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Arthur Tress Art

American, b. 1940
Born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 24, 1940, Arthur Tress began his first camera work as a teenager in the surreal neighborhood of Coney Island where he spent hours exploring the decaying amusement parks. Later, during five years of world travel, mostly in Asia and Africa, he developed an interest in ethnographical photography that eventually led him to his first professional assignment as a U.S. government photographer recording the endangered folk cultures of Appalachia. Seeing the destructive results of corporate resource extraction, Tress began to use his camera to raise environmental awareness about the economic and human costs of pollution. Focusing on New York City, he began to photograph the neglected fringes of the urban waterfront with a straight documentary approach. This gradually evolved into a more personal mode of “magic realism” combining improvised elements of actual life with stage fantasy that became his hallmark style of directorial fabrication. In the late 1960s Tress was inspired to do a series based upon children’s dreams that combined his interests in ritual ceremony, Jungian archetypes, and social allegory. Later bodies of work dealing with the hidden dramas of adult relationships and the reenactments of male homosexual desire evolved from this primarily theatrical approach. Beginning in the early 1980s, Tress began shooting in color, creating room-sized painted sculptural installations out of found medical equipment in an abandoned hospital on New York’s Welfare Island. This led to a smaller scale exploration of narrative still life within a children’s toy theater and a portable nineteenth-century aquarium. Around 2002, Tress returned to gelatin silver, exploring more formalist themes in the style of mid- century modernism, often combining a spontaneous shooting style with a constructivist’s sense of architectural composition and abstract shape. In addition to images of California skateboard parks, his recent work includes the round images of the series Planets and the diamond-shaped images of Pointers. Selected Arthur Tress Books and Publications Open Space in the Inner City: Ecology and the Urban Environment. New York: New York State Council on the Arts, 1971. Arthur Tress: The Dream Collector. Text by John Minahan. Richmond: Westover, 1972, New York: Avon, 1974. Shadow. A Novel in Photographs. New York: Avon, 1975 Theater of the Mind. Text by Duane Michaels, Michel Tournier and A.D. Coleman. Dobbs Ferry: Morgan and Morgan, 1976. Reves. Text by Michel Tournier. Brussels: Complexe, 1979. Talisman. Edited by Marco Livingstone. Oxford: Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, 1986. The Teapot Opera. Photographs and text by Arthur Tress. Goro International, 1986, Abbeville, 1988. Male of the Species: Four Decades of Photography by Arthur Tress. Text by Michale Tournier. Fotofactory, 1999. Fish Tank Sonata. Bulfinch, 2000. Arthur Tress: Fantastic Voyage: Photographs 1956-2000. Bulfinch, 2001. Memories. Photographs by Arthur Tress, Poems by Guillaume Apollinaire. 21st,
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Artist: Arthur Tress
Groom with the White Arabian, CA, Black and White Nude Male with Horse Tress
By Arthur Tress
Located in New York, NY
Groom with the White Arabian, CA, Black and White Nude Male with Horse Tress 1996 Signed, titled, dated, and numbered in ink, recto Gelatin silver print (Edition of 50) 14.75 x 1...
Category

1990s Contemporary Arthur Tress Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Blue Collar Fantasy
By Arthur Tress
Located in New York, NY
Blue Collar Fantasy 1979 Signed, titled, dated, and numbered in ink, recto Gelatin silver print (Edition of 25) 10.25 x 10.25 inches (26 x 26 cm), image...
Category

1970s Contemporary Arthur Tress Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Stormy Weather, Palm Springs
By Arthur Tress
Located in New York, NY
Stormy Weather Palm Springs, 1995 Signed, titled, dated, and numbered in black ink, recto Gelatin silver print (Edition of 50) 20 x 16 inches (50.8 x...
Category

1990s Contemporary Arthur Tress Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Making Leaves - In Celebration of Pride Month
By Arthur Tress
Located in New Orleans, LA
Stone and Press Gallery is excited to offer several works in celebration of the LGBTQ community. Tress uses a bed, the juxtaposition of two rakes and a scattering of fallen leaves ...
Category

1970s Contemporary Arthur Tress Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Blue Collar Fantasy, N.Y.
By Arthur Tress
Located in New York, NY
Blue Collar Fantasy, N.Y. 1979 Signed, titled, and dated in ink, recto Vintage gelatin silver print 15 x 15 inches (38.1 x 38.1 cm), image 20 x 16 inche...
Category

1970s Contemporary Arthur Tress Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Two Teenagers in a Housing Project Park
By Arthur Tress
Located in New York, NY
Two Teenagers in a Housing Project Park New York, NY 1971 Studio stamp in black ink, verso Vintage gelatin silver print 9 x 7.5 inches, image 14 x 12.5 inches, framed This work i...
Category

1970s Contemporary Arthur Tress Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Boy in Mickey Mouse Hat, Coney Island, New York
By Arthur Tress
Located in New York, NY
Vintage gelatin silver print Signed and dated twice, verso Also inscribed in black ink, verso Various studio stamps and printing instructions, verso This artwork is offered by Clam...
Category

