Mercury Gallery

Mercury Gallery Specializing in American Expressionism from the 1930s to today
If traveling, please call in advance

Mercury Gallery specializes in the work of the New York Expressionist group known as The Ten. Opened in 1994 by Amnon Goldman, the gallery features work by Joseph Solman, Adolph Gottlieb, Louis Schanker, Karl Knaths, Ben-Zion and Byron Browne. The Ten were a group of first generation American artists who opposed the prevailing prewar American Regional art that was being shown - Grant Wood, Thomas

Hart Benton etc. - and aimed to incorporate the achievements of the modern European artists into the American experience...specifically Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and the German Expressionist, Max Beckmann. In 1995 Mercury reintroduced the estate of Karl Zerbe, who is considered the father of Boston Expressionism. And over the years, the gallery has added contemporary artists whose bold figurative approach to their subject fits the gallery’s visual sensibilities. We also show the work of Michael McKinnell, Stephanie Mallis, Julia Von Metzsch, Dan Robinson, Deborah Epstein, Philip Jones, Carmen Jabaloyes and Ben Enelow. Art takes time - for the viewer - and Expressionism is an art style that we believe has lasting power.

Joseph Solman (1909-2008)Parsons Boulevard, 1929, oil on canvas, 18 X 22, signed lower rightPictured on page 12 of “Jose...
02/01/2024

Joseph Solman (1909-2008)

Parsons Boulevard, 1929, oil on canvas, 18 X 22, signed lower right
Pictured on page 12 of “Joseph Solman,” Da Capo Press, 1995

Solman was a founding member of The Ten, a group of first generation New York American artists who showed together between 1935-40. The Ten included (with guests) Ben-Zion, Ilya Bolotowsky, Lee Gatch, Adolph Gottlieb, John Graham, Louis Harris, Earl Kerkam, Karl Knaths, Ralph Rosenborg, Mark Rothko and Louis Schanker.

There is a quiet beauty in Solman’s work and Parsons Boulevard is an early example - dark with dramatic space and lighting, the few solitary figures remain just outside the light and Solman uses the fish sign to draw the viewer’s eyes to explore.



His work can be seen at The Whitney Museum, British Museum, Jewish Museum, Brooklyn Museum, The Phillips Collection and Hirshhorn Museum among others.

available mercurygallery.com

Michael McKinnell (1935-2020) Blue Vase, oil on canvas, 29 X 23 framedAs an architect, Michael McKinnell looked at objec...
12/13/2023

Michael McKinnell (1935-2020)

Blue Vase, oil on canvas, 29 X 23 framed

As an architect, Michael McKinnell looked at objects in his domestic life as a source of beauty and inspiration. Throughout his work we see the influences of Braque, Picasso and Bonnard in his exploration of composition and formal technique. What makes McKinnell's work compelling is his use of color, celebration of geometry and engagement with everyday subject matter - a granite quarry, the coastline of Cape Ann or his studio and the objects in it.

A noted architect of civil places, performance centers and embassies worldwide, McKinnell was a principal in the design of Boston City Hall in the early 1960's, and for many years was a professor at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.



available mercurygallery.com

Stephanie Mallis, Michael McKinnell and Joseph Solman
12/06/2023

Stephanie Mallis, Michael McKinnell and Joseph Solman

Joseph Solman (1909-2008)Jamaica, Long Island, c. 1930, oil on board, 7.5 X 10 His wo...
12/05/2023

Joseph Solman (1909-2008)

Jamaica, Long Island, c. 1930, oil on board, 7.5 X 10



His work can be seen at The Whitney Museum, British Museum, Jewish Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden among others.

available mercurygallery.com

Louis Schanker (1903-1981) and George Constant (1892-1978) **e ...
12/05/2023

Louis Schanker (1903-1981) and George Constant (1892-1978)

**e

Their work can be seen The Whitney Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art among others.

available mercurygallery.com

George Constant 1892-1978 (Greek born, American)N**e, 1935, gouache on paper, 19 X 14George Constant was a pioneering Am...
11/30/2023

George Constant 1892-1978 (Greek born, American)

N**e, 1935, gouache on paper, 19 X 14

George Constant was a pioneering American modernist painter and printmaker. A member of the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors, Constant also worked in the WPA and other Federal Art Projects and began exhibiting regularly from the late 1920s in the important annuals and invitationals held at major institutions across the country which comprised a dominant feature of the American art scene from the 1920s through 1960s.
His work is in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art and the National Gallery of Art among others.

