New York Modernism: From a Private Collection

NEW YORK MODERNISM

From a Private Collection

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New York Modernism From a Private Collection March 23 - April 22.2018 Opening Reception Friday, March 30

Featuring Works By: Joseph Cain | Ralston Crawford | Howard Daum | Leonard Edmondson John Grillo | George L.K. Morris | Tobias Musicant | Lloyd Ney Charles Shaw | Esphyr Slobodkina | Louis Stone | Rudolph Weisenborn

Railyard Arts District | 1613 Paseo de Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | tel 505.988.3250 www.lewallengalleries.com | contact@lewallengalleries.com cover: Tobias Musicant, Black Hat, White Hat, c. 1950, oil on masonite, 24 x 20 in

New York Modernism From a Private Collection LewAllen Galleries presents an exhibition of select works from an important private collection of largely New York artists whose individual and varied approaches to non-representational art had an enduring impact on American Modernism. Included is an array of striking paintings from the first half of the 20th century that demonstrate inventive combinations and conscientiously structured non-objective tendencies. These ground-breaking works were instrumental in creating a compelling form of American abstraction that was consciously divergent from the more impulsive currents of Abstract Expressionism.

These Modernist artists were inspired by the city’s architecture, its dynamic energy, and the geometry of its avenues and skyscrapers. Though their subject matter is suggestive of this visceral urban atmosphere, these artists were viewed as radical in the United States for their experimentation with Cubism, Surrealism, Futurism, Precisionism and Constructivism – all of which straddled the line between semi-representational and fully non-objective imagery. Signature to these historically significant works are an indisputably American optimistic spirit – full of bright colors, jazzy shapes and rhythms – and a sense of flatness that enfolds the surface. Artists such as George L.K. Morris, Ralston Crawford, and Esphyr Slobodkina were staunch advocates for a new visual language in American art that prioritized metaphor, ordered line, and experimentation above any impulse for realism.

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Ralston Crawford, Architectural Abstraction, 1958, watercolor and ink on paper, 9.5 x 5.75 in 3

Ralston Crawford, Third Avenue Elevated No. 4, 1958-68, oil on canvas, 10 x 8 in 4

Tobias Musicant, Totem Pole Down South, c. 1950, gouache on paper, 25 x 13.5 in 5

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Howard Daum, Excalibur, oil on canvas, 30.5 x 50 in 7

Howard Daum, Red, White, Black, c. 1965, oil on canvas, 30.25 x 41 in 8

Joseph Lambert Cain, Untitled, c. 1940s, oil on masonite, 26 x 36 in 9

Louis Stone, Artist No. 4, gouache on paper, 3.25 x 4.75 in 10

Louis Stone, Untitled, c. 1940 colored pencil on paper, 7 x 4.5 in 11

John Grillo, Magic Squares, 1952, oil on board, 21.375 x 11.75 in 12

Lloyd Ney, Untitled, c. 1940, watercolor on paper, 8 x 11 in 13

Leonard Edmondson, Untitled XIV, c. 1950s, watercolor on paper, 13 x 25 in 14

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Leonard Edmondson, Untitled (Dance), 1950, ink and gouache on linen, 14 x 17.5 in

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Leonard Edmondson, Shoreline, c. 1948, gouache and collage on construction paper, 8 7/8 x 12 in

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Leonard Edmondson, Curiouser and Curiouser, 1951, india ink and gouache, 20 x 28 in

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Charles Shaw, Untitled (Portrait), 1941, oil on board, 20 x 16 in

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Esphyr Slobodkina, Toys in the Attic, c.1940s-50s, gouache on paperboard, 7.75 x 9.75 20

Esphyr Slobodkina, Study for Toys in the Attic, c. 1929, oil on board, 7.25 x 9 in 21

Rudolph Weisenborn, 188 Construction, late 1940s, cassein on masonite, 34.5 x 23 in 22

George L. K. Morris, Airplane Factory, 1945-47, oil on canvas, 24 x 15.75 in 23

Railyard Arts District | 1613 Paseo de Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | tel 505.988.3250 www.lewallengalleries.com | contact@lewallengalleries.com Š 2018 LewAllen Contemporary, LLC Artwork Š LewAllen Galleries