Ezio Martinelli

"Pen and Ink Interior" Pen and Ink Abstract on Paper

1953

SALE ONE WEEK ONLY This monochrome abstract work by M. Saffell Gardner is a sumi ink on watercolor paper piece that evokes the feelings of a dark American po...

SALE ONE WEEK ONLY "Animal Spirit I" is a dynamic expression of McGee's mythical animal spirits. Hand signed and dated lower right front and on the verso signed and titled. Painting and mixed media present a complex scene that incorporates use of graphite and acrylic paint on thick handmade paper. Michelle Oka Doner was invited to participate in McGee's studio in the early 1980s and brought her handmade paper skills to share engaging McGee in this creative pursuit. McGee continued to develop these spiritual creatures throughout his career as can be seen in a piece from 1984, "Noah's Ark: Genesis, 1984," on display at the Detroit Institute of Arts, his brilliant 2005 "Progression" a 45-foot wide aluminum sculpture at Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, Michigan, and his stunning 2016 "United We Stand" sculpture at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History . His genius can be seen in sculpture installments throughout the city of Detroit. "Animal Spirit I" is signed and dated lower right. Charles McGee was born into a family of sharecroppers. While helping his grandfather tend the land, "he observed firsthand the order and harmony that exists within nature." He had no formal schooling until moving to Detroit at age 10, where he found that "everything was on the move and it hasn’t slowed down yet." in 2017 he observed, "I learned something not being in school — because life is school . . .I learn something every time I move. Every time I go around a corner, something new is revealed to me.” McGee took advantage of the GI Bill to attend classes at the Society of Arts and Crafts, now the College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI. Other College for Creative Studies faculty and graduates include Richard Jerzy, Harry Bertoia, Doug Chaing (currently director of Lucas Film), Stephen Dinehart (game maker, writer, designer connected with The David Lynch Foundation), Tyree Guyton (international artist), Herb Babcock , Jerome Feretti, Kevin Siembieda (writer, designer and publisher of role-playing games), Renee Radell (American Expressionist formerly from Detroit and New York), Philip Pearlstein, Charles McGee (nationally recognized African American sculptor of animal and dancing spirits), Philip Pearlstein (2000 Honorary Doctorate, Modern Realism style), John Louis Krieger (American Modern) and William Girard (American Modern.) After retiring from the Corps of Engineers, McGee spent 1968 studying art in Barcelona. Despite not knowing the language at the outset, he immersed himself in the culture and opened himself to a whole new range of experience that would play out in his artwork. "If you free yourself, you have this kind of opportunity to have those experiences, horizons, and new vistas." (per interview with Nick Sousanis. He returned to Detroit and curated "Seven Black Artists" at the Detroit Artists Market in 1969, which along with McGee himself, included Lester Johnson, Henri Umbaji King, Robert Murray, James Lee, Allie McGhee...

SALE ONE WEEK ONLY “Untitled #34” was created by Sam Gilliam, one of the great innovators in postwar American painting. It is dated and signed on the lower front. The thick handmade paper is rich with folds and texture and the colors lively. In addition to Acrylic paint on the surface there appears to be imbedded color in the handmade paper which has additional embossed accents. Unframed the piece measures 16 x 14. Provenance of Yaw Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan is on the verso along with the note that the Paper Surfaces in contact with this artwork are acid free. In the mid-1960s he emerged from the Washington D.C. scene with works that elaborated upon and disrupted the ethos of Color School painting. A series of formal breakthroughs would soon result in his canonical Drape paintings, which expanded upon the tenets of Abstract Expressionism in entirely new ways. One profound manner was the sculpture aspect of the painting giving it a free flowing expression of pure color. In the latter half of the 1950s, Washington D.C. saw a flourishing of abstract art that emphasized the form-making capabilities of pure color. Known as The Washington Color School, the loosely affiliated group of abstract painters knew each other through various teaching experiences. The moniker has an uncertain origin but likely originated with the title of a 1965 exhibition at the Washington Gallery of Modern Art, "Washington Color Painters," curated by Gerald Nordland. The show exhibited the works of Kenneth Noland, Paul Reed, Morris Louis, Howard Mehring, Thomas Downing, and Gene Davis. Additionally, Leon Berkowitz...

