painting
30 posts
American, 1879-1961 Hills, c.1935-1943 Oil on canvas 16” x 20” The Brooklyn College Library Collection Vincent Canadé was born in San Giorgio Albanese, Italy, and is mainly known for his landscape paintings. He was active during the 1920s and 30s. In this painting, a Federal Art Project commission, Canadé depicts two lonely houses. They are calmly situated under a cloud-streaked sky, surrounded by fields, trees, boulders, and a lake. The image exudes a sense of tranquility with its muted blues, greens, and browns. The gentle, undulating movement encircling the houses provides this painting with its aptly descriptive title: hills. Federal Art Project Living New Deal
American, 1897-1989 Autumn Woods, c.1935-1943 Oil on canvas 24”x 29” The Brooklyn College Library Collection Before arriving in the U.S. during the Great Depression, Stephan Csoka was considered one of Hungary’s most talented young artists. In America he worked as a housepainter with his father-in-law before becoming an art teacher at both Hunter College and the National Academy of Design. His works can be found in institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum and the Library of Congress. In this painting, created for the WPA in 1937, Csoka creates a scene of rich autumn foliage with a muted palette of orange, brown, green, and purple. Federal Art Project Living New Deal
American, 1896-1981 Flowers, c.1935-1943 Oil on canvas 30 1/4” x 24” The Brooklyn College Library Collection Vincent D’Agostino studied at the Art Institute of Chicago in the city where he was born, and later with the renowned American artists George Bellows and Charles Webster Hawthorne. While employed by the WPA, D’Agostino participated in the Federal Art Project (FAP), which lasted from 1935-1942. Throughout the duration of the FAP, approximately 2,500 large-scale public murals were produced. However, prints, sculptures, and smaller easel paintings such as D’Agostino’s Flowers eventually emerged as the division’s main focus. The FAP gave American artists an opportunity to develop and practice their craft. Federal Art Project (FAP) Living New Deal
Artist: Elizabeth Delson Title: Celestial Spheres Audio: Date: 1974 Dimensions: 30″ round Location in Library: Lower level Media: Acrylic relief with gold leaf with built-up center on wood panel Owner: Gift of Sidney L. Delson. © Artist’s Estate Description: Delson was a painter and printmaker whose works reflected her exploration of nature and spiritual moods. Delson described her artistic philosophy this way: “Through painting and graphics I explore images to uncover the dynamic forces behind their appearance: emergence, growth, decay, metamorphosis. I try to capture the process of change in time and space, to crystallize a living moment and convey its vitality.” These paintings, completed midway through her career, reflect her unique forms, energy, vibrant color, and light. Related Website – Online Catalogue Raisonné of Elizabeth Delson
Artist: Elizabeth Delson (American, 1932-2005) Title: Fiery Fields Audio: Date: 1968 Dimensions: 30″ x 30″ Location in Library: Lower level Media: Oil on canvas Owner: Gift of Sidney L. Delson. © Artist’s Estate Description: Delson was a painter and printmaker whose works reflected her exploration of nature and spiritual moods. Delson described her artistic philosophy this way: “Through painting and graphics I explore images to uncover the dynamic forces behind their appearance: emergence, growth, decay, metamorphosis. I try to capture the process of change in time and space, to crystallize a living moment and convey its vitality.” These paintings, completed midway through her career, reflect her unique forms, energy, vibrant color, and light. Related Website – Online Catalogue Raisonné of Elizabeth Delson
Artist: Elizabeth Delson (American, 1932-2005) Title: Garden of Allah Audio: Date: 1971 Dimensions: 34″ x 36″ Location in Library: Lower level Media: Oil relief on wood panel Owner: Gift of Sidney L. Delson. © Artist’s Estate Description: Delson was a painter and printmaker whose works reflected her exploration of nature and spiritual moods. Delson described her artistic philosophy this way: “Through painting and graphics I explore images to uncover the dynamic forces behind their appearance: emergence, growth, decay, metamorphosis. I try to capture the process of change in time and space, to crystallize a living moment and convey its vitality.” These paintings, completed midway through her career, reflect her unique forms, energy, vibrant color, and light. Related Website – Online Catalogue Raisonné of Elizabeth Delson
Artist: Elizabeth Delson (American, 1932-2005) Title: Magic Circle Audio: Date: 1975 Dimensions: 30″ round Location in Library: Lower level Media: Oil relief on wood panel Owner: Gift of Sidney L. Delson. © Artist’s Estate Description: Delson was a painter and printmaker whose works reflected her exploration of nature and spiritual moods. Delson described her artistic philosophy this way: “Through painting and graphics I explore images to uncover the dynamic forces behind their appearance: emergence, growth, decay, metamorphosis. I try to capture the process of change in time and space, to crystallize a living moment and convey its vitality.” These paintings, completed midway through her career, reflect her unique forms, energy, vibrant color, and light. Related Website – Online Catalogue Raisonné of Elizabeth Delson
