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Robert Gwathmey Art

American, 1903-1988

Robert Gwathmey became an artist known for his Social Realist depictions of life in the rural South. He was one of the first white artists to create dignified images of African-American people and did so in a style that was Modernist with many geometric forms and bold coloration. Although he lived intermittently in Pennsylvania and in the South, he spent most of his 45-year career in New York City, where his studio was at 1 West 68th Street. Frequently, he returned to the South, where he became concerned about the problems dividing blacks and whites.

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Artist: Robert Gwathmey
"Girl with Guitar" Robert Gwathmey, Music, Southern Social Commentary, Modernism
By Robert Gwathmey
Located in New York, NY
Robert Gwathmey Girl with Guitar, 1965 Signed upper right Oil on canvas 16 x 20 inches Provenance: The artist ACA Galleries, New York Mr. Moses Asch, New York Terry Dintenfass Galle...
Category

1960s American Modern Robert Gwathmey Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Migrant, Signed and Framed Screenprint by Robert Gwathmey
By Robert Gwathmey
Located in Long Island City, NY
Born in Richmond, Virginia, Robert Gwathmey became an artist known for his Social Realist depictions of life in the rural South. He was one of the first white artists to create digni...
Category

1970s American Modern Robert Gwathmey Art

Materials

Screen

Vintage Lithograph Poster Robert Gwathmey Terry Dintenfass Gallery NYC
By Robert Gwathmey
Located in Surfside, FL
Robert Gwathmey (January 24, 1903 – September 21, 1988) was an American social realist painter. His wife was photographer Rosalie Gwathmey (September 15, 1908 – February 12, 2001) and his son was architect Charles Gwathmey (June 19, 1938 – August 3, 2009). Robert was born to Robert Gwathmey Sr. (1866-1902) and Eva Mortimer Harrison (1868-1941). His half sisters were Kathrine and Ida Carrington. Robert Sr. was killed at work by an explosion and his wife was killed in a vehicular accident. Gwathmey attended North Carolina State College in Raleigh, studying business from 1922-1923. He did not think this path would take him anywhere so he got a job on a freighter and later studied a year at the Maryland Institute of Design in Baltimore. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia is where he completed his education of the arts; he spent four years there. In 1929 and 1930, Gwathmey was the winner of the Cresson Traveling Scholarship, which allowed him the opportunity to study abroad in the summers. He traveled to Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Genoa, Pisa, Florence, Venice, Vienna, Munich, and London. Throughout his studies, Robert Gwathmey was influenced by many artists including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Vincent van Gogh, and Rufino Tamayo from the European modernists, French satirist Honoré Daumier, realist painter Jean-François Millet along with Daumier and Degas. Gwathmey is known for simplifying compositions and using symbolic abstraction to create his messages. His style is recognized by the color, shapes, and figures he uses in his artwork. When asked about being a "social artist" this was his reply: "I'm a social being and I don't see how you can be an artist and be separate....Artists have eyes...You go home. You see things that are almost forgotten. It's always shocking." After finishing school, Robert Gwathmey was a professor at several colleges: Temple University in Philadelphia (1930-1932), Beaver College in Glenside, PA (1930-1937), Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, PA (1939-1942), the Cooper Union School of Art, New York City (1942-1968), New School for Social Research, New York (1946-1949), and Boston University (1968-1969). He was an instructor to artists Faith Ringgold[8] and Alvin Carl Hollingsworth...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Robert Gwathmey Art

Materials

Lithograph

NON-FICTION
By Robert Gwathmey
Located in Portland, ME
Gwathmey, Robert. NON-FICTION. Color screenprint, 1941 (Williams, 5). Signed "Gwathmey" in ink within the image, lower left. Edition size not known. 16 7/8 x 13 1/2 inches, 427 x 34...
Category

1940s Robert Gwathmey Art

Materials

Screen

MIGRANT
By Robert Gwathmey
Located in Portland, ME
Gwathmey, Robert (American 1903-1988). MIGRANT. Screenprint, 1978. An Artist's Proof aside from the edition of 100. Signed in pencil and inscribed "A/P.". 27 3/4 x 18 3/4 inches (ima...
Category

1970s Robert Gwathmey Art

Materials

Screen

END OF THE DAY
By Robert Gwathmey
Located in Portland, ME
Gwathmey, Robert (American, 1903-1988). END OF THE DAY. Williams 4. Screenprint in colors, 1944. Edition size not known. Signed in ink, lower right, within the image. 12 1/4 x 14 ...
Category

