First Open | Post-War & Contemporary Art
Bob Thompson was an African-American figurative painter known for his bold and colorful canvases, whose compositions were influenced by the Old Masters. His art has also been described as synthesizing Baroque and Renaissance masterpieces with the jazz-influenced Abstract Expressionist movement.
Jennifer Bartlett was an American artist. She was known for paintings and prints that combine the system-based aesthetic of conceptual art with the painterly approach of Neo-Expressionism. Many of her pieces were executed on small, square, enamel-coated steel plates that are combined in grid formations to create very large works.
Louise Joséphine Bourgeois was a French-American artist. Although she is best known for her large-scale sculpture and installation art, Bourgeois was also a prolific painter and printmaker. She explored a variety of themes over the course of her long career including domesticity and the family, sexuality and the body, as well as death and the unconscious. These themes connect to events from her childhood which she considered to be a therapeutic process. Although Bourgeois exhibited with the Abstract Expressionists and her work has much in common with Surrealism and Feminist art, she was not formally affiliated with a particular artistic movement.
Vik Muniz is a Brazilian artist and photographer. Initially a sculptor, Muniz grew interested with the photographic representations of his work, eventually focusing completely on photography. Primarily working with unconventional materials such as tomato sauce, diamonds, magazine clippings, chocolate syrup, dust, dirt, etc., Muniz creates works of art, referencing old master's paintings and celebrity portraits, among other things, and then photographs them. His work has been met with both commercial success and critical acclaim, and has been exhibited worldwide. He is currently represented by Galeria Nara Roesler based in New York and Brazil.
Lynne Mapp Drexler was an American abstract and representational artist, painter and photographer.
In the late 1950s, she was an abstract expressionist and was "counted among an important group of women artists whose figural and landscape works were often overlooked during the heyday of post-abstract expressionist modernism — artists such as Jane Freilicher, Lois Dodd, and Jane Wilson."
She would often go to opera and symphony performances with a sketchpad and colored crayons in hand to make sketches inspired by the music.
Alexander Calder was an American artist celebrated for his revolutionary contributions to modern sculpture, including his invention of the mobile. Born into a family of artists on July 22, 1898, in Lawnton, Pennsylvania, and passing away on November 11, 1976, in New York, Calder harnessed his background in mechanical engineering to create kinetic sculptures that moved with air currents, alongside his monumental stationary sculptures known as "stabiles".
Calder's early life was marked by his creation of toys and various objects, showcasing his inherent talent and creativity from a young age. Despite initially pursuing a career in mechanical engineering, Calder's true calling in the arts was undeniable. He moved to New York City, where he enrolled at the Art Students League, laying the groundwork for his iconic artistic style. In 1926, Calder relocated to Paris, which became a pivotal moment in his career, leading to the creation of "Calder's Circus," a whimsical assembly of wire figures that gained him entry into the avant-garde art circles of Europe.
Throughout the 1930s and beyond, Calder's work evolved from figurative painting to abstract sculptures that brought motion into the realm of art, a transition influenced by his visit to Piet Mondrian's studio. His innovative mobiles and stabiles were celebrated for their ingenuity and aesthetic appeal, earning Calder international recognition and numerous accolades. Among his well-known public commissions are the .125 mobile for John F. Kennedy Airport and the monumental red-painted steel stabile, "Flamingo," for the Federal Center Plaza in Chicago.
Calder's legacy extends far beyond his sculptures; his work encompassed painting, printmaking, jewelry design, and even set and costume design for theatre productions. His influence on modern art is profound, inspiring future generations of artists to explore the kinetic possibilities of sculpture.
For art enthusiasts and collectors interested in Alexander Calder's groundbreaking work, staying informed about upcoming sales and auctions is essential. Sign up for updates to never miss an opportunity to own a piece by this influential American sculptor, highlighting his unique contributions to the art world.
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Samuel Lewis Francis, an American painter and printmaker, was known for his pivotal role in postwar American painting and his contributions to the Abstract Expressionism and Color Field painting movements. Born in San Mateo, California, Francis' early life was marked by a deep personal loss and a significant injury during his service in the Army Air Corps, which led him to pursue painting while recovering in a hospital. His work, characterized by splashes of bright contrasting colors against expansive white canvases, drew international acclaim, particularly in Europe and Japan, underscoring his influence on the global art scene.
Francis' art evolved through various phases, from monochromatic works to vibrant, large-scale pieces, and was deeply influenced by his time in Paris and Japan, reflecting elements of Tachisme and possibly Zen Buddhism. Notable for creating large murals and his "Edge" series, Francis also founded The Lapis Press, further contributing to the art community by producing visually compelling texts. Despite facing health challenges towards the end of his life, he remained prolific, leaving behind a legacy celebrated through the Sam Francis Foundation, which aims to perpetuate his creative legacy.
Francis' artworks are held in prestigious collections worldwide, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Centre Pompidou-Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris, highlighting his enduring influence on contemporary art. His auction records and continued recognition in solo exhibitions posthumously underscore the lasting impact of his work on both collectors and the art community.
For those passionate about modern art and its history, staying informed about Samuel Lewis Francis' contributions and the ongoing exhibitions of his works can be enriching. Sign up for updates related to Francis to ensure you don't miss out on new sales and auction events showcasing his vibrant legacy.
