ARTIST Robert Vale Faro (1902-1988) was a modernist architect and artist associated with the Chicago Bauhaus. He received his degree in architecture and design from the Armour Institute in Chicago and worked at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, from 1924-27, where he was influenced by Harry Kurt Bieg and Le Corbusier. Upon his return to Chicago, Faro worked with the important modernist Chicago architects George and William Keck under Louis Sullivan. Faro founded the avant-garde printmaking group Vanguard in 1945. The group counted Atelier 17 artists Stanley William Hayter, Sue Fuller...

Presented in a natural wood frame and finished with a wide light mount, this black and white heliogravure by Brassaï has a calm, balanced presence that works beautifully in both mode...

Albert Urban, Untitled Abstraction (Figures in Red), color serigraph, 1944. Signed and dated in blue ink. A fine, painterly impression, with fresh, rich colors, on cream wove paper;...

Yasuo Kuniyoshi Carnival, 1949 Signed in margin lower right Lithograph on paper 15 3/4 x 9 3/4 inches 23 1/4 x 16 mat Born in Okayama, Japan, Yasuo Kuniyoshi had no intention of be...

This listing is for the one Silkscreen serigraph piece listed here. Mexico City, 1945. First edition. plate signed, limited edition of 1000, these serigraph plates depict various types of traditional and folk art indigenous clothing...

Title: Theme N 2 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 13.15 x 10.04 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...

Title: Theme M 7 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 10.04 x 13.15 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...

Title: Theme M 6 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 10.04 x 13.15 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...

Title: Theme M 3 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 10.04 x 13.15 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...

Title: Theme M 2 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 10.04 x 13.15 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...

Title: Theme M 1 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 10.04 x 13.15 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...

Title: Theme L 12 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 10.04 x 13.15 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publish...

Title: Theme L 9 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 13.15 x 10.04 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...

Title: Theme L 8 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 13.15 x 10.04 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...

Title: Theme L 7 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 10.04 x 13.15 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...

Title: Theme L 6 Year: February 7, 1943 Medium: Collotype on vélin pur fil paper Size: 10.04 x 13.15 inches Condition: Very good Inscription: Signed in the plate, unnumbered Publishe...