Artist: Asya Dodina, Slava Polishchuk Title: Collapse Audio: Date: Dimensions: Location in Library: First floor Media: Owner: On loan from artists. © Asya Dodina and Slava Polishchuk Description: Related Websites – Interview with Asya Dodina & Slava Polishchuk, Studio International – Asya Dodina& Slava Polishchuk ” What Remains”, NY ART BEAT
Artist: Asya Dodina Title: Window I Audio: Date: 1999 Dimensions: 92″ x 56″ Location in Library: Lower level Media: Oil on canvas Owner: On loan from artist. © Asya Dodina Description: Related Websites – Interview with Asya Dodina & Slava Polishchuk, Studio International – Asya Dodina& Slava Polishchuk ” What Remains”, NY ART BEAT
Artist: Asya Dodina Title: Window II Audio: Date: 1999 Dimensions: 50″ x 56″ Location in Library: First floor Media: Oil on canvas Owner: On loan from artist. © Asya Dodina Description: Related Websites – Interview with Asya Dodina & Slava Polishchuk, Studio International – Asya Dodina& Slava Polishchuk ” What Remains”, NY ART BEAT
American, 1894-1963 Lewis Street, c.1935-1943 Oil on canvas 23 1/2” x 29 3/4” The Brooklyn College Library Collection Ben Galos emigrated from Belarus to the U.S. in 1913. Galos’s bustling industrial environment is reminiscent of the Ashcan School. The influence of the American Realists of the early 1900s such as Robert Henri and George Sloan is apparent in this painting, down to Galos’s inclusion of the distinctive New York streetlamp. During the Great Depression Galos worked for the WPA. Two of his paintings from that era are on view here: this one, and a very different one entitled Old Farmhouse. Federal Art Project Living New Deal
American, 1894-1963 Old Farmhouse, c.1935-1943 Oil on canvas 23 1/2” x 29 1/4 ” The Brooklyn College Library Collection Ben Galos was born Berel Goloschin in Vitebsk, Belarus, and immigrated to New York with his family at the age of nineteen. He studied at the National Academy of Design and although he exhibited his work widely in New York, he appears to have remained poor and single his entire life. Best known for his cityscapes, Galos’s work also includes portraits and landscapes. Galos painted this pristine farmhouse while in the employ of the WPA. Federal Art Project Living New Deal
American, 1913-2004 Jean, c.1935-1943 Oil on canvas 39 1/2” x 25” The Brooklyn College Library Collection Born in England in 1913, Allen Hermes came to the United States at the age of sixteen. An outstanding art student, Hermes attended Syracuse University on a full scholarship. He was also awarded a fellowship to study art and architecture in Germany. Later he served in Europe in WWII with the Corps of Engineers. In this portrait, Hermes captures the expression of a pensive young woman standing in front of a velvet curtain. She is leaning on the balustrade of a balcony, two white flowers in her hand. A peaceful countryside can be seen from a dizzying height behind her, while a stormy sky perhaps reflects her anxious thoughts. Federal Art Project Living New Deal
American, 1891-1985 The Apple Tree, c.1935-1943 Oil on canvas 23 1/2” x 29 1/2” The Brooklyn College Library Collection Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Laufman studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and at the Art Student’s League in New York. Robert Henri was his most important teacher. From 1920 to 1933, Laufman lived in Paris where he was friendly with Henri Matisse and in contact with other artists of the Modernist movement. Laufman painted in both traditional and modern styles and consequently his work is extremely varied. Primarily a painter of landscapes, trees were among his favorite subjects, as can be seen in this lush portrayal of an apple tree in late summer. Federal Art Project Living New Deal
Twilight, c.1935-1943 Oil on canvas 24” x 29 1/2” The Brooklyn College Library Collection A woman with a basket and cane makes her way down a snow-packed path. The landscape is filled with barren trees, silhouetted against a pastel sky. Pink, blue, mauve, and gold –the colors of a winter’s twilight– are reflected on the snow-covered ground. Landscapes, cityscapes, and farmland scenes were popular themes for FAP artists who typically avoided controversial subjects. Federal Art Project Living New Deal
American, 1911-1972 Untitled (Landscape), c.1935-1943 Oil on canvas 16 1/2” x 24” The Brooklyn College Library Collection After immigrating to New York, the Russian born Pantuhoff lived in Greenwich Village where he came into contact with the emerging Abstract Expressionists. Pantuhoff, however, followed a different path. Although he first painted portraits of distinguished individuals such as Princess Grace of Monaco and Laurence S. Rockefeller, he eventually became best known for his big-eye portraits in the 1960s. In this eerie landscape, Pantuhoff uses abstract forms to create the swirling patterns of an uneven hillside. The uncanny, delicate trees evoke movement and emotion. Federal Art Project Living New Deal
