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Edward Marecak Art

1919-1993

Edward Marecak was an American painter who was born in 1919. Growing up in the farming community of Brunswick, Ohio, he showed early artistic promise, hired by the National Youth Administration to document historic barns. In 1946, Marecak came to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center for a year and after a semester interlude at Cranbrook returned to study lithography with Lawrence Barrett. There he also met his future wife and sometime collaborator, ceramicist Theresa Madonna Fortin. Given the opportunity to teach a summer course at the University of Colorado, he decided to obtain a teaching certificate at the University of Denver and subsequently embarked on his 25-year career in the Denver Public School system. Rather than pursue fame, Edward Marecak directed his zeal toward fostering younger generations in the principles of art as well as his simple philosophies. Moreover, his teaching salary allowed him to ply his prodigious talent at whatever he pleased, instead of bending to the dictates of trends and sales. Having inherited his faith in education from his Slovakian immigrant parents, Marecak could add the shaping of lives to his mastery of art forms, including lithographs, monoprints, drawings, hooked rugs, ceramics, paintings, wood sculptures, stained-glass windows and jewelry. While exhibiting in his lifetime, he was, in his wife’s words, “his own greatest collector”, but shows and his popularity at the Kirkland Museum have positioned Marecak posthumously among Colorado’s pre-eminent modernists. As a child, Marecak was enthralled by the Carpathian tales of magic and supernatural beings told by his grandmother. As with other artists with roots in Eastern Europe, his artistic turn to folk tradition would free him from learned practices of perspective and modeling in favor of flat patterns within patterns and brilliant, throbbing color. While others ventured further into abstraction, Marecak stylized figurative elements into crowded compositions that appeared like a mosaic or stained glass. As he matured, he could declare, “I am still very much a Byzantine designer and my joy with what color can do grows all the time”. The traceries of strong outlines and bold shapes provide compartments for vibrant colors, contrasts and rough textures that can scarcely be contained. The Kirkland Museum staged a retrospective of Edward and Donna Marecak in 2007.

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Artist: Edward Marecak
Vintage Semi-Abstract Brightly Colored Portrait, Woman with Plant and Flowers
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Semi-abstract oil on canvas painting by Edward Marecak (1919-1993). Composition featuring a brightly colored portrait of a woman holding flowers. Presented in an original frame measu...
Category

Mid-20th Century Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Sybil (The Prophetess), 1970s Abstract Figurative Oil Painting, Pink Blue Red
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Semi-Abstract figurative oil on burlap painting titled 'Sybil (The Prophetess)' by Edward Marecak (1919-1993) painted in 1976. Signed and dated by the artist in the lower right corne...
Category

1970s American Modern Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Burlap, Oil

Shapes, Mid Century Modern Abstract Colored Woodcut, Geometric Fine Art Print
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Block print on linen by Edward Marecak (1919-1993) titled Shapes. Presented in a custom frame with all archival materials, outer dimensions measure 29 x 19 ¼ x 1 ⅛ inches. Image size...
Category

20th Century Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Woodcut

Still Life and Round Lace Table, 1960s Abstract Still Life, Acrylic and Pastel
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
"Still Life and Round Lace Table" is an original acrylic and pastel on paper by Edward Marecak (1919-1993) circa 1960s. Signed by the artist in the lower right corner. Abstracted sti...
Category

1960s Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Pastel, Acrylic

Winter Witches in an Upside World Interfering with Each Other, Semi-Abstract Oil
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Oil painting on burlap by Edward Marecak (1919-1993) titled "Winter Witches in an Upside World Interfering with Each Other" from 1990. Titled and dated by the artist on verso. Painted in shades of black, gray, red, purple, and green. Presented in the original artist frame, outer dimensions measure 44 ⅛ x 44 ⅛ x 1 ⅜ inches. Image size is 43 x 43 inches. About the artist: Edward Marecak Born Ohio 1919 Died Colorado 1993 Born to immigrant parents from the Carpathian region in Slovakia, Marecak grew up with his family in the farming community of Bennett’s Corners, now part of the town of Brunswick, near Cleveland, Ohio. When he turned twelve, his family moved to a multi-ethnic neighborhood of Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, and Slovenians in Cleveland. His childhood household cherished the customs and Slavic folk tales from the Old Country that later strongly influenced his work as a professional artist. During junior high he painted scenery for puppet shows of “Peter and the Wolf,” awakening his interest in art. In his senior year in high school he did Cézanne-inspired watercolors of Ohio barns at seventy-five cents apiece for the National Youth Administration. They earned him a full scholarship to the Cleveland Institute of Art (1938-1942) where he studied with Henry George Keller whose work was included in the 1913 New York Armory Show. In 