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Imprimatur Fine Arts, Boston, MA (2026)

12/18/2024

https://www.rubylane.com/item/2183617-IFA-000420/Serenity-signed-limited-edition-color-aquatint?search=1

A master class in symbology and printmaking, this is a signed, very limited edition (8/50) color aquatint etching from Taiwanese artist Shiou-Ping Liao. Noteworthy for its bold contrast of red and black, all while employing its own unique language situated upon symbolism, runes, and ideograms, and situated in a Taiwanese cultural history of Chinese characters. Unframed, measuring 24" x 16" and in excellent condition. This piece will be tube-shipped as appropriate.

Shiou-Ping Liao's (also spelled Xiuping Liao, 廖修平) etchings contain multiple symbols. Liao uses symbols and clear forms to show his cultural sense on the symmetrical structures, and rich colors to perform the very personal unspeakable emotional memories. After experiencing the crash between Western and Eastern cultural and art backgrounds, the artist turned to explore the deep inner feelings and had decided to follow the truest love for his hometown hidden in his heart. With this nostalgia and painting techniques he absorbed from Western world, creations that symbolize the artist's yearning for home and folk cultures of Taiwan were thus born. Numerous key galleries and museums such as National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts have featured Shiou-Ping Liao's work.

Born in 1936, in Taipei, Taiwan, Liao grew up close to the Lungshan Temple (or Longshan) in the Monga area of Taiwan. After graduating from the Department of Fine Arts at the Taiwan Provincial University of Education in 1959 (today known as the National Taiwan Normal University, or NTNU), Liao decided to further his studies and left for Japan and then France to further his artistic education. Liao found his way to the famous Atelier 17 Printmaking Studio in Paris, where he studied printmaking under S.W. Hayter. During this period of studying abroad, Liao increasingly was aware of the importance of his own culture, and derived inspiration from familiar childhood scenes such as Lungshan Temple, Wanhua Market and all the festive celebrations and crowds of worshippers. He used various techniques to make prints and in 1966, Liao's multicolored metal-plate etchings were the main content of an exhibition held at the National Taiwan Museum. In addition, Liao's series of works with the topic of "doors" attracted the attention of various major international print exhibitions. His work La Fête was acquired by the Musée d'Art Moderne (Paris). Thanks to a recommendation from Hayter, Shiou-Ping Liao was hired as an assistant by the prestigious Pratt Institute's (New York) print center in 1968 and moved to the United States. Here he furthered his technical skills as a printmaker, while also accepting teaching engagements like the one he held at East-West University in Chicago. While living in the United States, Liao employed a variety of brand-new print techniques, started his own studio, and earned numerous awards. In 1969, his work Festival of Sun won first place in New York's 28th Audubon Art Show.

In 1973, at a time when serious political-diplomatic crises erupted in Taiwan, Shiou-ping Liao, who had been living overseas for 11 years and had achieved considerable success as an artist in the U.S., chose to return to Taiwan, where he resides to this day. While some of his art uses simple everyday shapes to create his compositions, such as fruit, leaves, or teacups, much of Liao’s art is composed of stylized shapes that are reminiscent of Asian calligraphy mixed with Western symbols. The easiest designation for the shapes Liao uses most often would be the word pictograms. However, these simple shapes are clearly inspired by a vast array of cultural appropriations, from writing to petroglyphs, from symbols to ideograms. The overall esthetic is one that clearly harks back to an aesthetic found in Taiwanese artistic use of Chinese characters. Liao, however, makes this personal language completely his own. And in his prints, which are mostly intaglio, the use of linear etching and flat aquatint, enhances the textural quality of his quiltlike compositions.

