Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 5

Stephen Basso
Big Fruit Nude, colorful, imaginative nude with fruit on pastel on toned paper

2014

About the Item

*ABOUT Stephen Basso Stephen Basso's highly original pastels and oil paintings are romantic, yet thought provoking fantasies. His whimsical works are alive with boundless imagination, wry wit and fearless color. His shrewd social observations often translate into eerily humorous figurative scenes and narratives. Mr. Basso’s works evoke a high level of inquiry. The fanciful, yet keenly observed characters are unpredictable and evocative. The viewer vacillates between surprise, delight, and consternation. A Brooklyn native, much of Basso's wildly imaginative artwork was inspired by travel to Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and especially Mexico. Basso is particularly drawn to Latin American art, channeling its mix of Western and African influences and imagery into his vibrant, often surrealistic work. Combining a New York and a Mexican sensibility, he says of his work, "There is a natural surreal quality to Mexico that can collide with its harsh realities. One might call it bittersweet. It is often bawdy, but rarely vulgar, and images are everywhere. Love, hate, fear desire and of course, humor, never go out of style.” And he adds, " I like mixing high ideals with American irreverence." The elements of mystery, escapism, and humor blended with reality define his art. It is of a personal nature consisting of a cast of characters that inhabit the stage between the extreme highs and lows of life, a state of limbo where dreamlike scenarios are often pulled back to the reality of daily existence. Of his process, Mr. Basso says, "The paintings and drawings begin with objects around my home and studio, photos from various sources, and people I know, have known, or have yet to meet." By in large, Basso is self taught. (After initially attending the School of Visual Arts for Illustration, he realized painting was more engaging for him.) Seeking emotional honesty, he looked to the work of several "mentors": Max Beckmann, Francisco Goya, Willem de Kooning , Philip Guston , Marsden Hartley and Albert Pinkham Ryder - artists that spoke to the human condition
  • Creator:
    Stephen Basso (1953, American)
  • Creation Year:
    2014
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 38 in (96.5 cm)Width: 27.01 in (68.6 cm)Depth: 0.99 in (2.5 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU133915701411
More From This SellerView All
You May Also Like
  • Barca de Refugiados, Figurative Drawing
    By Celso José Castro Daza
    Located in Miami Beach, FL
    Barca de Refugiados, 1999 by Celso Castro Crayon and pastel on archival paper Image size: 45 H in. x 59 in. W On the back of the painting: Maranones "Lunes 23 de mayo 2016" Pencil...
    Category

    1990s Contemporary Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Pencil, Pastel, Crayon, Archival Paper

  • Marañones Lunes 23 de mayo, Still-life Drawing
    By Celso José Castro Daza
    Located in Miami Beach, FL
    Maranones "Lunes 23 de mayo 2016" by Celso Castro Pencil, crayon, and pastel on archival paper Image size: 59 H in. x 45 in. W On the back of the painting: Barca de Refugiados, 199...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Crayon, Pastel, Archival Paper, Pencil

  • Skull and Ornament - Vanitas, Still Life, Color Pencil Drawing, Framed
    By John Hrehov
    Located in Chicago, IL
    Drawings of skulls are often called vanitas, which often contain collections of objects symbolic of the inevitability of death and the transience and vanity of earthly achievements and pleasures; it exhorts the viewer to consider mortality and to repent. This still life vanitas drawing is matted with a heavy white mat and framed in a bronze toned wooden frame measuring 15.75 x 16.25 inches. John Hrehov Skull and Ornament colored pencil on paper 7h x 8w in 17.78h x 20.32w cm JHR006 John Hrehov Education 1985 MFA-Painting, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 1981 BFA-Painting, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH. Solo Exhibitions 2017 John Hrehov, Paintings and Drawings. Tom Thomas...
    Category

    2010s Surrealist Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Archival Paper, Color Pencil

  • Still life - XX century, Pastel figurative, Colourful
    By Ewa Pello
    Located in Warsaw, PL
    EWA PELLO (born in 1964) She studied at the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. She received her diploma in 1989. She specializes in painting and pastel. I...
    Category

    20th Century Other Art Style Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Paper, Pastel

  • Expressionist Ink, Pastel, Crayon Drawing Jewish American Modernist Ben Zion WPA
    By Ben-Zion Weinman
    Located in Surfside, FL
    Expressionist ink and pastel crayon drawing of beans (carobs, flowers?) in pods Hand signed. Born in 1897, Ben-Zion Weinman celebrated his European Jewish heritage in his visual works as a sculptor, painter, and printmaker. Influenced by Spinoza, Knut Hamsun, and Wladyslaw Reymont, as well as Hebrew literature, Ben-Zion wrote poetry and essays that, like his visual work, attempt to reveal the deep “connection between man and the divine, and between man and earth.” An emigrant from the Ukraine, he came to the US in 1920. He wrote fairy tales and poems in Hebrew under the name Benzion Weinman, but when he began painting he dropped his last name and hyphenated his first, saying an artist needed only one name. Ben-Zion was a founding member of “The Ten: An Independent Group” The Ten” a 1930’s avant-garde group, Painted on anything handy. Ben-Zion often used cabinet doors (panels) in his work. Other members of group included Ilya Bolotowsky, Lee Gatch, Adolph Gottlieb, Louis Harris, Yankel Kufeld, Marcus Rothkowitz (later known as Mark Rothko), Louis Schanker, and Joseph Solman. The Art of “The Ten” was generally described as expressionist, as this style offered the best link between modernism and social art. Their exhibition at the Mercury Gallery in New York held at the same time as the Whitney Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, included a manifesto concentrating on aesthetic questions and criticisms of the conservative definition of modern art imposed by the Whitney. Ben-Zion’s work was quickly noticed. The New York Sun said he painted “furiously” and called him “the farthest along of the lot.” And the triptych, “The Glory of War,” was described by Art News as “resounding.” By 1939, The Ten disbanded because most of the members found individual galleries to represent their work. Ben-Zion had his first one-man show at the Artist’s Gallery in Greenwich Village and J.B. Neumann, the highly esteemed European art dealer who introduced Paul Klee, (among others) to America, purchased several of Ben-Zion’s drawings. Curt Valentin, another well-known dealer, exhibited groups of his drawings and undertook the printing of four portfolios of etchings, each composed of Ben-Zion’s biblical themes. He worked as a WPA artist. Ben-Zion’s work is represented in many museums throughout the country including the Metropolitan, the Whitney, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Phillips Collection, Washington. The Jewish Museum in New York opened in 1948 with a Ben-Zion exhibition. Ben-Zion consistently threaded certain subject matter—nature, still life, the human figure, the Hebrew Bible, and the Jewish people—into his work throughout his life. "In all his work a profound human feeling remains. Sea and sky, even sheaves of wheat acquire a monolithic beauty and simplicity which delineates the transient as a reflection of the eternal. This sensitive inter- mingling of the physical and metaphysical is one of the most enduring features of Ben-Zion's works." (Excerpt from Stephen Kayser, “Biblical Paintings,” The Jewish Museum Catalogue, 1952). Mystical Imprints: Marc Chagall, Ben-Zion, and Ben Shahn presents the print work of three prominent 20th century Jewish artists born in the Russian Empire. Among these seventy pieces are etchings and lithographs from Chagall’s Bible series...
    Category

    Mid-20th Century Expressionist Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Paper, Oil Crayon, Pastel, Ink

  • Come for some chocolate - XXI century, Pastel figurative, Still life
    Located in Warsaw, PL
    Pastel by Lech Polcyn
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Other Art Style Figurative Drawings and Wa...

    Materials

    Paper, Pastel

Recently Viewed

View All