1940 Marecak also taught at the Museum School of the Cleveland Institute. Before being drafted into the military in 1942, he briefly attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art near Detroit, one of the nation’s leading graduate schools of art, architecture, and design. A center of innovative work in architecture, art and design with an educational approach built on a mentorship model, it has been home to some of the world’s most renowned designers and artists, including Eero Saarinen, Charles Eames, Daniel Libeskind and Harry Bertoia. Marecak’s studies at Cranbrook with painter Zoltan Sepeshy and sculptor Carl Milles were interrupted by U.S. army service in the Aleutian Islands during World War II. Following his military discharge, Marecak studied on the G.I. Bill at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center from 1946 to 1950, having previously met its director, Boardman Robinson, conducting a seminar in mural painting at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Although he did not work with Robinson at the Fine Arts Center, who had become quite ill - retiring in 1947 - he studied Robinson’s specialty of mural painting before leaving to briefly attend the Cranbrook Academy in 1947. That same year he returned to the Fine Arts Center, studying painting with Jean Charlot and Mary Chenoweth, and lithography with Lawrence Barrett with whom he produced some 132 images during 1948-49. At the Fine Arts Center he met his future wife, Donna Fortin, whom he married in 1947. Also a Midwesterner, she had taken night art courses at Hull House in Chicago, later studying at the Art Institute of Chicago with the encouragement of artist Edgar Britton. After World War II she studied with him from 1946 to 1949 at the Fine Arts Center. (He had moved to Colorado Springs to treat his tuberculosis.) Ed Marecak also became good friends with Britton, later collaborating with him on the design of large stained glass windows for a local church. In 1950-51 Marecak returned to the Cleveland Institute of Art to complete his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. A year later he was invited to conduct a summer class at the University of Colorado in Boulder, confirming his interest in the teaching profession. In 1955 he received his teaching certificate from the University of Denver. Vance Kirkland, the head of its art department, helped him get a teaching job with the Denver Public Schools so that he and his family could remain in the Mile High City. For the next twenty-five years he taught art at Skinner, Grove, East, George Washington and Morey Junior High Schools. Prior to coming to Colorado, Marecak did watercolors resembling those of Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent and Charles Burchfield. However, once in Colorado Springs he decided to destroy much of his earlier oeuvre, embarking on a totally new direction unlike anything he had previously done. Initially, in the 1940s, he was influenced by surrealist imagery and Paul Klee and in the West by Indian petroglyphs and Kachinas. His first one-person show at the Garrett Gallery in Colorado Springs in 1949 featured paintings and lithographs rendered in the style of Magic Realism and referential abstraction. The pieces, including an oil Witch with Pink Dish, foreshadowed the output of his entire Colorado-based career, distinguished by a dramatic use of color, intricacy of execution and attention to detail contributing to their visual impact. He once observed, “Each time I start a new painting I always fool myself by saying this time keep it simple and not get entangled with such complex patterns, color and design; but I always find myself getting more involved with richness, color and subject matter.” An idiosyncratic artist proficient in oil, acrylic, watercolor, gouache, and casein, he did not draw upon Colorado subject matter for his work, unlike many of his fellow painters in the state. Instead he used Midwest landscape imagery, bringing to life in it witches and spirits adapted from the Slovakian folk tales he heard growing up in Ohio. A number of his paintings depict winter witches derived from the Slovak custom in the Tatra Mountains of burning an effigy of the winter witch in the early spring to banish the memory of a hard winter. The folk tale element imparts a dream-like quality to many of his paintings. A devote of Greek mythology, he placed the figures of Circe, Persephone, Sybil, Hera and others in modern settings. The goddess in Persephone Brings a Pumpkin to her Mother, attired as a Midwestern farmer’s daughter, heralds the advent of fall with the pumpkin before departing to spend the winter season in the underworld. Train to Olympus, the meeting place of the gods in ancient Greece, juxtaposes ancient mythology with modernity creating a combination of whimsy and thought-provoking consideration for the viewer. Voyage to Troy #1 alludes to the ancient city that was the site of the Trojan Wars, but has a contemporary, autobiographical component referencing the harbor of the Aleutian Islands recaptured from the Japanese during World War II. In the 1980s Marecak used the goddess Hera in his painting, Hera Contemplates Aspects of the Art Nouveau, to comment on art movements in the latter half of the twentieth century Marecak’s love of classical music and opera, which he shared with his wife and to which he often listened while painting in his Denver basement studio, is reflected in Homage of Offenbach, an abstract work translating the composer’s musical colors into colorful palette. Pace, Pace, Mio Dio, the title of his earliest surrealist painting, is a soprano aria from Verdi’s opera...
Category