Item id: IFA-000420
Color: Black, Gray, Red, White
Genre: Asian Modern and Contemporary Art
Media: Aquatint, Etching
Style: Asian Art, Contemporary, Modern
Theme: Asian
Width: 16" (41 cm)
Height: 24" (61 cm)
Origin: Asia • Asian
Age: Mid 20th Century
Item type: Vintage
Price: US$350

12/18/2024

https://www.rubylane.com/item/2183617-IFA-000419/Untitled-woman-red-signed-limited-edition?search=1

Remarkable signed, limited edition (97/150) figurative abstract from influential Venezuelan artist Héctor Poleo (b. 1918 - d. 1989). This piece dates from the late 1960s, when Poleo was living and working in Paris. It is one of several of his notable works from that period, as he entered a new stage showcasing decorative-abstract shapes and color glazes, as well as lyrical and dreamlike atmospheres. Auction prices for Poleo's original works from this period average $7,505, and the high hammer price for one of his pieces was $170,500. Unframed, measuring 30"x22" and in excellent condition, this piece will be tube-shipped.

Although Poleo injured his eyesight in his early youth, he decided to study at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas in Caracas in the 1930s. In 1937/38 he obtained a governmental scholarship to travel to Mexico, where he studied and painted for three years. In Mexico City, he entered the San Carlos Academy and discovered the works of muralist and social realist artists Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco. He held an exhibition in Mexico City in 1940, then traveled to the United States. After visiting the United States, Ecuador, and Colombia (where he held an exhibition of his work), he returned to Caracas in 1940. He exhibited at the Museo de Bellas Artes in 1941, before traveling from Bogota to Quito through the Andean countries. He moved to New York in 1944/45 to expose his work to a wider audience. Poleo moved to Paris in 1948 until 1959, before returning to Caracas and then ultimately settling permanently in Paris. Poleo exhibited in Venezuela, the United States, Mexico, and Paris.

Héctor Poleo participated in the Biennial of São Paulo in 1953 and in the Biennial of Venice in 1954. He made numerous individual exhibitions, in particular in the Museum of Fine Arts of Caracas in 1941, 1946, 1950 and 1974, in Washington in 1945 and 1948, in the Museum of Modern Art of Mexico City in 1974 and in the Venezuelan Embassy in Paris in 1978. He made a mural for the University City of Caracas, stained glass windows for the Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía and for the La Paz station and for the Bolívar station of the Paris subway. Héctor Poleo also created two commemorative medals for the bicentennial of Bolívar's birth and for UNESCO. From 1930 to 1937, Héctor Poleo's landscapes were initially structured around the legacy of Cézanne. In a second phase, from 1940 to 1945, his painting focused more on the human figure, under the banner of social realism. After passing through a third, surrealist period, from 1945 to 1950, he devoted himself to neoplastic figuration until 1960. From 1960 until his death, Héctor Poleo's work develops a poetic figuration or, as Miguel Ángel Asturias says, a figurative abstraction that sometimes borders on the non-figurative.

Poleo was exceptionally accomplished in each phase of his development as an artist, initially as a Cezanne-influenced landscape surrealist, then winning the Boulton Prize at the 1943 Salón Oficial for his social realism, Rivera-inspired style, then later in 1947 the first prize at the Octavo Salón de Artistas Venezolanos for his neo-renaissance work, followed by a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, and ultimately a 1974 retrospective of his work in Venezuelan, Mexico, and New York that included his later abstract oneiric work.

Item id: IFA-000419
Color: Black, Gray, Orange, Pink, Red, White
Genre: Latin American Art
Media: Lithograph
Style: Abstract Expressionist, Figurative Art
Width: 22" (56 cm)
Height: 30" (76 cm)
Origin: United States • American
Age: Mid 20th Century
Item type: Vintage
Price: US$700

12/18/2024

https://www.rubylane.com/item/2183617-IFA-000418/Image-God-signed-limited-edition-lithograph?search=1

An extraordinary signed, limited edition (3/70) lithograph from highly regarded Indian artist Arun Bose. Hand dated 1970, the year Bose moved from Kolkata to New York, this religious-themed modern abstract is beautifully representative of Bose's work. "Image of God" is an exceptional, intricately detailed abstraction meant to challenge definition and appeal to immediate, visceral impression. At auction, his original works of equal or smaller sizes have averaged a hammer price of $2,550. with a high of $4,750. Unframed, measuring 30"x22" sight, this piece will be tube-shipped. In excellent condition.

