Bert Pumphrey, Under the Bridge, c,1970

Description

This artwork "Landscape with Bridge" c.1970 is an oil painting on canvas by American artist Bert Pumphrey, 1916-2000. It is … more This artwork "Landscape with Bridge" c.1970 is an oil painting on canvas by American artist Bert Pumphrey, 1916-2000. It is signed at the lower left corner by the artist. The canvas size is 20 x 24 inches, framed size is 24 x 28.75 inches. Custom framed in original wooden brown copper color frame. It is in excellent condition, it has been relined.

About the artist:

His subject matter is imaginative, not reproductive, and what he paints gives the feeling of Mexico, past and present, although never identifying with any specific locale. Since moving to and working in Mexico, he has had nine major one-man shows there and, during the 1960s, had shows in the Virgin Islands and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

His urban surrealist painting style is popular in Mexico and in the United States. A favorite theme was his Hasidic Rabbis -- joyful, inquisitive, jumping, dancing, but always very dignified.

He was represented by the Cory Galleries in San Francisco during the 1960s and 1970s. Cory Galleries represented other artists such as Leroy Neiman and Pascal Cucaro, among others. In their May, 1969 show, the entire collection of sixty-seven paintings was purchased within several hours of the opening by one collector, and the show was sold out.

An artist with very definite ideas of his own, Pumphrey has almost entirely rejected the traditional square or rectangle as the basic shape for a painting. He prefers long, thin, verticals or horizontals. He rejects canvas as well -- using masonite, on which he lays eight thin coats of white gesso. Then come the rich and vibrant colors, through which the sharp edge of a palette knife may cut back to the white underpainting. To achieve sharpness of lines, he has designed his own knives. He also has turned from tradition in another way, in that he prefers to paint flat on a table, discarding the easel.

EXHIBITIONS:
Solo Exhibit, Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1948
La Nueva Posada, Art Shows in the Garden, Lake Chapala, Mexico, 1955The Cory Galleries, 360 Geary St., San Francisco, May, 1969
The Cory Galleries, 360 Geary St., San Francisco, August, 1970
The Cory Galleries, 377 Jefferson St., Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco, 1973
Casa de la Cultura, Delegacion Municipal de Ajijic, Plaza Principal, Mexico, 1978
Galeria AXIXICC, Ajijic, Mexico, 1985Continue Reading less