A rare Joel Beck (born 1944, died 1999) mid 20th century abstract expressionist watercolor on paper. Listed San Francisco Bay artist: Davenport's, Ask Art, etc. A well known subversive and irreverent "underground" cartoonist (Nation's Top Cartoonist 1965), he was an accomplished fine artist who worked in oils, acrylics and watercolors. Custom matted and framed. Dimensions, framed: 24.25" W x 33.5" H.

Striking geometric gouache on paper by Lloyd R. Ney (born 1893, died 1964), one of America's leading 20th century modernists and noted PAFA artist (New Hope, PA). Signed and dated 1963 at lower right. Ney was born in Friedenburg, PA, in 1893. He studied at the PA Mus. Sch. of Industrial Art and at the PA Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. In 1918 he won a Cresson Fellowship to study in Europe. He traveled to France where he studied and painted in Paris among the European modernist community. He lived at the Hotel de Versailles in Montparnasse. During this period Ney created his major work, "The Drinkers." Later he would write extensively about the process of developing this work and the transforming experience of integrating the Modernist ideal he had witnessed in Paris. After returning to the US, Ney settled in the art community of New Hope, PA. He was among a group of artist known as the "Independents," who challenged the traditional and impressionistic subject matter of regional artists. They formed a new exhibition group. Ney was part of the "New Hope Modernist School" for most of his life as a painter. During the period of the W.P.A. in the early 1940s, Ney was commissioned to paint a mural for the New London, OH, post office. The documentation of the controversy over this mural and its modernist style was the subject of numerous letters between Ney and the Director of the Federal Arts Project. It was finally reconciled when the citizens of New London, petitioned Washington to allow Ney to execute the first abstract mural in a government post office. The original cartoon for this mural is in the collection of the Michener Mus. of Art, New Hope, PA. The documents over this controversy are in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. along with much of Lloyd Ney's original writing and correspondence, including the original manuscript, Art Appreciation For The People, How To Look At Paintings, What Constitutes A Work Of Art, 1949. Ney's career included 15 years of exhibitions at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NYC, and 3 of his paintings are in the museum's permanent collection. His work was exhibited in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy during his lifetime. Posthumously, the James A. Michener Museum in Doylestown, PA, mounted a major exhibition of the "New Hope Modernists," featuring Ney and his contemporaries, C. F. Ramsey, Charles Rosen, B.J.O. Nordfeldt, Lee Gatch and R.A.D. Miller. Ney's prolific career encompassed over 50 years, painting in Paris, Capri, Key West, Martinique, Mexico and New Hope, PA. Hope Modernists," featuring Ney and his contemporaries, C. F. Ramsey, Charles Rosen, B.J.O. Nordfeldt, Lee Gatch and R.A.D. Miller. He died in 1964. Dimensions overall: 33.25" W x 40" H.

Carlos Merida (1891-1984) geometric abstract watercolor on paper, signed and dated 1971, in a custom ebonized frame with a gold fillet. Mérida studied at the Instituto de Artes y Artesanias in Guatemala City. In 1910 he accompanied his friend Valenti to Paris, where he met Picasso. However just 4 months after arriving, Valenti shot himself dead, an event that greatly affected Mérida. After traveling through Europe, he returned to Guatemala in 1914 and had his first exhibition. In 1919 he moved to México and married Dalillla Gálvez, but because the marriage was against the wishes of her family, they made their home in México where he became active in the Mexican mural painting school. In 1922 Mérida worked with Diego Rivera to paint the murals of the Anfiteatro Bolivar in Mexico City, and together with Rivera, Orozco, and Siqueiros founded the Union of Workers, Technicians, Painters and Sculptors. His first mural as a solo artist was his commission in 1923 to paint the Children's Library of the Ministry of Public Education ("Little Red Riding Hood and the Four Elements"). In 1927, after another stint in Paris familiarizing himself with Paul Klee & Joan Miró, he abandoned his figurative style to become one of México's first non-figurative artists. On his return from Paris in 1929, he was named the director of the gallery of Mexico's National Theatre. His later works formed a link to the Mayan world with geometric elements. He integrated into his paintings indigenous "papel amate" (bark wood paper). His mural for the Presidente Juárez building (1952) depicted a series of Mexican creation myths. 1940 saw his participation in the International Surrealist Exhibition that took place in Mexico and in 1942 he went to teach at the North Texas State Teachers College in Denton (now the University of North Texas). In 1949 Mérida began to research the integration of different arts and from the 1950s onwards his art began to show a Constructivist tone, which was demonstrated in murals and mosaics (often using materials like glass) such as for the Alianza Insurance building in Mexico City (1953) and the City Hall of Guatemala City (1956). His later career also saw Mérida dividing his time between commissions in Mexico and in his native Guatemala, with occasional forays elsewhere (e.g. a glass wall in the Civic Center in San Antonio, Texas). As well as installation art like murals and mosaics, Mérida continued to paint on canvas and also to produce silk-screens and lithographs, principal among which are albums such as Tres Motivos (1936) and Trajes Indígenas de Guatemala. Dimensions, framed; 22.25" H x 19.25" W. Approximate artwork dimensions (all showing): 10" x 8".

19th century Tibetan tangka, or devotional, painting on canvas of Green Tara, Goddess of longevity, protection from fear; custom mounted in a complementary green painted frame, behind glass, showing the entire banner. Tibet, circa 1850. Dimensions: 38.5" H x 29 and 3/8" W.

Carl Gustaf Nelson (b.1898---d.1988) abstract expressionist mixed media collage, mid 20th Century; original silver-leafed frame. Well listed: Who Was Who in American Art, Ask Art, Davenport's, etc.Exhibited: Whitney Museum, Carnegie International, Chicago Art Institute, etc. Dimensions, framed: 25" W x 31" H