In the 1950s, Arun Bose (b. 1934 - d. 2007) studied at the Art College in Calcutta, India. By the early 1960s, his studio developed into an influential gathering place for contemporary artists of the Calcutta Group, which was largely responsible for the introduction of international modernism to India. Bose was one of the most talented artists of post-independence India. In 1962, he was awarded a French government scholarship to study at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts, which was followed by a Rockefeller fellowship in New York.

Arun Bose had lived in the US (New York) since 1970 but drew his subject matter from his native India where he is a renowned artist. "The art of Arun Bose is non-narrative, non-linguistic and non-interpretive. It is pure visceral, virtuoso, visual impact. It is delivered by a highly trained and gifted hand, guided by an emotive and sensitive eye and contemplated by a precise, immaculate mind." - Leonard Davenport Fine Arts

Bose was head of printmaking at Lehman College - CUNY, and this lithograph is a testament to his skill as a printmaker.

His solo exhibitions included Bose Pacia Modern, NYC, 1998; Steward Center Gallery, Purdue, IN, 1997; A/1 Gallery, Denver, C0, 1993; Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai, 1992; Chitrakoot Gallery, Calcutta, 1989; Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile, 1984; Jorge prat Echaurren, Santiago, Chile, 1984; John Douglas Cline Gallery, Phoenix AZ, 1984; HMK Fine Art, NYC, 1975,78,81; Weintraub Gallery, Madison Avenue, NYC, 1973,83; Stockton State College, Pomona, NJ, 1973; Centaur Gallery, Denver, Co, 1972,79; University of Pittsburgh, 1970; Alliance Francaise, Calcutta, 1966; Galerie Raymond Creuze, Paris 8 eme, Paris, 1964; Galerie Chevre Falls, Oostand, Belgium, 1964; Ashok Gallery, Calcutta, 1962; Silpi Chakra, New Delhi, 1959

Among his major group exhibitions were the Silver Jubilee Exhibition, Mumbai, India, 1997; Chamatkara, Myth & Magic of Indian Art, London, 1996; Beyond India: Two Generations of Modern Art, Bose Pacia Modern, NYC, 1995; The Group of Eight, Contemporary Art of India, NYC, 1995; British Miniature Print International, Bristol Museum, 1989; Monotypes, Weintraub Gallery, NYC, 1984; Inter-Grafik84, East Berlin, East Germany, 1984; 11th International Art Fair, Basel, Switzerland, 1980; 4th British International Print Biennale, Bradford, 1974; IX Biennale de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1967-68; Trieme Biennale de Paris, Paris, France, 1963.

Item id: IFA-000418
Color: Black, Gray, Green, Turquoise
Genre: Indian Art (Modern and Contemporary)
Media: Lithograph
Style: Abstract, Contemporary, Modern
Width: 22" (56 cm)
Height: 30" (76 cm)
Origin: Asia • Asian
Age: Mid 20th Century
Item type: Vintage
Price: US$500

12/17/2024

https://www.rubylane.com/item/2183617-IFA-000415/Castle-bluff-over-water-Swallowx27s-Nest?search=1

A beautiful oil-on-paper of Swallow's Nest Castle (Schwalbennest), Crimea. Subtle dashes of fuchsia, green, and pink among the shadowed beige and textured blue capture the more subtle beautiful of an already magnificent castle and coastal setting. Signed, yet we have not been able to identify the artist signature. Measuring 10.5" x 7.5" sight and 15" x 11.5" with matte, unframed. In excellent condition.

