Jasper Johns

Cicada

1979

"Indianapolis Museum of Art Inaugural Exhibitions", 25 October 1970, is an eye popping large bold colorful geometric abstract silk screen. It is signed on the lower right. Robert Indiana, one of the preeminent figures in American art since the 1960s, played a central role in the development of assemblage art, hard-edge painting, Pop art, Neo-Dada, American Modernism and Modern Art. A self-proclaimed “American painter of signs,” Indiana created a highly original body of work that explores American identity, personal history, and the power of abstraction and language, establishing an important legacy that resonates in the work of many contemporary artists such as Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Roy Lectenstein, David Hockney, Romero Britto, Richard Hamilton and Robert Rauschenberg who make the written word a central element of their oeuvre. Robert Indiana was born Robert Clark in New Castle, Indiana on September 13, 1928. Adopted as an infant, he spent his childhood moving frequently throughout his namesake state. At 14 he moved to Indianapolis in order to attend Arsenal Technical High School, known for its strong arts curriculum. After graduating he spent three years in the U.S. Air Force and then studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Skowhegan School of Sculpture and Painting in Maine, and the Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland. In 1956, two years after moving to New York, Indiana met Ellsworth Kelly, and upon his recommendation took up residence in Coenties Slip, where a community of artists that would come to include Kelly, Agnes Martin, James Rosenquist, and Jack Youngerman had studios. Indiana, like some of his fellow artists, scavenged the area’s abandoned warehouses for materials, creating sculptural assemblages from old wooden beams, rusted metal wheels, and other remnants of the shipping trade that had thrived in Coenties Slip. The discovery of 19th century brass stencils led to the incorporation of brightly colored numbers and short emotionally charged words onto these sculptures as well as canvases, and became the basis of his new painterly vocabulary. Although acknowledged as a leader of Pop, Indiana distinguished himself from his Pop peers by addressing important social and political issues and incorporating profound historical and literary references into his works. In 1964 Indiana accepted Philip Johnson’s invitation to design a new work for the New York State Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair, creating a 20-foot EAT sign...

This piece, titled "Groovin' High", is a printer's proof created by the renowned artist and civil rights activist Faith Ringgold. The print is signed an...

ROBERT COTTINGHAM Fox, from American Signs portfolio, 2009 screenprint in colors, on wove paper, with full margins 40 1/8 x 39 1/8 in (101.9 x 99.4 cm) signed, dated `2009' a...

Leigh Behnke was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1946. She studied at both the Southern Connecticut State College and at the Pratt Institute of Brooklyn New York. She also received...

Robert Indiana New Glory Banner Silkscreen on heavy woven paper Year: 1997 Unsigned as issued Size: 10.4 × 16.8 on 16.6 × 21.7 inches Framed: 29 x 21.25 inches COA provided *W...

Edward Landon 'Chinoiserie', color serigraph, 1947, edition 50, Ryan 36. Signed in pencil in the image, lower right. Titled, dated, and annotated '4 COLORS – EDITION 50' in the scree...

Edward Landon 'The Castle', color serigraph, 1953, edition 35, Ryan 33. Signed, titled, and numbered '11/35' in pencil. A fine impression, with fresh colors, on cream Japan paper. Th...

Edward Landon, 'Counterpoint', color serigraph, 1942, edition 25, Ryan 45. Signed, titled, and annotated 'Edition 25' in pencil. A fine impression, with fresh colors, on cream, wove paper; the full sheet with margins (7/8 to 2 1/2 inches). A 1 1/2 inch crease across the top left sheet corner, well away from the image, otherwise in excellent condition. Scarce. Image size 13 9/16 x 14 5/16 inches (344 x 364 mm); sheet size 14 15/16 x 17 inches (379 x 432 mm). Matted to museum standards, unframed. Literature: 'A Spectrum of Innovation: Color in American Printmaking', David Acton, New York, London, 1990. 'American Screenprints', Reba and Dave Williams, New York, 1987. 'The American Scene: Prints from Hopper to Pollock', Stephen Coppel, The British Museum, 2008. Impressions of this work are held in the following museum collections: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum. ABOUT THE ARTIST Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Edward Landon dropped out of high school to study art at the Hartford Art School. In 1930 and 1931 he was a student of Jean Charlot at the Art Students League in New York, after which he traveled to Mexico to study privately for a year with Carlos Merida. In 1933 he settled near Springfield, Massachusetts, painted murals in the local trade school, and exhibited with the Springfield Art League. His painting 'Memorial Day' won first prize at the fifteenth annual exhibition of the League at the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts. Landon became an active member of the Artists Union of Western Massachusetts, serving as president from 1934-1938. Landon acquired Anthony Velonis’s instructional pamphlet on the technique of serigraphy in the late 1930s. With colleagues Phillip Hicken, Donald Reichert, and Pauline Stiriss, he began experimenting with screen printing techniques. The artists' groundbreaking work in screen printing as a fine art medium was the subject of the group’s landmark exhibition at the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts in 1940. Landon became one of the founding members of the National Serigraph Society and served as editor of its publication, 'Serigraph Quarterly,' in the late 1940s and as its president in 1952 and 1953. The Norlyst Gallery in Manhattan held a one-person show of his prints in 1945. Awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in 1950, Landon traveled to Norway, where he researched the history of local artistic traditions and produced the book 'Scandinavian Design: Picture and Rune Stones...

Leon Bibel, 'Clown', color serigraph, 1939, edition 20. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered '/20' in pencil. A fine, richly-inked, painterly impression, with fresh colors, on buff la...

Edward Landon 'Exhortation (Priest)', color serigraph, 1957, edition 28, Ryan 72. Signed, titled, and numbered '21/28' in pencil. A superb, richly-inked impression, with strong color...