1960s Other Art Style Arthur Tress Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Boy in Burnt Out Furniture Store, Newark, New Jersey
By Arthur Tress
Located in Carmel, CA
Purchased directly from artist. Hand printed silver gelatin photograph,. Mint Condition Signed and titled in pen on recto.
Category

1960s Arthur Tress Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Claire De Lune, Breezy Point, New York
By Arthur Tress
Located in Carmel, CA
Mint Condition Purchased directly from artist. Loose Print Titled in Pen Left Hand Side Signed in Pen Right Hand Side
Category

Late 20th Century Arthur Tress Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Teenage Runners
By Arthur Tress
Located in New York, NY
Teenage Runners 1976/printed later Signed, titled, dated, and numbered in black ink, recto Gelatin silver print (Edition of 50) 24 x 20 inches, sheet 19 x 19 inches, image Contac...
Category

1970s Contemporary Arthur Tress Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

The Voyeur
By Arthur Tress
Located in New York, NY
This is a black and white photograph by Arthur Tress of a nude male figure. The Voyeur c. 1970s Signed, titled, and numbered in black ink, recto Gelatin silver print (Edition of 2...
Category

2010s Contemporary Arthur Tress Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Flood Dream
By Arthur Tress
Located in New York, NY
Ocean City, New Jersey, 1971 Signed, titled, dated, and numbered, recto Gelatin silver print (Edition of 50) 14 x 11 inches, sheet 10 x 10 inches, image Contact gallery for price. Literature: John Minahan, The Dream Collector (Westover Publishing Company: Richmond, Virginia, 1972) Michel Tournier...
Category

1970s Contemporary Arthur Tress Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

University Tutorial
By Arthur Tress
Located in New York, NY
Signed, titled, numbered, and dated, recto Gelatin silver print (Edition of 50) 14 x 11 inches sheet 10 x 10 inches image Contact gallery for price. This work is offered by Clamp...
Category

1970s Contemporary Arthur Tress Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

The Burning Warehouse
By Arthur Tress
Located in New York, NY
Signed, titled, and numbered, recto This work is offered by ClampArt in New York City.
Category

1970s Contemporary Arthur Tress Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Groom with Arabian Stallion
By Arthur Tress
Located in New York, NY
Signed, l.r. Edition of 50 Contact gallery for price This work is offered by ClampArt in New York City.
Category

1990s Contemporary Arthur Tress Art

Materials

Photogravure

Platonic Friendship
By Arthur Tress
Located in New York, NY
Signed, titled, and inscribed “for Paul” in black ink, recto Gelatin silver print 14 x 11 inches, sheet 7.5 x 7.5 inches, image This artwork is offered by ClampArt, located in New Y...
Category

1990s Arthur Tress Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

The Last Portrait of My Father, NYC
By Arthur Tress
Located in New York, NY
Gelatin silver print (Edition of 50) Signed, titled, dated, and numbered in black ink, recto This artwork is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. Arthur Tress is one of t...
Category

1970s Other Art Style Arthur Tress Art

Materials

Silver Gelatin

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Previously Available Items
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Death Fantasy (a haunting image which portrays a boy s worst nightmare)
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"Death Fantasy" is a vintage silver gelatin photograph by Arthur Tress which captures a haunting image of a young boy enveloped in the grasp of a tall black-hooded figure. It is tit...
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Road Kill (a nude male lies in the deep ruts of a muddy curved trail)
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This vintage silver gelatin photograph acquired directly from the artist, Arthur Tress is #1 from an edition of 50. It is signed, numbered and titled "Road Kill" , San Luis Obispo, ...
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Bike Lovers, NY
By Arthur Tress
Located in New York, NY
Gelatin silver print (Edition of 50) Signed, titled, dated, and numbered in black ink, recto 14 x 11 inches, sheet This artwork is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. A...
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Spinal Tap (nude male standing with skeleton of actual spinal column)
By Arthur Tress
Located in New Orleans, LA
Arthur Tress, in his vintage 1996 silver gelatin photograph, depicts a standing nude male holding an actual skeleton of a spinal column against his muscled back. The Getty Museum re...
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1990s Contemporary Arthur Tress Art

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Stephen Brecht, Bride/Groom
By Arthur Tress
Located in New York, NY
Gelatin silver print Signed, titled, and numbered in black ink, recto 14 x 11 inches, sheet 10 x 10 inches, image (Edition of 50) 20 x 16 inches, sheet 15 x 15 inches, image (Editi...
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Located in New York, NY
Gelatin silver print Signed, titled, dated, and numbered 14 x 11 inches, sheet 10 x 10 inches, image (Edition of 50) 20 x 16 inches, sheet 15 x 15 inches, image (Edition of 50) 24...
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Masked Children, 110th Street
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Located in New York, NY
Gelatin silver print Signed in black ink, l.l. 20 x 16 inches, sheet 19 x 15 inches, image This artwork is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. Arthur Tress is one of th...
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Arthur Tress art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Arthur Tress available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Arthur Tress in silver gelatin print, intaglio, photogravure and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the contemporary style. Not every interior allows for large Arthur Tress, so small editions measuring 8 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Jeffrey Silverthorne, Karin Rosenthal, and Robert Stivers. Arthur Tress prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $1,210 and tops out at $24,400, while the average work can sell for $2,927.

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