Untitled - San Francisco in the Fog

ca. 1980

This artwork "Landscape with Barn and Horse" c.1985 is an acrylic painting on canvas by noted California artist, Elmer Frederick Ekeroth, American,...

This artwork "Landscape with People Fishing" 1978, is an oil painting on hard board by Polish/American artist Morris Katz, 1932-2010. It is signed and dated at the lower right corner by the artist. The artwork (Hard Board) size is 20 x 24 inches, framed size is 28 x 31.75 inches. Framed in original wooden gold frame, with fabric liner and gold trim. The artwork is in excellent condition, the frame is in very good condition. About the artist: On May 9th, 1988, the New York artist set a new world record by painting a 12- by 16-inch canvas of a child in the snow in just half a minute. (It took an additional eight seconds to frame it.) And that wasn’t the only distinction granted to Katz by the Guinness Book of World Records—his name appeared alongside Pablo Picasso’s under the heading for “Most Prolific Painters.” The Spanish master is estimated to have completed some 13,500 paintings in his life; when Katz died in 2010 at age 78, he was credited with 225,000. Katz’s preposterously productive career began in the small Polish village where he was born in 1932. He started studying under a German painter at age 13, but following World War II he earned a diploma in carpentry instead. In 1949, at the age of 17, he travelled to the United States. It was there that he picked up a paintbrush again, while studying at the Art Students League of New York and showing in the Village. “Soon, I decided I was good enough—compared to others, excellent enough—to make my living as an artist,” he said. It was during those years that he developed the techniques that would eventually land him in the record books. He tossed out his paintbrushes and replaced them with palette knives and toilet paper, which he used to stipple the paint. “Soon I picked up speed,” Katz said. “If you know which way you’re travelling, then you can run.” He made art in bulk, buying up canvases by the thousands and paint by the gallon. He went through some 10,000 rolls of toilet paper per year; he often wore out palette knives. Katz branded his method as “instant art.” Charles Salzberg, writing in New York magazine in 1978, urged readers, “Think of him, if you will, as the McDonald’s of the art world”—fast, cheap, and ubiquitous. He wore a green beret, paint-splattered pants, and a shirt emblazoned with the words “Morris Katz - World’s Most Prolific Artist.” It was a title that came with a price—he worked 18-hour days into his 60s, sometimes from his Greenwich Village studio and other times as a performer at hotels across the Catskills. He would often visit three different hotels in the same day, waking up at 7 a.m. and returning home as late as 1 a.m. His show was as much about the painting as it was the one-liners: “These are the highlights—you can tell because they’re high up on the painting,” he might say. Audiences gobbled up the jokes and the works, often paying less than $50 for a painting. “I give them a fresh painting like a fresh bagel,” he said. Photographer David M. Spindel first met Katz on assignment. “They’d call him mashugana—that’s the Yiddish word for a little bit crazy,” he told Artsy. The pair soon became friends, and Spindel ended up attending several of the artist’s hotel shows. “There were a lot of people from the hotel who were sitting in the room and he set up his easel and his toilet paper and paints and knocked out paintings one after another,” Spindel said. “Just a couple of minutes for each painting, usually. If he was kibitzing with the people in the audience then it took a lot longer. He was always clowning around.” His act was ready-made for television; he appeared on 60 Minutes, David Letterman, and Oprah, among other programs. And Katz didn’t just make instant art—he taught it as well. In 1987, the New Yorker sent a writer to attend one of his speed-painting classes at the Notre Dame School on West 79th Street. A dozen eager students watched in admiration as he whipped up a mountain landscape, asking for advice on how, exactly, to hold their toilet paper for maximum artistic effect. For those who couldn’t make it to Manhattan for a lesson, he published a book—Paint Good & Fast (1985)—with a title as straightforward as his philosophy on art. “Life goes faster and faster,” he wrote. “The fine arts must keep pace. This art will one day be...

This artwork "Landscape with Tree" c.1950 is an oil painting on hardboard by British/American artist Julius Maximilian Delbos, 1879-1970. It is signed at the lower left corner. The hardboard size is 12 x 10 inches, framed size is 22.25 x 20.25 inches. Custom framed in a wooden gold frame, with fabric liner. It is in excellent condition. About the artist: Julius M. Delbos, born in 1879 in London, England, was a landscape painter, teacher, and lecturer. He was elected an Associate of the National Academy of Design, New York City, in 1945, an Academician in 1948. He was also a member of the American Watercolor Society; the New York Watercolor Club; the Society of Graphic Art; Old Dudley Art Society, London; American Artists Professional League; National Arts Club; and the Century Club...

Artist: Albert Genta (French, 1901-1989) Title: Sous bois Year: Circa 1935 Medium: oil on canvas Canvas size: 19.5 x 25.5 inches Signature: Signed lower r...

This artwork depicting a coastal scene at dawn, c.1965 is a oil painting on canvas by Russian artist Irina Belotelkin Roublon 1913-2009. It is signed lower right by the artist. The ...

Artist: Albert Genta (French, 1901-1989) Title: "Jardin des Tuileries, Paris" Year: Circa 1950 Medium: Oil on panel Panel size size: 10.85 x 1...

"Red Bridge In Park" - 2005 Original Acrylic on Board Vibrant landscape depicting a red bridge in a park by California Plein Aire artist Nick White (American, 1943-2009). A red brid...

"Touring Monument Valley" - Desert Plein Aire Landscape in Acrylic on Masonite Dramatic desert landscape by California Plein Aire artist Nick White (American, 1943-2009). The viewer...

"Cactus in Pastel" - Desert Plein Aire Landscape in Acrylic on Masonite Vibrant desert landscape by California Plein Aire artist Nick White (American, 1943-2009). Brightly colored c...

Charming floral painting of yellow achillea moonshine flowers among the green grass by California artist Eleanor Perry (American, 1903-1996). Signed and dated "Eleanor Perry / August...

"Evening at Vasona" - Plein Aire Landscape in Acrylic on Board Vibrant river landscape by California Plein Aire artist Nick White (American, 1943-2009). A glassy river runs down the...

Red Poppies, Vintage Botanical Garden Floral Still-Life Colorful vintage botanical still-life of red poppies by M. Tokira (20th-Century), c.1970's. This close-up view of a group of ...