Norma Bessouet

SELVAGGIA Signed Lithograph, Seated Person w Bird, Latin American Woman Artist

1986

SELVAGGIA is an original hand drawn limited edition lithograph by the Argentine woman artist Norma Bessouet printed using hand lithography techniques on Arches paper, 10% acid free. SELVAGGIA is unframed, in mint condition, full bleed image, hand torn edges, signed in pencil by Ms. Bessouet. Print size - 28.5 x 20.5 inches, unframed, excellent condition, pencil signed by Norma Bessouet Edition size - 150, plus proofs Year printed - 1986 Printer - J K Fine Art Editions Co. NYC Bessouet, born in Argentina, schooled in Argentina, London and in Italy, where she was able to look to the works of the Old Masters for inspiration. She refers to the artists of the Italian quattrocento along with Velazquez and El Greco as her muses, and traces of these historic artists shine through in her paintings. Her work is in numerous private and public collections throughout the world. Bessouet's art focused primarily around portraits, domesticity and the female nude. In the original print, SELVAGGIA, Norma Bessouet merges certain Latin American strands of literary magic realism with Surrealism and presents a portrait of an androgynous seated figure, with bald head, serene facial expression, wearing a full length ombre shaded robe, cradling a large, long-beak bird. Ms. Bessouet's sensitive, masterly drawing expresses a fantasy doll...

HOMAGE TO SIGMUND FREUD, is an original hand drawn, stone lithograph by the American artist/sculptor Chaim Gross. HOMAGE TO SIGMUND FREUD was hand proofed and printed from hand drawn lithographic stones on archival Arches paper in shades of warm yellow for the background texture and red brown for the master drawing. HOMAGE TO SIGMUND FREUD is a surrealistic portrait composition depicting Sigmund Freud's face(one portraying him with spectacles) surrounded by symbolic imagery including swirling birds, a child opening a heart-shaped lock, an embracing couple, fingers and bare leg. HOMAGE TO SIGMUND FREUD expresses an intriguing variety of visualized psychological references. This original, hand printed lithograph measures 18.5" x 22", registration marks are visible in print margins as evidence of the master printer's use of age-old printing methods first utilized in fine art lithography printmaking. HOMAGE TO SIGMUND FREUD is unframed, in excellent condition, pencil signed, dated and inscribed B.A.T., Trial Proof aside from the edition by Chaim Gross. Edition was published in 1976 as a fundraiser for the Hebrew University in Israel. Print size - 18.5 x 22 in., unframed, very fine condition, from the master printer's private collection Printer - Joseph Kleineman, J K Fine Art Editions Co. NYC Chaim Gross,(1904 - 1991) was a sculptor, artist, and teacher, known for his wood carvings, sculptures of moving human figures, religious imagery, acrobats, mothers and children. Chaim was born on March 17, 1904 to a Jewish family in Austrian Galicia, in the village of Wolowa in the Carpathian Mountains. In 1911, his family moved to Kolomyia. During World War I, Russian forces invaded Austria-Hungary; amidst the turmoil, the Grosses fled Kolomyia. They returned when Austria retook the town in 1915, refugees of the war. When World War I ended, Gross and brother Avrom-Leib went to Budapest, where Gross attended the city's art academy and studied with painter Béla Uitz, though within a year a new regime under Miklos Horthy took over and attempted to expel all Jews and foreigners from the country. After being deported from Hungary, Gross began art studies at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna shortly before emigrating to New York City in 1921. In the U.S., Gross's studies continued at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, where he studied sculpture with Elie Nadelman and others, and at the Art Students League, with sculptor Robert Laurent. He also attended the Educational Alliance Art School, studying under Abbo Ostrowsky. In the late 1920s and early 1930s Gross exhibited at the Salons of America exhibitions at the Anderson Galleries and, beginning in 1928, at the Whitney Studio Club (the precursor to the Whitney Museum of American Art). In March 1932 Gross had his first solo exhibition at Gallery 144 in New York City. Also in 1932, Gross married Renee Nechin (1909-2005), and they had two children, Yehuda and Mimi (Mimi Gross is a New York-based artist, and was married to the artist Red Grooms from 1963-1976). In 1933, Gross joined the government's PWAP (Public Works of Art Project), which transitioned into the WPA (Works Progress Administration). Under these programs Gross taught and demonstrated art, made sculptures for schools and public colleges, and created works for Federal buildings including the Federal Trade Commission Building, and for the France Overseas and Finnish Buildings at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Gross was also recognized during these years with a silver medal at the 1937 Exposition universelle in Paris. Chaim Gross, Sculptor by Josef Vincent Lombardo, the first major book on Gross, came out in 1949 and included a catalogue raisonne of his sculpture. In the 1950s Gross began to make more bronze...