1990s Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Burlap, Oil

The Argument, 1960s Vintage Semi-Abstract Oil Painting in Reds, Pinks, and Black
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Oil on board painting by Edward Marecak (1919-1993) titled "The Argument" from 1968. Semi-abstract oil painting depicting two figures in colors of greens, pinks, blues, and blacks. Presented framed, outer dimensions measure 49 ½ x 33 ¼ x 1 ½ inches. Image size is 48 x 32 inches. Painting is clean and in very good vintage condition - please contact us for a detailed condition report. About the artist: Born to immigrant parents from the Carpathian region in Slovakia, Marecak grew up with his family in the farming community of Bennett’s Corners, now part of the town of Brunswick, near Cleveland, Ohio. When he turned twelve, his family moved to a multi-ethnic neighborhood of Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, and Slovenians in Cleveland. His childhood household cherished the customs and Slavic folk tales from the Old Country that later strongly influenced his work as a professional artist. During junior high he painted scenery for puppet shows of “Peter and the Wolf,” awakening his interest in art. In his senior year in high school he did Cézanne-inspired watercolors of Ohio barns at seventy-five cents apiece for the National Youth Administration. They earned him a full scholarship to the Cleveland Institute of Art (1938-1942) where he studied with Henry George Keller whose work was included in the 1913 New York Armory Show. In 1940 Marecak also taught at the Museum School of the Cleveland Institute. Before being drafted into the military in 1942, he briefly attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art near Detroit, one of the nation’s leading graduate schools of art, architecture, and design. A center of innovative work in architecture, art and design with an educational approach built on a mentorship model, it has been home to some of the world’s most renowned designers and artists, including Eero Saarinen, Charles Eames, Daniel Libeskind and Harry Bertoia. Marecak’s studies at Cranbrook with painter Zoltan Sepeshy and sculptor Carl Milles were interrupted by U.S. army service in the Aleutian Islands during World War II. Following his military discharge, Marecak studied on the G.I. Bill at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center from 1946 to 1950, having previously met its director, Boardman Robinson, conducting a seminar in mural painting at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Although he did not work with Robinson at the Fine Arts Center, who had become quite ill - retiring in 1947 - he studied Robinson’s specialty of mural painting before leaving to briefly attend the Cranbrook Academy in 1947. That same year he returned to the Fine Arts Center, studying painting with Jean Charlot and Mary Chenoweth, and lithography with Lawrence Barrett with whom he produced some 132 images during 1948-49. At the Fine Arts Center he met his future wife, Donna Fortin, whom he married in 1947. Also a Midwesterner, she had taken night art courses at Hull House in Chicago, later studying at the Art Institute of Chicago with the encouragement of artist Edgar Britton. After World War II she studied with him from 1946 to 1949 at the Fine Arts Center. (He had moved to Colorado Springs to treat his tuberculosis.) Ed Marecak also became good friends with Britton, later collaborating with him on the design of large stained glass windows for a local church. In 1950-51 Marecak returned to the Cleveland Institute of Art to complete his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. A year later he was invited to conduct a summer class at the University of Colorado in Boulder, confirming his interest in the teaching profession. In 1955 he received his teaching certificate from the University of Denver. Vance Kirkland, the head of its art department, helped him get a teaching job with the Denver Public Schools so that he and his family could remain in the Mile High City. For the next twenty-five years he taught art at Skinner, Grove, East, George Washington and Morey Junior High Schools. Prior to coming to Colorado, Marecak did watercolors resembling those of Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent and Charles Burchfield. However, once in Colorado Springs he decided to destroy much of his earlier oeuvre, embarking on a totally new direction unlike anything he had previously done. Initially, in the 1940s, he was influenced by surrealist imagery and Paul Klee and in the West by Indian petroglyphs and Kachinas. His first one-person show at the Garrett Gallery in Colorado Springs in 1949 featured paintings and lithographs rendered in the style of Magic Realism and referential abstraction. The pieces, including an oil Witch with Pink Dish...
Category

