Hans Bellmer

'Child and Seeing Hands' — after the artist's 1948 Surrealist masterwork

1970

Hans Bellmer, 'Blue Eyes', engraving and drypoint, edition 99, 1971. Flahutez 89. Signed and numbered '74/99' in pencil. A fine impression, on Arches cream wove paper; the full sheet...

Lawrence Kupferman, 'European Landscape', drypoint, edition 50, 1942. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered '7/50' in pencil. A superb, finely nuanced impression, on cream wove paper; the full sheet with margins (1 to 1 3/4 inches); in excellent condition. Image size 10 7/8 x 13 3/8 inches; sheet size 13 1/8 x 16 1/2 inches. Archivally matted to museum standards, unframed. An impression of this work is included in the permanent collection of the Syracuse University Art Museum. ABOUT THE ARTIST Lawrence Kupferman (1909 - 1982) was born in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston and grew up in a working-class family. He attended the Boston Latin School and participated in the high school art program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In the late 1920s, he studied drawing under Philip Leslie Hale at the Museum School—an experience he called 'stultifying and repressive'. In 1932 he transferred to the Massachusetts College of Art, where he first met his wife, the artist Ruth Cobb. He returned briefly to the Museum School in 1946 to study with the influential expressionist German-American painter Karl Zerbe. Kupferman held various jobs while pursuing his artistic career, including two years as a security guard at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. During the 1930s he worked as a drypoint etcher for the Federal Art Project, creating architectural drawings in a formally realistic style—these works are held in the collections of the Fogg Museum and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. In the 1940s he began incorporating more expressionistic forms into his paintings as he became progressively more concerned with abstraction. In 1946 he began spending summers in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where he met and was influenced by Mark Rothko, Hans Hofmann, Jackson Pollock, and other abstract painters. At about the same time he began exhibiting his work at the Boris Mirski Gallery in Boston. In 1948, Kupferman was at the center of a controversy involving hundreds of Boston-area artists. In February of that year, the Boston Institute of Modern Art issued a manifesto titled 'Modern Art and the American Public' decrying 'the excesses of modern art,' and announced that it was changing its name to the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). The poorly conceived statement, intended to distinguish Boston's art scene from that of New York, was widely perceived as an attack on modernism. In protest, Boston artists such as Karl Zerbe, Jack Levine, and David Aronson formed the 'Modern Artists Group' and organized a mass meeting. On March 21, 300 artists, students, and other supporters met at the Old South Meeting House and demanded that the ICA retract its statement. Kupferman chaired the meeting and read this statement to the press: “The recent manifesto of the Institute is a fatuous declaration which misinforms and misleads the public concerning the integrity and intention of the modern artist. By arrogating to itself the privilege of telling the artists what art should be, the Institute runs counter to the original purposes of this organization whose function was to encourage and to assimilate contemporary innovation.” The other speakers were Karl Knaths...

Edward Landon, 'Evening', color serigraph, 1958, edition 25, Ryan 71. Signed, titled, and annotated 'Ed. 25' in pencil. A fine impression, with fresh colors, on cream wove paper; the...

Robert Vale Faro, 'Cheerleader', wood engraving, 1945, edition 15. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered '104' (the artist's inventory number) and '8/15' in pencil. A fine, black impression, with full margins (1 1/2 inches), on heavy, cream wove paper, in excellent condition. 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...

Phototype on vélin d’Arches paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition; never framed or matted. Notes: From the volume, La Fleur de Barbe, 1960. Published by Jean Dubu...

Phototype on vélin d’Arches paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition; never framed or matted. Notes: From the volume, La Fleur de Barbe, 1960. Published by Jean Dubu...

Phototype on vélin d’Arches paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition; never framed or matted. Notes: From the volume, La Fleur de Barbe, 1960. Published by Jean Dubu...

Phototype on vélin d’Arches paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition; never framed or matted. Notes: From the volume, La Fleur de Barbe, 1960. Published by Jean Dubu...