SALE ONE WEEK ONLY "Falling Squares" is a rich gouache painting by William Antonow. Though the colors are muted they blend in a harmony that contrasts slightly with the falling squares that bring a movement to the piece. One of the original Cass Corridor artists from the 1960s William Antonow studied at the School of the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts (now the College for Creative Studies) and at Wayne State University, where he received his BFA (1967) and MA (1970.) Other well-known individuals who taught or studied at Wayne State University and are connected with the arts are Arthur Danto, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Susan Aaron-Taylor, Tyree Guyton, Hughie Lee-Smith, Philip Levine, Casey Kasem, Helen Thomas, Sergio DeGuisti, Stanley Rosenthal...

"Untitled" by Beverly Fishman is a silkscreen on polished stainless metal filled with bright primary colors and repetitive designs and swirls. Fishman draws on a range of artistic and conceptual influences in crafting her unique canvases, from the industrial-inspired Minimalism of artists like Donald Judd or Frank Stella to techniques taken from the fields of science and medicine. The piece is signed and dated on verso by the artist along with the provenance via a label from the Bruno David Gallery in St. Louis, Missouri stating artist's name, title, date, size and medium and date of 2/2009 when it was in the possession of the gallery. Beverly Fishman’s neon-hued geometric works utilize both shaped canvases and eye-popping forms within the picture plane. Her subjects range from stars and boxes to depictions of human heads and skulls and crossbones and include cameos by pop culturalicons like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...

SALE ONE WEEK ONLY "Untitled" by Nicholas Bodde depicts vibrant layers of color on narrow aluminum strips. These pieces are interchangeable and can be hung in various ways. Each is signed on the verso and was created in 2013. All three are sold as a set. Each aluminum panel measures 39 " h x 2.5" w. Bodde was born in New York he lives and works in Germany. He considers himself a German painter, who uses lacquered aluminum to create works that are beautiful in their simplicity and in their joyful exploration of color. The artist drives upon the tradition of European constructivism as well as Colour Field Painting, noting influences by Mark Rothko and Barnett Newmann. Bodde claims that his paintings “reveal themselves differently from close up and from a distance. When viewed from a distance they clearly appear related to constructivist geometric tendencies. But from close proximity, one notices that my main objective is painting and not construction.” The artist has reduced his subject to parallel vertical or horizontal lines and fields that race across the hard surface in a controlled riot – as if the viewer were looking out of a fast moving car while driving by fields of colorful flowers. Bodde constantly questions the colors, focusing on creating a construction through using different colors. He sees his creations as a mode of communication with the world. He paints on aluminum plates by successive coats of painting that he applies with different utensils to finally obtain a result that imprints itself into the eye’s retina. The game of colorful stripes, more or less large, sometimes with the feeling of the brush, sometimes flat, reflects the light differently on each lap. The brightness of his palette, a willful choice, accentuates the vitality that emanates from this painting. His works hesitate between the vibrating and nearly irritating colors and the calm of a monastic construction.   Bodde received his formal education from the University of Arts in Bremen (1989) and has been exhibited in numerous solo and group shows across the world, including venues such as the Yeh Gallery in Seoul, Planet Art...

Isabel Rock is a creator of contemporary fairy tales. A graduate of the Royal College of Art in London, her work is an explosion of strange occurrences while a surreal narrative takes the audience on a journey into the imagination. Hugely inspired by Paula Rego, Isabel Rock is part of a formidable group of women artists (Leonora Carrington and Eileen Agar amongst others) working with Surrealism. In October 2023 Isabel won the Evelyn Williams...

Isabel Rock is a creator of contemporary fairy tales. A graduate of the Royal College of Art in London, her work is an explosion of strange occurrences while a surreal narrative takes the audience on a journey into the imagination. Hugely inspired by Paula Rego, Isabel Rock is part of a formidable group of women artists (Leonora Carrington and Eileen Agar amongst others) working with Surrealism. In October 2023 Isabel won the Evelyn Williams...

Isabel Rock is a creator of contemporary fairy tales. A graduate of the Royal College of Art in London, her work is an explosion of strange occurrences while a surreal narrative take...

Isabel Rock is a creator of contemporary fairy tales. A graduate of the Royal College of Art in London, her work is an explosion of strange occurrences while a surreal narrative take...

Isabel Rock is a creator of contemporary fairy tales. A graduate of the Royal College of Art in London, her work is an explosion of strange occurrences while a surreal narrative takes the audience on a journey into the imagination. In October 2023 Isabel won the Evelyn Williams...

Isabel Rock is a creator of contemporary fairy tales. A graduate of the Royal College of Art in London, her work is an explosion of strange occurrences while a surreal narrative take...