1960s Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Oil

Two Ladies Trying to Out-Mystify Each Other, Semi Abstract Figural Oil Painting
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
'Two Ladies Trying to Out-Mystify Each Other', Original 1969 semi-abstract cubist style oil painting portraying two female figures with still life. Figural abstraction, oil paint on ...
Category

1960s American Modern Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled #26, 1970s Abstract Mixed Media Acrylic Painting, Blue Purple Red
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Brushed crayon over acrylic on paper by Edward Marecak (1919-1993) titled Untitled #26. Geometric abstract mixed media painting in colors of black, purple, and blue. Presented in a ...
Category

20th Century Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Crayon, Acrylic

A Small City Park, Abstract Painting Acrylic Watercolor Painting, Green Brown
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
"A Small City Park", acrylic and watercolor on paper by Denver artist Edward Marecak (1919-1993) of an abstract park broken into four quadrants, separated by brown and white striped borders with different shaped ponds. Inspired by City Park in Denver, Colorado where the artist frequented. Presented framed with all archival materials, outer dimensions measure 21 ¾ x 18 ¾ inches. Image size measures 12 x 15 inches. Painting is clean and in good condition - please contact us for a detailed condition report. Provenance: Estate of Edward Marecak Expedited and international shipping is available - please contact us for a quote. About the Artist: Born to immigrant parents from the Carpathian region in Slovakia, Marecak grew up with his family in the farming community of Bennett’s Corners, now part of the town of Brunswick, near Cleveland, Ohio. When he turned twelve, his family moved to a multi-ethnic neighborhood of Poles, Czechs, Slovaks and Slovenians in Cleveland. His childhood household cherished the customs and Slavic folk tales from the Old Country that later strongly influenced his work as a professional artist. During junior high he painted scenery for puppet shows of "Peter and the Wolf," awakening his interest in art. In his senior year in high school he did Cézanne-inspired watercolors of Ohio barns at seventy-five cents apiece for the National Youth Administration. They earned him a full scholarship to the Cleveland Institute of Art (1938-1942) where he studied with Henry George Keller whose work was included in the 1913 New York Armory Show. In 1940 Marecak also taught at the Museum School of the Cleveland Institute. Before being drafted into the military in 1942, he briefly attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art near Detroit, one of the nation’s leading graduate schools of art, architecture, and design. A center of innovative work in architecture, art and design with an educational approach built on a mentorship model, it has been home to some of the world’s most renowned designers and artists, including Eero Saarinen, Charles Eames, Daniel Libeskind and Harry Bertoia. Marecak’s studies at Cranbrook with painter Zoltan Sepeshy and sculptor Carl Milles were interrupted by U.S. army service in the Aleutian Islands during World War II. Following his military discharge, Marecak studied on the G.I. Bill at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center from 1946 to 1950, having previously met its director, Boardman Robinson, conducting a seminar in mural painting at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Although he did not work with Robinson at the Fine Arts Center, who had become quite ill - retiring in 1947 - he studied Robinson’s specialty of mural painting before leaving to briefly attend the Cranbrook Academy in 1947. That same year he returned to the Fine Arts Center, studying painting with Jean Charlot and Mary Chenoweth, and lithography with Lawrence Barrett with whom he produced some 132 images during 1948-49. At the Fine Arts Center he met his future wife, Donna Fortin, whom he married in 1947. Also a Midwesterner, she had taken night art courses at Hull House in Chicago, later studying at the Art Institute of Chicago with the encouragement of artist Edgar Britton. After World War II she studied with him from 1946 to 1949 at the Fine Arts Center. (He had moved to Colorado Springs to treat his tuberculosis.) Ed Marecak also became good friends with Britton, later collaborating with him on the design of large stained glass windows for a local church. In 1950-51 Marecak returned to the Cleveland Institute of Art to complete his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. A year later he was invited to conduct a summer class at the University of Colorado in Boulder, confirming his interest in the teaching profession. In 1955 he received his teaching certificate from the University of Denver. Vance Kirkland, the head of its art department, helped him get a teaching job with the Denver Public Schools so that he and his family could remain in the Mile High City. For the next twenty-five years he taught art at Skinner, Grove, East, George Washington and Morey Junior High Schools. Prior to coming to Colorado, Marecak did watercolors resembling those of Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent and Charles Burchfield. However, once in Colorado Springs he decided to destroy much of his earlier ouevre, embarking on a totally new direction unlike anything he had previously done. Initially, in the 1940s he was influenced by surrealist imagery and Paul Klee, and in the West by Indian petroglyphs and Kachinas. His first one-person show at the Garrett Gallery in Colorado Springs in 1949 featured paintings and lithographs rendered in the style of Magic Realism and referential abstraction. The pieces, including an oil Witch with Pink Dish, foreshadowed the output of his entire Colorado-based career, distinguished by a dramatic use of color, intricacy of execution and attention to detail contributing to their visual impact. He once observed, "Each time I start a new painting I always fool myself by saying this time keep it simple and not get entangled with such complex patterns, color and design; but I always find myself getting more involved with richness, color and subject matter." An idiosyncratic artist proficient in oil, acrylic, watercolor, gouache and casein, he did not draw upon Colorado subject matter for his work, unlike many of his fellow painters in the state. Instead he used Midwest landscape imagery, bringing to life in it witches and spirits adapted from the Slovakian folk tales he heard growing up in Ohio. A number of his paintings depict winter witches derived from the Slovak custom in the Tatra Mountains of burning an effigy of the winter witch in the early spring to banish the memory of a hard winter. The folk tale element imparts a dream-like quality to many of his paintings. A devote of Greek mythology, he placed the figures of Circe, Persephone, Sybil, Hera and others in modern settings. The goddess in Persephone Brings a Pumpkin to her Mother, attired as a Midwestern farmer’s daughter, heralds the advent of fall with the pumpkin before departing to spend the winter season in the underworld. Train to Olympus, the meeting place of the gods in ancient Greece, juxtaposes ancient mythology with modernity creating a combination of whimsy and thought-provoking consideration for the viewer. Voyage to Troy #1 alludes to the ancient city that was the site of the Trojan Wars, but has a contemporary, autobiographical component referencing the harbor of the Aleutian Islands recaptured from the Japanese during World War II. In the 1980s Marecak used the goddess Hera in his painting, Hera Contemplates Aspects of the Art Nouveau, to comment on art movements in the latter half of the twentieth century Marecak’s love of classical music and opera, which he shared with his wife and to which he often listened while painting in his Denver basement studio, is reflected in Homage of Offenbach, an abstract work translating the composer’s musical colors into colorful palette. Pace, Pace, Mio Dio, the title of his earliest surrealist painting, is a soprano aria from Verdi’s opera, La Forza del Destino (The Force of Destiny or Fate, a favorite Marecak subject). His Queen of the Night relates to a character from Mozart’s opera, The Magic Flute. In addition to paintings and works on paper, he produced hooked rugs, textiles and ceramics. He likewise produced designs for ceramics, tableware and furniture created by his wife Donna, an accomplished Colorado ceramist. Both of them generally eschewed exhibitions and galleries, preferring to quietly do their work while remaining outside of the mainstream. He initially exhibited at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center in 1948 receiving a purchase award. The following year he had his first one-person show of paintings and lithographs at the Garrett Gallery in Colorado Springs. In the 1950s and early 1960s he participated in group exhibitions at the Print Club (Philadelphia); Amarillo Public Library (Texas); annual Blossom Festival Show (Canon City, Colorado); Adele Simpson’s "Art of Living" in New York; Denver Art Museum; and the Fox Rubenstein-Serkey Gallery (Denver); but he did not have another one-person show until 1966 at the Denver home of his friends, John and Gerda Scott. They arranged for his first one-person show outside of Colorado held two years later at the Martin Lowitz Gallery in Beverly Hills and Palm Springs, California. That same year his work was featured at the Zantman Galleries in Carmel, California. Thereafter he became an infrequent exhibitor after the 1970s so that his work was rarely seen outside his basement studio. In 1980 he, his wife and Mark Zamantakis exhibited at Denver’s Jewish Community Center, and four years later he had a one-person show at the Studio Gallery in Denver. In 1992 he was included in a group show at the Rule Modern and Contemporary Gallery in Denver, and a year later received a large, posthumous retrospective at the Emmanuel...
Category