American, 20th century A Day in June, c.1935-1943 Oil on canvas 19 3/4” x 23 1/2” The Brooklyn College Library Collection Although an artist from the American Midwest, one can see the influence of Impressionism in this work by Claude Patterson. It shares affinities with Camille Pissarro’s painting of 1872, Orchard in Bloom, Louveciennes, evident in the gentle way Patterson depicts his blossoming tree. Patterson’s palette of blues and greens, his rendering of depth, and his inclusion of buildings also call to mind the works of Paul Cézanne. Like Cézanne’s paintings of Mont Sainte-Victoire, the background of Patterson’s landscape is dominated by the grandeur of a distant mountain. Federal Art Project Living New Deal
Artist: Philip Pearlstein (American, 1924-2022) Title: President Francis P. Kilcoyne Audio: Date: 1968 Dimensions: 44″ x 36″ Location in Library: First floor Media: Oil on canvas Owner: The Brooklyn College Library Collection. © Philip Pearlstein Description: President Francis P. Kilcoyne (1903-1985) was Brooklyn College’s third president, serving from 1966 to 1967. A lifelong liberal, Kilcoyne spoke at a college antiwar rally in 1935, and as college president asked for leniency for antiwar protesters arrested in a clash with police on campus. In 1976, Kilcoyne resigned from the city’s Board of Higher Education, protesting plans to impose tuition at the colleges in the City University of New York system. In 1980, after his wife’s death, Kilcoyne was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in the Brooklyn Diocese. The artist, Philip Pearlstein, enjoys an international reputation as a leading figurative painter. In the early 1960s, Pearlstein formulated a new American realism by painting the human body in a highly objective manner, breaking with the Western tradition of idealizing figures. He advocated painting images the way the eye actually sees them, including optical distortions and perceived anomalies. Pearlstein taught at Brooklyn College from 1964 to 1989. Related Websites Philip Pearlstein at MOMA Philip […]
This painting embody a dynamic between being fully realized abstract painting and arrested gestures in a state of undoneness. The shades of graphite and the gestures within it are markers of time and change, and place. The making of painting is a process of accumulating lessons. These factors seem in kinship with the act of study and learning.
Artist: Archie Rand Title: Dinah Washington Audio: Date: 1970 Dimensions: 18″ x 72″ Location in Library: Second floor Media: Acrylic and enamel on canvas Owner: On loan from artist. © Archie Rand Description: Related Websites – Archie Rand’s Biography – Archie Rand, Presidential Professor of Art at Brooklyn College
American, 1888-1960 Flowers, c.1935-1943 Oil on canvas 29 1/2” x 23 1/4” The Brooklyn College Library Collection In 1913, Allen Lee Swisher studied with Jean-Paul Laurens at the renowned Académie Julian in Paris, and later in New York with Harry Mills Walcott. He is known predominantly as a portrait painter. Swisher painted this lush and abundant bouquet of wildflowers with confidence and verve. His exuberance perhaps reflects the optimism the WPA engendered in many aspiring American artists. Federal Art Project Living New Deal
Labor Unity, 1939 Artist: Philip Tipperman (American, 1916 -1969) Oil on canvas board, 16 x 20 inches Gift of Tipperman Family The Brooklyn College Library Collection The Committee (later Congress) for Industrial Organization (CIO) emerged out of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and grew rapidly during the Great Depression. The rivalry for dominance between the two organizations was bitter and sometimes violent. The CIO focused on organizing industrial workers who had been ignored by the AFL unions that supported craft and trade workers. Many in the AFL union had discriminated against African Americans and the CIO held out more egalitarian possibilities. In the background of the painting, industrial buildings loom. A Black worker, with a CIO button on the lapel of his coat, dominates the foreground. His face appears to express both anxiety and determination. By foregrounding him, Tipperman highlights the important role African Americans played in industrial unionization. The strong neck and bashed nose of the white AFL man suggests his fighting nature, while his clenched hands seem to reflect a unifying gesture or perhaps a struggle. The jagged, ominous dark clouds woven across the sky imply a sense of turmoil and potential trouble brewing for labor and […]
Labor Strike, 1939 Artist: Philip Tipperman (American, 1916 -1969) Oil on canvas board, 16 x 20 inches Gift of Tipperman Family The Brooklyn College Library Collection During the Great Depression (1929-1939) picket lines and worker strikes were a common occurrence in cities across the United States. Rising worker militancy during hard times, strikes, as well as the passage of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 known as the “Wagner Act,” fueled the rise of labor unions. In this painting, set in front of an imposing but nondescript factory, picketers evoke empathy with their facial expressions of hope and fear. A man in the foreground holds a strike placard and wears a fedora, which is different from the other workers’ caps. His confident demeanor, and what appears to be a union button on his jacket, suggests that he is a union leader. The painting style is in keeping with Social Realism — a movement that flourished between the two World Wars in response to the hardships and social and political turmoil of the time. Social realist artists often portrayed everyday workers as heroic symbols of persistence and strength in the face of adversity.