The Swallow's Nest is a decorative castle located at Gaspra, a small spa town between Yalta and Alupka on the Crimean peninsula. It was built between 1911 and 1912, on top of the 40-metre-high (130 ft) Aurora Cliff, in a Neo-Gothic design by the Russian architect Leonid Sherwood for a noble with German roots, Pavel Leonardovich von Steingel. The castle overlooks the Cape of Ai-Todor on the Black Sea coast and is located near the remains of the Roman castrum of Charax. The Swallow's Nest is one of the most popular visitor attractions in Crimea, having become the symbol of Crimea's southern coastline.

Item id: IFA-000415
Color: Beige, Blue, Brown, Green, Pink, Purple, White
Genre: Modern European Art
Media: Oil Paint, Paper
Style: Impressionist
Theme: Coastal, Historical
Width: 11.5" (29 cm)
Height: 15" (38 cm)
Age: Mid 20th Century
Item type: Vintage
Price: US$125

12/17/2024

https://www.rubylane.com/item/2183617-IFA-000416/Lobster-Man-Coastal-Maine-signed-limited?search=1

Signed "Shevis," the nom de plume of artist William Shevis (2014-2010), it's difficult if not impossible to separate the work of Shevis from his wife, Stell Shevis (1915-2016). Their contemporary silkscreen collaborative artwork is so distinct it is considered part of Maine's artistic fabric. Much of their work centers around the harbors and coast of Maine, including "Lobster Man in Coastal Maine." It is hand-signed, titled, and dated by the artist and includes the additional nomenclature Ed/100 - which we interpret as the artist's proof version - as a 100 very limited edition run. Also signed as "imp" - meaning entirely hand-made by the artists. Consequently, a very unique piece indeed.
"Lobster Man in Coastal Maine" measures 15" x 12" sight and 20" x 16" including heavy matte, unframed. It is in very good condition with some discoloration in the bottom left corner of the matte.

Noted Maine artist, William Allen Shevis, 96, died Nov. 10, 2010, in Camden. Born in Ireland, Shevis immigrated to Jamaica Plains, Mass., as a boy. He attended Massachusetts College of Art, where he met his wife, Estelle "Stell" Beehner. Shevis was a founding member of Maine Coast Craftsmen, Maine Coast Artists, Haystack Mountain Craft School and Maine Art Gallery. His work has been shown at Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum, Library of Congress, San Diego Museum, de Cordova Museum, Farnsworth Museum and Carnegie Institute, among other places. Shevis wrote and illustrated several books about his adventures wintering in Mexico. He lectured across the country on graphics, design and printing techniques. For years Shevis created wood constructions with carvings and found objects, which were exhibited nationwide.

Stell Shevis moved from New York City to the midcoast in 1945, among the first in a generation of urban-expat artists who helped shape midcentury Maine. She met her husband, William Shevis, at the Massachusetts College of Art. They were married for almost 75 years and raised four children while making their living as artists on the coast of Maine. “Stell and Shevis,” as they were known to friends and patrons, helped found both the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. They produced woodcut and silkscreen prints for a variety of commercial purposes. When she retired from printmaking, Stell took up enameling. She was a master enamelist. Her work has been exhibited in nine international enameling shows. She taught numerous workshops, wrote several articles for trade publications, and produced instructional DVDs.

A black-and-white print by Stell and Shevis adorned Down East magazine’s first cover in August 1954, and the pair collaborated on dozens more over the ensuing decades. Their illustrations were colorful, modern, and playful without being cartoonish — and they remain some of the most beloved covers in the magazine’s 62-year history. “The style of those prints,” says Down East editor-in-chief Kathleen Fleury, “became a part the magazine’s DNA, just as seven decades of Stell Shevis’ work have become, indelibly, a part of this state’s artistic fabric.

