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J. Jay McVicker
'Dark Figure' — Mid-Century American Modernist Signed Serigraph

1953

$1,800
£1,359.47
€1,591.62
CA$2,557.29
A$2,601.71
CHF 1,491.04
MX$31,326.19
NOK 17,427.50
SEK 17,503.98
DKK 11,898.81

About the Item

J. Jay McVicker, Dark Figure, color serigraph, edition 20, 1954. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered 9/20 in pencil. A superb, richly-inked, painterly impression, with fresh colors, on heavy cream wove paper, with margins (3/4 to 1 1/4 inches). Light toning within a previous mat opening; otherwise, in excellent condition. Very scarce. Archivally matted to museum standards. Image size 16 x 11 7/8 inches (406 x 302 mm); sheet size 19 1/8 x 13 3/4 inches (486 x 349 mm). ABOUT THE ARTIST Jay J. McVicker (1911–2004) was an American printmaker, painter, and educator whose work encompassed both regionalist representation and modernist abstraction. McVicker studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he developed a solid foundation in drawing, design, and printmaking. During the 1930s and early 1940s, he produced a distinctive group of aquatints focused on the Midwest—landscapes, small towns, and industrial settings rendered with a dramatic sense of mood and place. His finest prints combine strong composition with atmospheric tonal effects, resulting in images that are both visually compelling and immediately engaging. As his career progressed, McVicker increasingly explored modernist approaches to form and composition. By the late 1940s his works reveal a growing interest in geometric simplification, fragmented, flattened space, and compositional organization concerned with abstract relationships rather than observed representation. This development marked the beginning of a gradual transition from descriptive regional subjects toward a highly personal modernist vocabulary. After joining the faculty of the University of Oklahoma, where he taught for more than three decades and served as chairman of the Department of Art, McVicker became an influential figure in the cultural life of the Southwest. He adapted his aquatint technique to the region's broader spaces, stronger light, and more expansive visual rhythms, producing some of his most memorable landscape imagery. At the same time, he continued to pursue abstraction in both printmaking and painting. By the early 1950s he was creating boldly conceived modernist works in which recognizable subjects were reduced to essential shapes, textured color fields, and rhythmic linear structures. Prints such as 'Dark Figure' demonstrate the confidence and sophistication of this mature phase, balancing abstraction with an underlying sense of human presence and compositional order. Rather than representing a break with his earlier work, McVicker's abstract imagery extended many of the qualities that distinguish his finest aquatints: structural clarity, careful design, and a strong sense of visual unity. Whether working from landscape, architecture, or the figure, he consistently sought forms that were simplified, expressive, and resonant. McVicker's Midwestern and Southwestern aquatints remain central to his reputation, while his later modernist works have attracted increasing appreciation among collectors of postwar American art. Together, these bodies of work place him among the generation of twentieth-century American artists who successfully bridged regionalist traditions and the broader movement toward modern abstraction. McVicker’s prints are held in public and institutional collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Library of Congress, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oklahoma State University Museum of Art, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the New York Public Library, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and other museum, library, and university print collections in the United States.
  • Creator:
    J. Jay McVicker (1911 - 2004)
  • Creation Year:
    1953
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 16 in (40.64 cm)Width: 11.88 in (30.18 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Myrtle Beach, SC
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: 1044511stDibs: LU532318138072

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