**e

Joseph Solman (1909-2008) My Easel, 1935, oil on canvas, 20 X 10This captivating piece has been in a private collection ...
11/29/2023

Joseph Solman (1909-2008)

My Easel, 1935, oil on canvas, 20 X 10

This captivating piece has been in a private collection since 1966 and is now available for the first time in 57 years.

Acclaimed artists often have a seminal work, marking a pivotal point that drew them in a new direction – defining their later work and, in some cases, even their careers.

According to Joseph Solman, the intimate canvas of My Easel, painted in 1935, was an epiphany that led to his breakthrough Studio Interiors work. What makes the piece so fascinating is that while the easel anchors the composition, a dynamic tension plays out between studio objects and the outside view. He later said that he could now define "a Solman" work, reading his own style and visual vocabulary. My Easel was published in Solman's first book by Crown Press in 1965.

Solman's works, from paintings to drawings and monotypes, are in collections worldwide,
including the British Museum, the Whitney Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum, and The Phillips Collection, among many others.

Joseph Solman (1909-2008)Diagonals, 1935, oil on board, 20 X 12Solman was a founding member of The Ten, a group of first...
11/08/2023

Joseph Solman (1909-2008)

Diagonals, 1935, oil on board, 20 X 12

Solman was a founding member of The Ten, a group of first generation New York American artists who showed together between 1935-40. The Ten included (with guests) Ben-Zion, Ilya Bolotowsky, Lee Gatch, Adolph Gottlieb, John Graham, Louis Harris, Earl Kerkam, Karl Knaths, Ralph Rosenborg, Mark Rothko and Louis Schanker.

“I have long discovered for myself,” said Solman, “that what we call the subject yields more pattern, more poetry, more drama, greater abstract design and tension than any shapes we may invent.”



His work can be seen at The Whitney Museum, British Museum, Jewish Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden among others.

available mercurygallery.com

Karl Knaths (1891-1971) Eelers, 1950, oil on canvas, 38 X 56Knaths was an American modernist painter who combined the Cu...
11/05/2023

Karl Knaths (1891-1971)

Eelers, 1950, oil on canvas, 38 X 56

Knaths was an American modernist painter who combined the Cubist aesthetic with a lyrical rendering of the representational.

His earliest work was influenced by the Impressionists but by the end of the 1920s he had relocated to Cape Cod and developed a very personal approach to this style basing his abstract, but still recognizable compositions on seascapes and still life subjects.

During the 1930s, Knaths also developed a complex theoretical basis for his painting. He began to create his paintings by following strict rules of composition and color, inspired by the ideas of such artists as Piet Mondrian and Wassily Kandinsky. He became known for using Cubist forms and blocks of color to illustrate with varying degrees of abstraction and realism the local life around him, from lush flowers to the Cape Cod fishing life.

Knath’s work can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum, the Whitney Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Smithsonian and many more.

available mercurygallery.com

Louis Schanker in his studio c. 1938
10/21/2023

Louis Schanker in his studio c. 1938

Address

20 Main Street
Rockport, MA
01966

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 4pm
Tuesday 10am - 4pm
Wednesday 10am - 4pm
Thursday 10am - 4pm
Friday 10am - 4pm
Saturday 10am - 4pm
Sunday 10am - 4pm

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Mercury Gallery posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Museum

Send a message to Mercury Gallery:

Shortcuts

Share

Category