1940s Robert Gwathmey Art

Materials

Screen

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Six O'Clock
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Six O-Clock, c. 1942, oil on canvas, 30 x 20 inches, signed and titled several times verso of frame and stretcher (perhaps by another hand), marked “Rehn” several times on frame (for the Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries in New York City, who represented Craig at the time); Exhibited: 1) 18th Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Oil Paintings from March 21 to May 2, 1943 at The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. #87, original price $450 (per catalog) (exhibition label verso), 2) Craig’s one-man show at the Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries, New York City, from October 26 to November 14, 1942, #10 (original price listed as $350); and 3) Exhibition of thirty paintings sponsored by the Harrisburg Art Association at the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg in March, 1944 (concerning this exhibit, Penelope Redd of The Evening News (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) wrote: “Other paintings that have overtones of superrealism inherent in the subjects include Tom Craig’s California nocturne, ‘Six O’Clock,’ two figures moving through the twilight . . . .” March 6, 1944, p. 13); another label verso from The Museum of Art of Toledo (Ohio): original frame: Provenance includes George Stern Gallery, Los Angeles, CA About the Painting Long before Chris Burden’s iconic installation outside of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Urban Light, another artist, Tom Craig, made Southern California streetlights the subject of one of his early 1940s paintings. Consisting of dozens of recycled streetlights from the 1920s and 1930s forming a classical colonnade at the museum’s entrance, Burden’s Urban Light has become a symbol of Los Angeles. For Burden, the streetlights represent what constitutes an advanced society, something “safe after dark and beautiful to behold.” It seems that Craig is playing on the same theme in Six O-Clock. Although we see two hunched figures trudging along the sidewalk at the end of a long day, the real stars of this painting are the streetlights which brighten the twilight and silhouette another iconic symbol of Los Angeles, the palm trees in the distance. Mountains in the background and the distant view of a suburban neighborhood join the streetlights and palm trees as classic subject matter for a California Scene painting, but Craig gives us a twist by depicting the scene not as a sun-drenched natural expanse. Rather, Craig uses thin layers of oil paint, mimicking the watercolor technique for which he is most famous, to show us the twinkling beauty of manmade light and the safety it affords. Although Southern California is a land of natural wonders, the interventions of humanity are already everywhere in Los Angeles and as one critic noted, the resulting painting has an air of “superrealism.” About the Artist Thomas Theodore Craig was a well-known fixture in the Southern California art scene. He was born in Upland California. Craig graduated with a degree in botany from Pomona College and studied painting at Pamona and the Chouinard Art School with Stanton MacDonald-Wright and Barse Miller among others. He became close friends with fellow artist Milford Zornes...
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Materials

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Previously Available Items
original lithograph
By Robert Gwathmey
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: original lithograph. This lithograph was printed in 1958 for the "Improvisations" portfolio, published by the Artists Equity Association of New York on the occasion of the 19...
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original lithograph
By Robert Gwathmey
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: original lithograph. This lithograph was printed in 1957 for the "Improvisations" portfolio, published by the Artists Equity Association of New York on the occasion of the 19...
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1950s Robert Gwathmey Art

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Lithograph

"Migrant" Robert Gwathmey, Baskets of Food Produce, American Realism, Farm Work
By Robert Gwathmey
Located in New York, NY
Robert Gwathmey (1903 - 1988) Migrant Color screenprint Sheet 28 x 18 1/2 inches Signed lower right and numbered "63/100" Provenance: Private Collection, Palm Beach, Florida Robert...
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TOBACCO FARMERS
By Robert Gwathmey
Located in Portland, ME
Gwathmey, Robert (American, 1903-1988). TOBACCO FARMERS. Color serigraph, 1947. Edition of 300. Signed in ink within the image, lower left. 13 3/4 x 10 1/2 (image), 19 3/4 x 13 3/4 (...
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Robert Gwathmey art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Robert Gwathmey art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Robert Gwathmey in screen print, lithograph, canvas and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the modern style. Not every interior allows for large Robert Gwathmey art, so small editions measuring 9 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Clifford Isaac Addams, Marion Osborn Cunningham, and George Biddle. Robert Gwathmey art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $200 and tops out at $19,000, while the average work can sell for $3,500.

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