Mid-20th Century Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Paper, Acrylic, Watercolor

The Chicken, 1940s Abstract Geometric Pen Ink Drawing, Red, Black, Cream
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
"The Chicken", is ink on paper by Denver artist Edward Marecak (1919-1993) from the 1940's of an abstract depiction of a chicken in black and red. Presented in a custom black frame, outer dimensions measure 23 ¾ x 19 ¾ inches. Image size measures 15 ¾ x 11 ½ inches. Drawing is clean and in very good condition - please contact us for a detailed condition report. Provenance: Estate of the Artist, Edward Marecak Expedited and international shipping is available - please contact us for a quote. About the Artist: Born to immigrant parents from the Carpathian region in Slovakia, Marecak grew up with his family in the farming community of Bennett’s Corners, now part of the town of Brunswick, near Cleveland, Ohio. When he turned twelve, his family moved to a multi-ethnic neighborhood of Poles, Czechs, Slovaks and Slovenians in Cleveland. His childhood household cherished the customs and Slavic folk tales from the Old Country that later strongly influenced his work as a professional artist. During junior high he painted scenery for puppet shows of "Peter and the Wolf," awakening his interest in art. In his senior year in high school he did Cézanne-inspired watercolors of Ohio barns at seventy-five cents apiece for the National Youth Administration. They earned him a full scholarship to the Cleveland Institute of Art (1938-1942) where he studied with Henry George Keller whose work was included in the 1913 New York Armory Show. In 1940 Marecak also taught at the Museum School of the Cleveland Institute. Before being drafted into the military in 1942, he briefly attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art near Detroit, one of the nation’s leading graduate schools of art, architecture, and design. A center of innovative work in architecture, art and design with an educational approach built on a mentorship model, it has been home to some of the world’s most renowned designers and artists, including Eero Saarinen, Charles Eames, Daniel Libeskind and Harry Bertoia. Marecak’s studies at Cranbrook with painter Zoltan Sepeshy and sculptor Carl Milles were interrupted by U.S. army service in the Aleutian Islands during World War II. Following his military discharge, Marecak studied on the G.I. Bill at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center from 1946 to 1950, having previously met its director, Boardman Robinson, conducting a seminar in mural painting at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Although he did not work with Robinson at the Fine Arts Center, who had become quite ill - retiring in 1947 - he studied Robinson’s specialty of mural painting before leaving to briefly attend the Cranbrook Academy in 1947. That same year he returned to the Fine Arts Center, studying painting with Jean Charlot and Mary Chenoweth, and lithography with Lawrence Barrett with whom he produced some 132 images during 1948-49. At the Fine Arts Center he met his future wife, Donna Fortin, whom he married in 1947. Also a Midwesterner, she had taken night art courses at Hull House in Chicago, later studying at the Art Institute of Chicago with the encouragement of artist Edgar Britton. After World War II she studied with him from 1946 to 1949 at the Fine Arts Center. (He had moved to Colorado Springs to treat his tuberculosis.) Ed Marecak also became good friends with Britton, later collaborating with him on the design of large stained glass windows for a local church. In 1950-51 Marecak returned to the Cleveland Institute of Art to complete his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. A year later he was invited to conduct a summer class at the University of Colorado in Boulder, confirming his interest in the teaching profession. In 1955 he received his teaching certificate from the University of Denver. Vance Kirkland, the head of its art department, helped him get a teaching job with the Denver Public Schools so that he and his family could remain in the Mile High City. For the next twenty-five years he taught art at Skinner, Grove, East, George Washington and Morey Junior High Schools. Prior to coming to Colorado, Marecak did watercolors resembling those of Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent and Charles Burchfield. However, once in Colorado Springs he decided to destroy much of his earlier ouevre, embarking on a totally new direction unlike anything he had previously done. Initially, in the 1940s he was influenced by surrealist imagery and Paul Klee, and in the West by Indian petroglyphs and Kachinas. His first one-person show at the Garrett Gallery in Colorado Springs in 1949 featured paintings and lithographs rendered in the style of Magic Realism and referential abstraction. The pieces, including an oil Witch with Pink Dish, foreshadowed the output of his entire Colorado-based career, distinguished by a dramatic use of color, intricacy of execution and attention to detail contributing to their visual impact. He once observed, "Each time I start a new painting I always fool myself by saying this time keep it simple and not get entangled with such complex patterns, color and design; but I always find myself getting more involved with richness, color and subject matter." An idiosyncratic artist proficient in oil, acrylic, watercolor, gouache and casein, he did not draw upon Colorado subject matter for his work, unlike many of his fellow painters in the state. Instead he used Midwest landscape imagery, bringing to life in it witches and spirits adapted from the Slovakian folk tales he heard growing up in Ohio. A number of his paintings depict winter witches derived from the Slovak custom in the Tatra Mountains of burning an effigy of the winter witch in the early spring to banish the memory of a hard winter. The folk tale element imparts a dream-like quality to many of his paintings. A devote of Greek mythology, he placed the figures of Circe, Persephone, Sybil, Hera and others in modern settings. The goddess in Persephone Brings a Pumpkin to her Mother, attired as a Midwestern farmer’s daughter, heralds the advent of fall with the pumpkin before departing to spend the winter season in the underworld. Train to Olympus, the meeting place of the gods in ancient Greece, juxtaposes ancient mythology with modernity creating a combination of whimsy and thought-provoking consideration for the viewer. Voyage to Troy #1 alludes to the ancient city that was the site of the Trojan Wars, but has a contemporary, autobiographical component referencing the harbor of the Aleutian Islands recaptured from the Japanese during World War II. In the 1980s Marecak used the goddess Hera in his painting, Hera Contemplates Aspects of the Art Nouveau, to comment on art movements in the latter half of the twentieth century Marecak’s love of classical music and opera, which he shared with his wife and to which he often listened while painting in his Denver basement studio, is reflected in Homage of Offenbach, an abstract work translating the composer’s musical colors into colorful palette. Pace, Pace, Mio Dio, the title of his earliest surrealist painting, is a soprano aria from Verdi’s opera, La Forza del Destino (The Force of Destiny or Fate, a favorite Marecak subject). His Queen of the Night relates to a character from Mozart’s opera, The Magic Flute. In addition to paintings and works on paper, he produced hooked rugs, textiles and ceramics. He likewise produced designs for ceramics, tableware and furniture created by his wife Donna, an accomplished Colorado ceramist. Both of them generally eschewed exhibitions and galleries, preferring to quietly do their work while remaining outside of the mainstream. He initially exhibited at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center in 1948 receiving a purchase award. The following year he had his first one-person show of paintings and lithographs at the Garrett Gallery in Colorado Springs. In the 1950s and early 1960s he participated in group exhibitions at the Print Club (Philadelphia); Amarillo Public Library (Texas); annual Blossom Festival Show (Canon City, Colorado); Adele Simpson’s "Art of Living" in New York; Denver Art Museum; and the Fox Rubenstein-Serkey Gallery (Denver); but he did not have another one-person show until 1966 at the Denver home of his friends, John and Gerda Scott. They arranged for his first one-person show outside of Colorado held two years later at the Martin Lowitz Gallery in Beverly Hills and Palm Springs, California. That same year his work was featured at the Zantman Galleries in Carmel, California. Thereafter he became an infrequent exhibitor after the 1970s so that his work was rarely seen outside his basement studio. In 1980 he, his wife and Mark Zamantakis exhibited at Denver’s Jewish Community Center, and four years later he had a one-person show at the Studio Gallery in Denver. In 1992 he was included in a group show at the Rule Modern and Contemporary Gallery in Denver, and a year later received a large, posthumous retrospective at the Emmanuel...
Category

1940s Abstract Geometric Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Paper, Ink

Adam and Eve, 1980s Abstract Figurative Painting, Vertical Oil Painting, 30 x 48
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Oil painting on foam core titled "Adam and Eve" by Denver artist Edward Marecak (1919-1993) from 1983. Portrays two semi-abstract figures with shapes in the background, painted in colors of pink, blue, yellow, and brown. Presented in a custom wooden frame, outer dimensions measure 30 ⅞ x 48 ⅞ x 2 ⅝ inches. Image size 30 x 48 inches. Painting is in good vintage condition - please contact us for a detailed condition report. Provenance: Estate of Edward Marecak About the Artist: Born to immigrant parents from the Carpathian region in Slovakia, Marecak grew up with his family in the farming community of Bennett’s Corners, now part of the town of Brunswick, near Cleveland, Ohio. When he turned twelve, his family moved to a multi-ethnic neighborhood of Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, and Slovenians in Cleveland. His childhood household cherished the customs and Slavic folk tales from the Old Country that later strongly influenced his work as a professional artist. His junior and senior high projects earned him a full scholarship to the Cleveland Institute of Art (1938-1942) where he studied with Henry George Keller whose work was included in the 1913 New York Armory Show. In 1940 Marecak also taught at the Museum School of the Cleveland Institute. Before being drafted into the military in 1942, he briefly attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art near Detroit, one of the nation’s leading graduate schools of art, architecture, and design. Marecak’s studies at Cranbrook with painter Zoltan Sepeshy...
Category

