This photograph titled “The Cliffs, Sorrento” created 1912 in a black and white photogravure by American photographer Karl Struss, 1886-1981. The photogravure size is 6.20 x 8.20 inches, framed size is 17.65 x 21.65. The photogravure is in excellent condition, the frame is in good condition, it has 2 scratches and will be replaced by a similar black frame when sold, this will bring the over all condition to excellent. Provenance: Michaans Auction, Alameda, donated by Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York.

About the artist:

Karl Struss was born in New York and studied photography with Clarence White. In 1910 he exhibited with members of the Photo-Secession and later had work reproduced in Camera Work. He took over White’s studio from 1914 to 1917 where he made portraits as well as advertising and magazine illustrations. During these same years he continued to exhibit in pictorial salons and invented the Struss Pictorial Lens, a soft-focus lens popular with artist-photographers of the period.
In 1919 Struss moved to Hollywood where he worked as a still photographer for Cecil B. DeMille, advancing to film cameraman after only three months. Unlike most other cameramen and still photographers working in Hollywood at the time, Struss himself was trained as an artist-photographer. With his aesthetic orientation and technical ability, Struss produced some of the first highly stylized portraits and production stills in Hollywood. He won the first Academy Award for cinematography in 1929 for his work on “Sunrise” and went on the photograph well over one hundred films.
2014
Karl Struss: Pictorialist Photographer, Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu, USA (solo)
2012
American Photography: Focus New York, Flo Peters Gallery, Hamburg, Germany
2008
Robert Tat Gallery, San Francisco, USA
2004
The Nudes of Karl Stuss, Bruce Silverstein Gallery, New York, USA (solo)
1995
New York to Hollywood: The Photography of Karl Struss, Equitable Gallery, New York, USA (solo)
1977
Stephen White Gallery of Photography, Los Angeles, USA (solo)
1976
Karl Struss: Man with a Camera, International Center of Photography, New York, USA (solo)
1910

The work of Karl Struss is held in numerous collections and museums including, The Getty Museum, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum Of Modern Art, San Francisco.Continue Reading

This artwork titled “The Drummer” 1993 is an original color lithograph on Wove paper by noted Canadian/Inuit artist Kananginak Pootoogook, 1935-2010. It is hand signed, dated, titled, located, described and numbered 31/50 in pencil by the artist. The image size is 22 x 15.5 inches, sheet size is 30 x 22.5 inches, framed size is 39.5 x 31.5 inches. Custom framed in a dark wood frame, with off white backing. The artwork is in excellent condition, the frame has minor restorations and very light dents, barely visible.

About the artist:

Kananginak Pootoogook was an Inuit sculptor and printmaker who lived in Cape Dorset, Nunavut, in Canada. He died as a result of complications related to surgery for lung cancer.

Pootoogook was born at a traditional Inuit camp called Ikerasak, near Cape Dorset, Nunavut (then in the Northwest Territories) to Josephie Pootoogook, leader of the camp, and Sarah Ningeokuluk. The family lived a traditional lifestyle hunting and trapping while living in an iglu in the winter and a sod house in the summer and did not move into their first southern style house until 1942. In 1957 Pootoogook married Shooyoo, moved to Cape Dorset and began work for James Houston.

Originally, Pootoogook did some carving, made prints and lithographs for other artists. At the same time he was a leader in setting up the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative, the first Inuit owned co-op, now part of the Arctic Co-operatives Limited and served from 1959 until 1964 as the president. Although Kananginak had worked with his father, Josephie, in 1959, it was not until the 1970s that Kananginak began work as a full-time artist producing drawings, carvings and prints. According to Terry Ryan, former Co-op manager, Pootoogook was both influenced by and an admirer of the works of his uncle, photographer and historian Peter Pitseolak.

The World Wildlife Commission released a limited edition set in 1977 that included four of Pootoogook’s images and in 1980 he was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. In 1997 Pootoogook built a 6 ft (1.8 m) inukshuk in Cape Dorset for former Governor General of Canada, Roméo LeBlanc. The inukshuk was dismantled and shipped to Ottawa and with the assistance of his son, Johnny, it was rebuilt at Rideau Hall and unveiled on 21 June, National Aboriginal Day.

Pootoogook had several exhibitions and showings of his work. In 2010, he went to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics and to open a showing of his work at the Marion Scott Gallery. He also had a showing of his work, his first solo exhibition at a public institution, at the Museum of Inuit Art in Toronto from February to May 2010. He also received a 2010 National Aboriginal Achievement Award in the arts category from the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation.

While working on his final, and unfinished, drawing of a Peterhead owned by his father, he was struck by coughing spells, which he declared was cancer. Along with his wife, Shooyoo, he flew to Ottawa, staying at the Larga Baffin home, and was diagnosed with lung cancer. In October 2010, he underwent surgery and did not recover. He died 23 November 2010 in Ottawa. The work of Kananginak Pootoogook is held in numerous collections and museums, includingThe McCord Museum, the Dallas Museum of Art, Musee National des Baux Arts du Quebec, Gilcrease Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Portland Museum of Art, San Juan Island Museum.Continue Reading

This photogravure is from a compilation of photographs by the famed American photographer Alfred Stieglitz. The original photographs were taken between 1917 and 1930. This series was printed in 1978. Each image in this series depicts his lover and later wife Georgia O’Keefe (USA 1887-1986), also a famous American artist. The folio size photogravure was printed by the Meridian Gravure Company on Monadnock Caress paper. Printed on one side only (only the plate number is on reverse).

A vital force in the development of modern art in America, Alfred Stieglitz’s significance lies as much in his work as an art dealer, exhibition organizer, publisher, and editor as it does in his career as a photographer. He is credited with spearheading the rise of modern photography in America in the early years of the twentieth century. He also ran a series of influential galleries, starting with 291, which he used not only to exhibit photography, but also to introduce European modernist painters and sculptors to America and to foster America’s own modernist figures – including his later wife, Georgia O’Keeffe. Insistent that photography warranted a place among the fine arts, Stieglitz’s own work showed great technical mastery of tone and texture.

We combine shipping whenever feasible.

This photogravure is from a compilation of photographs by the famed American photographer Alfred Stieglitz. The original photographs were taken between 1917 and 1930. This series was printed in 1978. Each image in this series depicts his lover and later wife Georgia O’Keefe (USA 1887-1986), also a famous American artist. The folio size photogravure was printed by the Meridian Gravure Company on Monadnock Caress paper. Printed on one side only (only the plate number is on reverse).

A vital force in the development of modern art in America, Alfred Stieglitz’s significance lies as much in his work as an art dealer, exhibition organizer, publisher, and editor as it does in his career as a photographer. He is credited with spearheading the rise of modern photography in America in the early years of the twentieth century. He also ran a series of influential galleries, starting with 291, which he used not only to exhibit photography, but also to introduce European modernist painters and sculptors to America and to foster America’s own modernist figures – including his later wife, Georgia O’Keeffe. Insistent that photography warranted a place among the fine arts, Stieglitz’s own work showed great technical mastery of tone and texture.

We combine shipping whenever feasible.