Karl Eugene Fortess

Tanks & Trees — Mid-century American Surrealism

c. 1940

Ian Hugo, 'Mother of All', engraving, 1945, edition 50. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered '48/50' in pencil. With the blind stamp 'madeleine-claude jobrack...

Ferdinand Springer, 'Arbre-Homme', engraving, 1945, edition 23. Signed and numbered '23/20' in pencil. A fine, richly-inked impression, on heavy, b...

Léopold Survage, 'Le Cheval' (The Horse), color etching, edition 60, 1953. Signed and numbered '46/60' in pencil. Initialed in the plate, lower right. A superb, richly-inked impressi...

Lawrence Kupferman, 'Fantasia Americana – 1880', drypoint etching with sandground, 1943. Signed, titled, and annotated 'Series A, 1971 2/6' in pencil. A superb, richly-inked impression, on heavy, cream wove paper, with full margins (2 1/2 to 3 1/2 inches); the paper slightly lightened within the original mat opening, otherwise in excellent condition. One of only 6 impressions printed in 1971, with the added sandground grey background tint. Image size 11 13/16 x 14 3/4 inches; sheet size 18 x 20 1/4 inches. Archivally matted to museum standards, unframed. Collections: National Gallery of Art, Zimmerli Art Museum (Rutgers University). ABOUT THE ARTIST Lawrence Kupferman (1909 - 1982) was born in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston and grew up in a working-class family. He attended the Boston Latin School and participated in the high school art program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In the late 1920s, he studied drawing under Philip Leslie Hale at the Museum School—an experience he called 'stultifying and repressive'. In 1932 he transferred to the Massachusetts College of Art, where he first met his wife, the artist Ruth Cobb. He returned briefly to the Museum School in 1946 to study with the influential expressionist German-American painter Karl Zerbe. Kupferman held various jobs while pursuing his artistic career, including two years as a security guard at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. During the 1930s he worked as a drypoint etcher for the Federal Art Project, creating architectural drawings in a formally realistic style—these works are held in the collections of the Fogg Museum and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. In the 1940s he began incorporating more expressionistic forms into his paintings as he became progressively more concerned with abstraction. In 1946 he began spending summers in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where he met and was influenced by Mark Rothko, Hans Hofmann, Jackson Pollock, and other abstract painters. At about the same time he began exhibiting his work at the Boris Mirski Gallery in Boston. In 1948, Kupferman was at the center of a controversy involving hundreds of Boston-area artists. In February of that year, the Boston Institute of Modern Art issued a manifesto titled 'Modern Art and the American Public' decrying 'the excesses of modern art,' and announced that it was changing its name to the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). The poorly conceived statement, intended to distinguish Boston's art scene from that of New York, was widely perceived as an attack on modernism. In protest, Boston artists such as Karl Zerbe, Jack Levine, and David Aronson formed the 'Modern Artists Group' and organized a mass meeting. On March 21, 300 artists, students, and other supporters met at the Old South Meeting House and demanded that the ICA retract its statement. Kupferman chaired the meeting and read this statement to the press: “The recent manifesto of the Institute is a fatuous declaration which misinforms and misleads the public concerning the integrity and intention of the modern artist. By arrogating to itself the privilege of telling the artists what art should be, the Institute runs counter to the original purposes of this organization whose function was to encourage and to assimilate contemporary innovation.” The other speakers were Karl Knaths...

Ian Hugo, 'Encircled', engraving, 1946, edition 50. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered '5/50' in pencil. With the blind stamp 'madeleine-claude jobrack EDIT...

Ian Hugo, 'Forest Woman', engraving, 1945, edition 50. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered '5/50' in pencil. With the blind stamp 'madeleine-claude jobrack E...

Artist: Roberto Matta, Chilean (1911 - 2002) Title: Les Venusiennes (II) - Fog Ma Gog Planche 3 Year: 1971 Medium: Lithograph on Arches, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 47/100...

Artist: Mihail Chemiakin, Russian (1943 - ) Title: Strange Rider from Carnival of St. Petersburg Suite Year: Circa 1980 Medium: Lithograph, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 30...

Artist: Salvador Dali, Spanish (1904 - 1989) Title: Christopher Columbus from "Dali Discovers America" Portfolio Year: 1979 Medium: Lithograph on Arches, signed and numbered in penci...

La Belle Captive is an lithograph realized after René Magritte (after) in 1969. Signed on plate on the lower left corner: Magritte. Numbered in penci...

Papageno original lithograph limited edition painting Original lithograph signed by hand. Perfect state

Artist: Ben Schonzeit, American (1942 - ) Title: Yankee Flame from the Portfolio, America: The Third Century Year: 1976 Medium: Collotype, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 200 ...