1980s Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Oil

Autumn Harvest, Original Semi-Abstract Landscape and Figurative Oil Painting
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Original framed oil painting on burlap by Edward Marecak (1919-1993) titled "Autumn Harvest" from 1987. Signed and dated by the artist in the lower right corner. Presented in a custom framed, outer dimensions measure 20 x 29 x 1 ⅜ inches. Image size is 19 x 28 inches. Provenance: Estate of the Artist, Edward Marecak Painting is clean and in good condition - please contact us for a detailed condition report. Expedited and international shipping is available - please contact us for a quote. About the artist: Born to immigrant parents from the Carpathian region in Slovakia, Marecak grew up with his family in the farming community of Bennett’s Corners, now part of the town of Brunswick, near Cleveland, Ohio. When he turned twelve, his family moved to a multi-ethnic neighborhood of Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, and Slovenians in Cleveland. His childhood household cherished the customs and Slavic folk tales from the Old Country that later strongly influenced his work as a professional artist. During junior high he painted scenery for puppet shows of “Peter and the Wolf,” awakening his interest in art. In his senior year in high school he did Cézanne-inspired watercolors of Ohio barns at seventy-five cents apiece for the National Youth Administration. They earned him a full scholarship to the Cleveland Institute of Art (1938-1942) where he studied with Henry George Keller whose work was included in the 1913 New York Armory Show. In 1940 Marecak also taught at the Museum School of the Cleveland Institute. Before being drafted into the military in 1942, he briefly attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art near Detroit, one of the nation’s leading graduate schools of art, architecture, and design. A center of innovative work in architecture, art and design with an educational approach built on a mentorship model, it has been home to some of the world’s most renowned designers and artists, including Eero Saarinen, Charles Eames, Daniel Libeskind and Harry Bertoia. Marecak’s studies at Cranbrook with painter Zoltan Sepeshy and sculptor Carl Milles were interrupted by U.S. army service in the Aleutian Islands during World War II. Following his military discharge, Marecak studied on the G.I. Bill at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center from 1946 to 1950, having previously met its director, Boardman Robinson, conducting a seminar in mural painting at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Although he did not work with Robinson at the Fine Arts Center, who had become quite ill - retiring in 1947 - he studied Robinson’s specialty of mural painting before leaving to briefly attend the Cranbrook Academy in 1947. That same year he returned to the Fine Arts Center, studying painting with Jean Charlot and Mary Chenoweth, and lithography with Lawrence Barrett with whom he produced some 132 images during 1948-49. At the Fine Arts Center he met his future wife, Donna Fortin, whom he married in 1947. Also a Midwesterner, she had taken night art courses at Hull House in Chicago, later studying at the Art Institute of Chicago with the encouragement of artist Edgar Britton. After World War II she studied with him from 1946 to 1949 at the Fine Arts Center. (He had moved to Colorado Springs to treat his tuberculosis.) Ed Marecak also became good friends with Britton, later collaborating with him on the design of large stained glass windows for a local church. In 1950-51 Marecak returned to the Cleveland Institute of Art to complete his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. A year later he was invited to conduct a summer class at the University of Colorado in Boulder, confirming his interest in the teaching profession. In 1955 he received his teaching certificate from the University of Denver. Vance Kirkland, the head of its art department, helped him get a teaching job with the Denver Public Schools so that he and his family could remain in the Mile High City. For the next twenty-five years he taught art at Skinner, Grove, East, George Washington and Morey Junior High Schools. Prior to coming to Colorado, Marecak did watercolors resembling those of Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent and Charles Burchfield. However, once in Colorado Springs he decided to destroy much of his earlier oeuvre, embarking on a totally new direction unlike anything he had previously done. Initially, in the 1940s, he was influenced by surrealist imagery and Paul Klee and in the West by Indian petroglyphs and Kachinas. His first one-person show at the Garrett Gallery in Colorado Springs in 1949 featured paintings and lithographs rendered in the style of Magic Realism and referential abstraction. The pieces, including an oil Witch with Pink Dish...
Category

1980s American Modern Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Oil

Two Mystic Ladies Hiding, 1980s Semi Abstract Framed Oil Painting with Figures
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Two Mystic Ladies Hiding, 1980s semi abstract geometric painting by Denver, Colorado artist, Edward Marecak. Two reclining female figures, interior scene, bowl of fruit and vase of f...
Category

1980s Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Oil

Façade, 1960s Abstract Mixed Media Painting, Mid Century Modern, Pink, Black
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
'Façade' is an ink and acrylic painting by Denver artist Edward Marecak circa 1960s. Abstract mixed media painting completed in colors of black, pink, gray, and white. Presented in a...
Category

1960s Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Ink, Acrylic

Diana and the Three Fates, Vintage 1970s Semi Abstract Figural Oil Painting
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Diana and the Three Fates, vintage 1970s semi abstract oil painting on board by 20th century Denver artist, Edward Marecak (1919-1993). Female nude figure of the the Roman virgin goddess, Diana, the protector of childbirth reclining with vases of flowers and the Three Fates looking on. Semi abstract, cubist style painting in bright colors of pink, fuchsia, green, yellow, orange, blue, brown, purple and red. Unframed, custom framing is available. In situ photos are frame mocks ups, the piece is currently unframed. Painting is clean and in very good vintage condition - please contact us for a detailed condition report. Provenance: Estate of Edward Marecak Expedited and international shipping is available - please contact us for a quote. About the Artist: Born to immigrant parents from the Carpathian region in Slovakia, Marecak grew up with his family in the farming community of Bennett’s Corners, now part of the town of Brunswick, near Cleveland, Ohio. When he turned twelve, his family moved to a multi-ethnic neighborhood of Poles, Czechs, Slovaks and Slovenians in Cleveland. His childhood household cherished the customs and Slavic folk tales from the Old Country that later strongly influenced his work as a professional artist. During junior high he painted scenery for puppet shows of "Peter and the Wolf," awakening his interest in art. In his senior year in high school he did Cézanne-inspired watercolors of Ohio barns at seventy-five cents apiece for the National Youth Administration. They earned him a full scholarship to the Cleveland Institute of Art (1938-1942) where he studied with Henry George Keller whose work was included in the 1913 New York Armory Show. In 1940 Marecak also taught at the Museum School of the Cleveland Institute. Before being drafted into the military in 1942, he briefly attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art near Detroit, one of the nation’s leading graduate schools of art, architecture, and design. A center of innovative work in architecture, art and design with an educational approach built on a mentorship model, it has been home to some of the world’s most renowned designers and artists, including Eero Saarinen, Charles Eames, Daniel Libeskind and Harry Bertoia. Marecak’s studies at Cranbrook with painter Zoltan Sepeshy and sculptor Carl Milles were interrupted by U.S. army service in the Aleutian Islands during World War II. Following his military discharge, Marecak studied on the G.I. Bill at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center from 1946 to 1950, having previously met its director, Boardman Robinson, conducting a seminar in mural painting at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Although he did not work with Robinson at the Fine Arts Center, who had become quite ill - retiring in 1947 - he studied Robinson’s specialty of mural painting before leaving to briefly attend the Cranbrook Academy in 1947. That same year he returned to the Fine Arts Center, studying painting with Jean Charlot and Mary Chenoweth, and lithography with Lawrence Barrett with whom he produced some 132 images during 1948-49. At the Fine Arts Center he met his future wife, Donna Fortin, whom he married in 1947. Also a Midwesterner, she had taken night art courses at Hull House in Chicago, later studying at the Art Institute of Chicago with the encouragement of artist Edgar Britton. After World War II she studied with him from 1946 to 1949 at the Fine Arts Center. (He had moved to Colorado Springs to treat his tuberculosis.) Ed Marecak also became good friends with Britton, later collaborating with him on the design of large stained glass windows for a local church. In 1950-51 Marecak returned to the Cleveland Institute of Art to complete his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. A year later he was invited to conduct a summer class at the University of Colorado in Boulder, confirming his interest in the teaching profession. In 1955 he received his teaching certificate from the University of Denver. Vance Kirkland, the head of its art department, helped him get a teaching job with the Denver Public Schools so that he and his family could remain in the Mile High City. For the next twenty-five years he taught art at Skinner, Grove, East, George Washington and Morey Junior High Schools. Prior to coming to Colorado, Marecak did watercolors resembling those of Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent and Charles Burchfield. However, once in Colorado Springs he decided to destroy much of his earlier ouevre, embarking on a totally new direction unlike anything he had previously done. Initially, in the 1940s he was influenced by surrealist imagery and Paul Klee, and in the West by Indian petroglyphs and Kachinas. His first one-person show at the Garrett Gallery in Colorado Springs in 1949 featured paintings and lithographs rendered in the style of Magic Realism and referential abstraction. The pieces, including an oil Witch with Pink Dish...
Category