Murdered by the Company, 1939 Artist: Philip Tipperman (American, 1916 -1969) Oil on canvas board, 16 x 20 inches Gift of Tipperman Family The Brooklyn College Library Collection Five white men with expressions of fear and horror are carrying a dead Black man. The picket sign being carried by one man and another sign on the ground suggests the men were picketing one of the factories in the background. Was the brick in the right foreground thrown at the workers and then killing the Black man? Or was he killed in an industrial accident where there were unsafe working conditions? The surging shapes, churning rhythms, ominous clouds, including tornado-like funnel clouds, convey an unsettling mood of force and violence. Placing the dead African American man front and center in the painting draws attention to the fact that no group during the Great Depression was harder hit than African Americans. By 1932, approximately half of African Americans were unemployed. In some Northern cities, many whites called for Black men to be fired from any jobs as long as white men were out of work. Racial violence became more common, especially in the South, and the large tree branches in the upper […]
Picketed, Beaten and Jailed, 1939 Artist: Philip Tipperman (American, 1916 -1969) Oil on canvas board, 16 x 20 inches Gift of Tipperman Family The Brooklyn College Library Collection This painting provides a dramatic portrayal of jailed striking workers, two with bloodied bandaged heads, holding their picket signs and with facial expressions of despair but also some degree of resolve. The exaggerated forms, undulating shapes and sculpted faces adds visual force to to the painting. It’s also significant for its depiction of Black and white men working together for better wages and working conditions. Note the small tear on the right shoulder of the green jacket worn by the worker with brown hair, which resembles a paint brush—perhaps an emblem of the artist’s solidarity with labor. Also, the smoke from the cigarette seems to form the cloud hovering over the men. Historically, striking workers had risked their lives on the picket lines. Though unions often formed in response to dangerous working conditions, going on strike exposed workers to lost wages but also to the danger of arrest or physical violence from hired thugs or police that served as companies’ strong-arms.
After Work and Before Supper, 1939 Artist: Philip Tipperman (American, 1916 -1969) Oil on canvas board, 16 x 20 inches Gift of Tipperman Family The Brooklyn College Library Collection In this painting, Tipperman uses a distorted aerial perspective to focus on a sleeping worker depicted in the relative comfort of his working-class home. A steam-heat radiator, a cast aside pipe, a wooden chair, a standing lamp, a rumpled rug, and a single bed with visible mattress springs suggest a working-class environment. Tipperman in his own very unique way, is at once offering us images that are misshapen and distorted and yet also charming detailed shapes and forms that often appear quite beautiful. The viewer is able to palpably understand the effort required to maintain this man’s modest lifestyle. The angles of his body are twisted and misshapen suggesting discomfort. We share in his extreme sense of exhaustion, still in work clothes with shoes off, belt unbuckled curvaceously like a snake, tie pulled down, and shirt unbuttoned as he briefly naps before his supper. Perhaps dreaming of an easier life.
Untitled (Ships at Sea), c.1935-1943 Oil on canvas 20” x 23 1/2” The Brooklyn College Library Collection This moody painting of a fully rigged ship at sea was likely inspired by the waterways surrounding New York City during the mid19th century. These types of ships were known for their cargo capacity and speed. Federal Art Project Living New Deal
Untitled (Still Life with Chair), c. 1935-1943 Oil on canvas 29” x 23 3/4” The Brooklyn College Library Collection The effects of Modernism have evidently inspired the artist who painted this enigmatic still life. The bowl of fruit has been rendered as if the artist is looking at it from various angles, and the simultaneous, multiple perspectives of the shell and open box recall Braque and Picasso’s early experiments with Cubism. The jacket with a ruffled pocket square, and the portrait propped up against the chair-back enhance the painting’s sense of mystery Federal Art Project Living New Deal