Sterling Ruby is an American artist who works in a large variety of media including ceramics, painting, drawing, collage, sculpture, video, and textiles. Often, his work is presented in large and densely packed installations. The artist has cited a diverse range of sources and influences including aberrant psychologies (particularly schizophrenia and paranoia), urban gangs and graffiti, hip-hop culture, craft, punk, masculinity, violence, public art, prisons, globalization, American domination and decline, waste and consumption. In opposition to the minimalist artistic tradition and influenced by the ubiquity of urban graffiti, the artist's works often appear scratched, defaced, camouflaged, dirty, or splattered. Proclaimed as one of the most interesting artists to emerge this century by New York Times art critic Roberta Smith, Ruby's work examines the psychological space where individual expression confronts social constraint. Sterling Ruby currently lives and works in Los Angeles. His studio is located in Vernon, south of downtown Los Angeles
Gabriel Orozco is a Mexican artist. He gained his reputation in the early 1990s with his exploration of drawing, photography, sculpture and installation. In 1998, Francesco Bonami called Orozco «one of the most influential artists of this decade, and probably the next one too».
Gabriel Orozco is a Mexican artist. He gained his reputation in the early 1990s with his exploration of drawing, photography, sculpture and installation. In 1998, Francesco Bonami called Orozco «one of the most influential artists of this decade, and probably the next one too».
Georg Baselitz is a German painter, sculptor and graphic artist. In the 1960s he became well known for his figurative, expressive paintings. In 1969 he began painting his subjects upside down in an effort to overcome the representational, content-driven character of his earlier work and stress the artifice of painting. Drawing from myriad influences, including art of Soviet era illustration art, the Mannerist period and African sculptures, he developed his own, distinct artistic language.
Seth Price is a New York City-based multi-disciplinary post-conceptual artist. He lives and works in New York City.
Seth Price is represented by Reena Spaulings Fine Art and Friedrich Petzel Gallery in New York City, Galerie Chantal Crousal, Paris; Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne and Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi and Capitain Petzel, Berlin. At a 2014 Christie's auction in New York, a golden, vacuum formed polystyrene piece by Price called Vintage Bomber (2006) sold for $785,000, sweeping past its high estimate of $70,000.
Hernan Bas is an artist based in Detroit, Michigan. He graduated in 1996 from the New World School of the Arts in Miami.
Bas is known for his depictions of waifs and dandies, who are somewhat based on his own experiences, as well as his work with the material SlimFast and the paranormal. Overtime, Bas says, these characters have grown in his paintings and taken on different roles. Bas is gay and queerness often influences his work in the form of waifs and other young men, typically recurrent characters in his work.
William Kentridge is a South African artist best known for his prints, drawings, and animated films, especially noted for a sequence of hand-drawn animated films he produced during the 1990s. The latter are constructed by filming a drawing, making erasures and changes, and filming it again. He continues this process meticulously, giving each change to the drawing a quarter of a second to two seconds' screen time. A single drawing will be altered and filmed this way until the end of a scene. These palimpsest-like drawings are later displayed along with the films as finished pieces of art.
Kentridge has created art work as part of design of theatrical productions, both plays and operas. He has served as art director and overall director of numerous productions, collaborating with other artists, puppeteers and others in creating productions that combine drawings and multi-media combinations.
Cynthia Morris Sherman is an American artist whose work consists primarily of photographic self-portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters.
Her breakthrough work is often considered to be the collected Untitled Film Stills, a series of 70 black-and-white photographs of herself evoking typical female roles in performance media (especially arthouse films and popular B-movies). In the 1980s, she used color film and large prints, and focused more on costume, lighting and facial expression.
Richard Prince is an American painter and photographer. In the mid-1970s, Prince made drawings and painterly collages that he has since disowned. His image, Untitled (Cowboy), a rephotographing of a photograph by Sam Abell and appropriated from a cigarette advertisement, was the first rephotograph to be sold for more than $1 million at auction at Christie's New York in 2005. He is regarded as "one of the most revered artists of his generation" according to The New York Times.
Richard Prince is an American painter and photographer. In the mid-1970s, Prince made drawings and painterly collages that he has since disowned. His image, Untitled (Cowboy), a rephotographing of a photograph by Sam Abell and appropriated from a cigarette advertisement, was the first rephotograph to be sold for more than $1 million at auction at Christie's New York in 2005. He is regarded as "one of the most revered artists of his generation" according to The New York Times.
Francesco Clemente is an Italian contemporary artist. He has lived at various times in Italy, India and New York City. Some of his work is influenced by the traditional art and culture of India. He has worked in various artistic media including drawing, fresco, graphics, mosaic, oils and sculpture. He was among the principal figures in the Italian Transavanguardia movement of the 1980s, which was characterised by a rejection of Formalism and conceptual art and a return to figurative art and Symbolism.
Enzo Cucchi is an Italian painter. He was a key member of the Italian Transavanguardia movement, along with his countrymen Francesco Clemente, Mimmo Paladino, Nicola De Maria, and Sandro Chia. The movement was at its peak during the 1980s and was part of the worldwide movement of Neo-Expressionist painters.
Martin Kippenberger was a German artist known for his extremely prolific output in a wide range of styles and media, superfiction as well as his provocative, jocular and hard-drinking public persona.
Kippenberger was "widely regarded as one of the most talented German artists of his generation," according to Roberta Smith of the New York Times. He was at the center of a generation of German enfants terribles including Albert Oehlen, Markus Oehlen, Werner Büttner, Georg Herold, Dieter Göls, and Günther Förg.
Genieve Figgis is an Irish artist who started her artistic career using social media. She is known for her vibrant colors and ghoulish or macabre imagery.
Figgis' style strikes a balance between figuration and abstraction.