Item id: IFA-000416
Color: Black, Blue, Green, Red, White, Yellow
Genre: American Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture
Media: Silkscreen
Style: Contemporary
Theme: Nautical
Width: 16" (41 cm)
Height: 20" (51 cm)
Origin: United States • American
Age: Mid 20th Century
Item type: Vintage
Price: US$200

12/17/2024

https://www.rubylane.com/item/2183617-IFA-000417/Soft-Summer-Day-signed-original-watercolor

"A Soft Summer Day" is an exquisite and subtle watercolor on rice paper, executed in artist Davis Carroll's delicate style and choice of handmade rice paper medium. This coastal beachgrass and sky piece is markedly unique for Carroll, whose work typically focuses on floral arrangements in alla porcelana-style vases or other decorative caddies. A remarkable and unusually large Carroll piece, measuring 22"x30" sight and 29.5"x37.75" in a beautiful tri-beveled wood frame gilded in alternating silver-gold-silver, with caramel matte. The piece is in extraordinary condition with only moderate weathering in the frame.

Known for his unique technique of watercolor on handmade rice paper, Davis Carroll is recognized for using this medium and style to capture classic New England locales, clipper ships, flowers, and antiques from this region. A member of the Copley Society of Art, the American Watercolor Society, and the Boston Watercolor Society, his work has been widely exhibited in the Northeast (US) and Florida. In 2011, Davis Carroll died from complications of injuries sustained after an automobile accident.

Item id: IFA-000417
Color: Blue, Brown, Green, White
Genre: American Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture
Media: Watercolor
Style: Impressionist
Theme: Coastal
Width: 30" (76 cm)
Height: 22" (56 cm)
Origin: United States • American
Age: 21st Century
Item type: Vintage

Price: US$300

12/01/2024

https://www.rubylane.com/item/2183617-IFA-000414/Boats-Harbor-signed-limited-edition-silkscreen?search=1

Signed "Shevis," the nom de plume of artist William Shevis (2014-2010), it's difficult if not impossible to separate the work of Shevis from his wife, Stell Shevis (1915-2016). Their vividly colored, contemporary silkscreen collaborative artwork is so distinct it is considered part of Maine's artistic fabric. Much of their work centers around the harbors and coast of Maine, including "Boats in Harbor" - our favorite of the six Shevis' pieces we have acquired. It is hand-signed and titled by the artist and includes the additional nomenclature Ed/100 - which we interpret as the artist's proof version - as a 100 very limited edition run. AP is perhaps open for interpretation. Each of the six Shevis pieces in our collection are also signed as "imp" - meaning entirely hand-made by the artists. Consequently, this and the others are very unique piece. The summer bright. bold "Boats in Harbor" measures 12" x 14" sight and 16" x 20" including heavy matte, unframed. It is in excellent condition.

Noted Maine artist, William Allen Shevis, 96, died Nov. 10, 2010, in Camden. Born in Ireland, Shevis immigrated to Jamaica Plains, Mass., as a boy. He attended Massachusetts College of Art, where he met his wife, Estelle "Stell" Beehner. Shevis was a founding member of Maine Coast Craftsmen, Maine Coast Artists, Haystack Mountain Craft School and Maine Art Gallery. His work has been shown at Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum, Library of Congress, San Diego Museum, de Cordova Museum, Farnsworth Museum and Carnegie Institute, among other places. Shevis wrote and illustrated several books about his adventures wintering in Mexico. He lectured across the country on graphics, design and printing techniques. For years Shevis created wood constructions with carvings and found objects, which were exhibited nationwide.

Stell Shevis moved from New York City to the midcoast in 1945, among the first in a generation of urban-expat artists who helped shape midcentury Maine. She met her husband, William Shevis, at the Massachusetts College of Art. They were married for almost 75 years and raised four children while making their living as artists on the coast of Maine. “Stell and Shevis,” as they were known to friends and patrons, helped found both the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. They produced woodcut and silkscreen prints for a variety of commercial purposes. When she retired from printmaking, Stell took up enameling. She was a master enamelist. Her work has been exhibited in nine international enameling shows. She taught numerous workshops, wrote several articles for trade publications, and produced instructional DVDs.