1970s Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Oil, Board

Untitled #21, 1970s Abstract Mixed Media Acrylic Painting, Blue Black Shapes
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Ink and acrylic on paper abstract drawing by Edward Marecak (1919-1993) titled Untitled #21 in colors of light blue, dark blue, black and white. Presented in a custom frame with all ...
Category

20th Century Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Ink, Acrylic

The Dance of Salome, Abstracted Figural Framed Triptych, 1960s Oil Paintings
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
The Dance of Salome or the Dance of the Seven Veils is a Triptych painted in 3 panels in oil on board. Each panel depicts a semi-abstract, cubist style individual figure: Herod, Herodias and Salome. Painted in bright colors of yellow, orange, red, green, fuchsia, purple, pink, white, blue, black and brown. Presented in vintage frames, framed dimensions of each panel measure 29 x 17 x 1 ½ inches, Image size is 23 ½ x 12 ¼ inches, each. Overall dimensions of the triptych measure 29 x 53 ½ x 1 ½ inches as displayed with 1 inch spacing between each panel. Based on the Dance of Seven Veils in which Princess Salome danced...
Category

1960s American Modern Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Winter Palace, 1960s Mid Century Modern Framed Abstract Mixed Media Painting
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Winter Palace is an abstract acrylic and watercolor on paper painting by Edward Marecak (1919-1993) with pastel pinks, blues and greens. Presented in a new custom frame, outer dimensions measure 19 ¾ x 23 x 1 inches. Image size is 11 ⅝ x 14 ⅝ inches. Painting is clean and in very good vintage condition - please contact us for a detailed condition report. Provenance: Estate of Edward Marecak Expedited and international shipping is available - please contact us for a quote. About the Artist: Born to immigrant parents from the Carpathian region in Slovakia, Marecak grew up with his family in the farming community of Bennett’s Corners, now part of the town of Brunswick, near Cleveland, Ohio. When he turned twelve, his family moved to a multi-ethnic neighborhood of Poles, Czechs, Slovaks and Slovenians in Cleveland. His childhood household cherished the customs and Slavic folk tales from the Old Country that later strongly influenced his work as a professional artist. During junior high he painted scenery for puppet shows of "Peter and the Wolf...
Category

1960s Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Paper, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Watercolor

Pods, Mid Century Modern Abstract Oil Painting, Brown Green, Cream, Tan
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Original mid-century modern style abstract oil painting by 20th century Denver artist, Edward Marecak (1919-1993). "Pods" is an abstract composition in earthy tones of green, brown,...
Category

Mid-20th Century Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Oil

Masks, 1980s Semi-Abstract Polychromatic Oil Painting, Vibrant Multicolor
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Oil on board painting by Edward Marecak (1919-1993) titled "Masks" from the 1980s. Mosaic style oil painting in vibrant colors of red, blue, green, yellow, and orange. Presented in a...
Category

1980s Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Oil

X Marks the Spot, 1960s Mid Century Modern Mixed Media Abstract Painting
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
'X Marks the Spot' is an acrylic and pastel on paper by Denver artist Edward Marecak from the 1960s. Abstract mixed media painting painted in colors of black, white, and purple. Pres...
Category

1960s Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Pastel, Acrylic

City Park, Denver, Colorado, Large Semi Abstract Colorful Oil Landscape
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Large format oil painting on canvas of City Park in Denver, Colorado by 20th century Denver modernist, Edward Marecak. Semi-abstract park scene with various types of trees, figures, ...
Category

20th Century American Modern Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

The Garden, Vintage Abstract Mixed Media on Paper in Pink, Orange, and Green
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Burnished crayon and acrylic on paper by Edward Marecak (1919-1993) titled The Garden. 1960s abstract mixed media painting in shades of yellow, pink, and blue. Presented in a custom ...
Category

1960s Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Crayon, Acrylic

Sybils Telling Cosmic Jokes On Mankind, Framed Figurative Abstract Oil Painting
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Vintage 1960s original semi abstract oil painting, "Sybils Telling Cosmic Jokes On Mankind", by 20th century Denver modernist, Edward Marecak (1919-1993). Painted in bright colors of...
Category

1960s Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Masks And Flowers, Semi Abstract Vintage 1984 Painting, Red Yellow Green Pink
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Masks And Flowers, vintage original 1984 oil painting on board by Edward Marecak (1919-1993), semi abstract, cubist style painting of tribal mas...
Category

1980s Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Board, Oil

Parcheesi, Vintage Semi Abstract Oil Painting by Edward Marecak, Board Game
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
'Parcheesi', vintage 1990 semi abstract oil painting on canvas by 20th century Denver artist, Edward Marecak (1919-1993) of a stylized Parcheesi board ...
Category