A black-and-white print by Stell and Shevis adorned Down East magazine’s first cover in August 1954, and the pair collaborated on dozens more over the ensuing decades. Their illustrations were colorful, modern, and playful without being cartoonish — and they remain some of the most beloved covers in the magazine’s 62-year history. “The style of those prints,” says Down East editor-in-chief Kathleen Fleury, “became a part the magazine’s DNA,
just as seven decades of Stell Shevis’ work have become, indelibly, a part of this state’s artistic fabric.”

Color: Blue, Green, Orange, Red, Turquoise
Genre: American Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture, Maritime Pictures
Media: Silkscreen
Style: Contemporary Art
Theme: Nautical
Width: 20" (51 cm)
Height: 16" (41 cm)
Origin: United States • American
Age: Mid 20th Century
Item type: Vintage

Price: US$200.00

12/01/2024

https://www.rubylane.com/item/2183617-IFA-000405/Naiad-limited-edition-signed-lithograph-August?search=1

"Naiad" is a captivating work from August Mosca in which the subject is clearly the dominant focus, and yet melds unknowingly with its background, lending a contemplative grace to the work. Throughout his career, August Mosca maintained a close connection to portraying the human figure. With "Naiad," he succeeded in his striving to develop a personal understanding of the nature of the model and the medium in which he was working. The background is unobtrusive and the n**e figure is a solid, individual presence. This wonderful, limited run (85/100) lithograph measures 19"x15" sight and is unframed and in excellent condition. It will be rolled and tube shipped.

August Mosca (b.1907-d.2003) found his inspiration in the Florentine and Northern Italian schools of the Renaissance which he studied on many trips to Italy. He learned that drawing is the most important part of painting, bringing this knowledge back to the emerging modernism being explored in New York City.

Mosca was born in Naples, Italy on August 19, 1909. He and his family emigrated to the United States in 1911. He attended Yale School of Fine Arts in 1924 -1926, before moving to New York City where he attended Pratt Institute (1929). While living in his studio on Sixth Avenue and West Fourth Street in 1931, he studied at the Art Students League with Harry Wickey. In 1932, he studied at Grand Central Art School and made his first trip to study in Italy. After meeting Joseph Stella in 1937, Stella introduced him to the silverpoint medium which he perfected throughout his life.

1939 saw the completion of Mr. Mosca's first paintings of New York City bridges and subways. He received the California Palace Legion of Honor Medal and Took part in Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition "Portrait of America" during the mid-1940s. His first solo exhibit was at Salpeter Gallery in New York City, where he showed annually from 1959 through 1969 and 1961 marked a one man show at Guild Hall in East Hampton, New York. Butler Institute of American Art, Library of Congress, and Brooklyn Museum (two silverpoint drawings) acquired his work during that time.

During the 1970s, Mr. Mosca had solo exhibits at New York Cultural Center, Fordham University, and FAR Gallery (NYC). His work was acquired by Grey Collection of New York University, Parrish Art Museum (Southampton, NY), and New York Public Library. He received the President's Award in the Audubon Annual, the Barney Paiser Award, and the Purchase Prize in the Society of American Graphics Artists Annual. In 1978, the Association of American Artists commissioned two lithographs.

In 1987, East End Arts Council held a one man exhibition of silverpoint drawings and produced a cable television show in conjunction with the exhibit. He participated in "Impressionism and Post-Impressionism" and "New York: Empire City in the Age of Urbanism 1875 - 1945" exhibits, in 1988, at Grand Central Art Galleries, followed by "August Mosca, A Fifty Year Retrospective Exhibit" in 1990.

Color: Gray, White
Genre: American Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture
Media: Lithograph
Style: Modern
Theme: Nudes
Width: 15" (38 cm)
Height: 19" (48 cm)
Origin: United States • American
Age: Mid 20th Century
Item type: Vintage

Price: US$100.00

12/01/2024

https://www.rubylane.com/item/2183617-IFA-000413/Disappearing-Act-dry-point-intaglio-John?search=1

"Disappearing Act" is an extraordinary artist's proof (A/P) dry-point intaglio/mixed media by John Silk Deckard (b.1938-d.1993) between 1960-1970. Measuring 15"x12.25" sight, unframed and in near excellent condition. Title and artist signature all attached in pencil. The piece will be tube-shipped. The piece was likely hand-printed by Deckard as are his other works we acquired, but it is not explicitly noted on the piece. The back features child-like artwork, the origin and provenance of which is unknown.