1990s Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Fertility Goddesses, Abstract Nude Figures 1950s Oil Painting, Pink, Blue, Green
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Fertility Goddesses, abstract painting, vintage 1950, figurative with three nude female figures by Denver modernist artist, Edward Marecak (1919-1993). Oil paint on board in vivid co...
Category

1950s Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Oil, Board

Goddess of Fertility, 1960s Semi Abstract, Nudes, Flowers, Red Blue Yellow Green
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Goddess of Fertility, vintage 1960s original oil painting by Edward Marecak (1919-1993), semi abstract with somewhat cubist nude female and male figure in an interior scene with flow...
Category

Mid-20th Century Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Three Figures Caught in Stained Glass, 1980s Semi Abstract Figural Oil Painting
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Three Figures Caught in Stained Glass, vintage 1980s semi abstract painting by Denver modernist, Edward Marecak with three human figures, painted in colors of brown, olive, black, pu...
Category

1980s Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Still Life with Masks, Vintage Semi-Abstract Painting, Red, Pink, Yellow, Green
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
"Still Life with Masks", vintage original semi-abstract painting by 20th century Denver artist, Edward Marecak (1919-1993) from 1983. Oil Paint on board with a mid-century modern fe...
Category

1980s American Modern Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Oil, Board

The Big Fish Eats The Little Fish, 1970s Abstracted Fish Framed Oil Painting
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
The Big Fish Eats The Little Fish, vintage 1976 oil on canvas abstract oil painting by 20th century Denver artist, Edward Maracek (1919-1993). Semi-abstract painting in vibrant color...
Category

1970s Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

The Three Fates Confused, 1970s Abstract Figural Painting, Still Life Flowers
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
The Three Fates Confused, a vintage 1970s figural abstraction oil painting by Denver modernist, Edward Marecak (1919-1993). Semi-abstract composition depic...
Category

1970s Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Oil

The Four Winter Months, Semi-Abstract Figure Oil Painting, Red Black Orange Blue
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
1985 original signed oil painting titled 'The Four Winter Months' by Denver modernist, Edward Marecak (1919-1993) with four abstract/stylized figures painted with colors of red, black, green, gray, blue, and orange. Referential abstraction painted in oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right, titled verso. Presented in a vintage frame, outer dimensions measure 24 ½ x 30 ½ x 1 ¼ inches. Image size is 23 ¾ x 30 inches. Provenance: Estate of the artist, Edward Marecak About the Artist: Born Ohio 1919 Died Colorado 1993 Born to immigrant parents from the Carpathian region in Slovakia, Marecak grew up with his family in the farming community of Bennett’s Corners, now part of the town of Brunswick, near Cleveland, Ohio. When he turned twelve, his family moved to a multi-ethnic neighborhood of Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, and Slovenians in Cleveland. His childhood household cherished the customs and Slavic folk tales from the Old Country that later strongly influenced his work as a professional artist. His junior and senior high projects earned him a full scholarship to the Cleveland Institute of Art (1938-1942) where he studied with Henry George Keller whose work was included in the 1913 New York Armory Show. In 1940 Marecak also taught at the Museum School of the Cleveland Institute. Before being drafted into the military in 1942, he briefly attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art near Detroit, one of the nation’s leading graduate schools of art, architecture, and design. Marecak’s studies at Cranbrook with painter Zoltan Sepeshy...
Category

20th Century Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Floating Shapes, Abstract Floral Oil Painting by Edward Marecak, Pink Black Blue
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Original vintage 1985 abstract oil painting by Edward Marecak (1919-1993) with geometric imagery in colors of coral/pink, black, brown, green, blue, golden yellow, orange, purple and...
Category

20th Century Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Oil, Board

Warp and Woof, 1960 Framed Abstract Geometric Tempera Painting, Purple Gray
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
1960s original signed framed painting by Denver modernist, Edward Marecak (1919-1993), "Warp and Woof" is a mid-century modern abstract painting of a textile on a loom with varying h...
Category

1960s Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Oil Pastel, Tempera, Archival Paper

Liberty Rides the Goose, Semi Abstract, Lady Liberty, Yellow Red White Blue
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Original painting by 20th century Denver modernist, Edward Marecak (1919-1993). "Liberty Rides the Goose" is a semi-abstract depiction of Lady Liberty wearing Red, white and blue wi...
Category

20th Century American Modern Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Oil

The Samurai, Semi-Abstract Figurative Oil Painting in Blue, Yellow, and Red
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Oil on board painting by Edward Marecak (1919-1993) titled "The Samurai" from 1957. Shows an abstract portrait of a samurai in a red hood and black robe. Pres...
Category

1950s Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Oil

1970s Abstract Acrylic Mixed Media Painting, Dark Purple, Black, Blue
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Crayon and acrylic paint mixed media painting by Denver artist Edward Marecak (1919-1993). Abstract geometric painting done in rich colors of dark purple, blue, and black. Presented ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Paper, Crayon, Acrylic

The Keepers Of The Chalice, Semi-Abstract Oil Painting, 20th Century
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Oil on panel painting by Edward Marecak (1919-1993) titled The Keepers of the Chalice from 1987. Presented in a custom black frame, outer dimensions measure 36 ¼ x 48 ¼ x 1 ⅛ inches....
Category

1980s Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Oil

Abstract Oil Painting, 1950s Midcentury Modern Horizontal Painting, Green Blue
By Edward Marecak
Located in Denver, CO
Vintage 1950s abstract oil painting on masonite by 20th century Denver artist Edward Marecak (1919-1993) painted in colors of blue, green, white, yellow and black in a midcentury mod...
Category

Mid-20th Century Abstract Edward Marecak Art

Materials

Oil, Masonite

Edward Marecak art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Edward Marecak art available for sale on 1stDibs. If you’re browsing the collection of art to introduce a pop of color in a neutral corner of your living room or bedroom, you can find work that includes elements of orange, pink and other colors. You can also browse by medium to find art by Edward Marecak in paint, oil paint, fabric and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the abstract style. Not every interior allows for large Edward Marecak art, so small editions measuring 19 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Fritz Bultman, Parris Jaru, and Nathalie Gribinski. Edward Marecak art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $1,650 and tops out at $12,750, while the average work can sell for $4,200.

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