"John Silk Deckard is a social philosopher whose vocabulary comprises the human form and the gestures thru which human beings typically speak their most honest feelings. He is a humanist - a master of human anatomy, knowledgeable of what the human body is and what it can do. He is also a prodigious worker, and his technique is immaculately skillful. He is insightful and spontaneous and his particular effectiveness lies in a driving interest to communicate thru the vehicle of the clearly recognizable image. The fact that he works primarily in the production of prints (dry-point intaglios on lucite) and of multiple sculptures assures him the opportunity of disseminating his message more widely than were he to restrict his work solely to painting or unique sculptures.

Deckard was born in 1938 in Erie, Pa. He studied at a number of schools, including the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Pratt Graphic Art Center. However, direct contact with people - far more than formal training itself - has been the principal influence both on his style and on the point of view expressed in his work. And particularly significant is the long series of 'meaningfully meaningless' jobs which he held in his early years: as a pin boy in a bowling alley, as window display man for a women's department store, as troupe hand with a traveling summer carnival, as designer of traffic patterns for a super market chain. In each case, what apparently most impressed Deckard was the play-acting social context in which he became immersed - with its inevitable frustrations and the often tragic pretenses expressed by people around him. The impressions created were deep and long-lasting, for Deckard's work during the past decade has consistently been addressed to psycho-social commentary.

His dedicated concern for human involvement and commitment rather than social alienation is clearly reflected in his works. Inevitably these works disturb a complacent society, for Deckard grabs intentionally at feelings and intellect, often ignoring conventional beauty and compositional propriety. He endows his figures with a savage restlessness. Indeed, his forms twist, tremble and nervously intertwine and, with Michelangelesque impact, convey a kind of inner fury, a sense of the tragic struggle of contemporary man to return to his self and to his gods. And whether consciously intended or not, the social correlates cannot be ignored. For with insight and subtle wit, Deckard shouts loudly of the aspirations and triumphs of our age...and also of its futilities, its sins and its pretensions." - Howard E. Wooden, Director, Sheldon Swope Art Gallery, November 1970

Deckard's first acceptance into a major exhibition was in New York City in 1965, where the Associated American Artists invited him to participate in an exhibit entitled A New Generation of American Printmakers. That same year, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts included his work in their Annual Exhibition, and the Boston Printmakers included him in the Boston Printmakers Annual Print Exhibition. Then, the following year, he was included again in the Boston Printmakers Annual Print Exhibition, as well as the Whitney Museum of American Art's Annual Exhibition 1966: Contemporary Sculpture and Prints. In 1967, his prints were once again included in the Annual Exhibition put on by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

His work is in a number of private and public collections including the National Gallery of Art, Ackland Art Museum-University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Rose Art Museum-Brandeis University, PPG Industries, Cincinnati Art Museum, Sheldon Swope Art Museum, DePauw University, The Free Library of Philadelphia, Wichita Art Museum, and Erie Art Museum. List of notable works include: Didactic Dance, Print, 1964, located in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Cruciform-Transfiguration, Sculpture, 1977, located at Holy Cross Church, Erie, PA.; Eternal Vigilance, Sculpture, 1978, located at the Erie Art Museum, Erie, PA.; Knifeman, Sculpture, 1986, located at the Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, Kansas.

Color: Black, Blue, Gray, Green, Turquoise, White
Genre: Impressionist and Modern Art
Media: Drypoint, Intaglio
Style: Surrealism
Width: 12.25" (31 cm)
Height: 15" (38 cm)
Origin: United States • American
Age: Mid 20th Century
Item type: Vintage

Price: US$400.00

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