Graham Shay 1857

Graham Shay presents two complementary exhibitions, on view together in our main Gallery showroom, for the 2024 edition of Master Drawings New York. The surreal, molten metal sculptures by Ibram Lassaw, spanning a period from 1950 through 1985, draw the viewer through and within. On the walls, the second part is a selection of modernist paintings, watercolors, collage, and drawings by mid-century artists including Robert Motherwell, Stuart Davis, Mercedes Matter, Anna Walinska, Richard Serra, Willem de Kooning, Perle Fine, Louise Nevelson, Jimmy Ernst, Mary Abbott, and Hans Hofmann. Highlights from the paintings portion are a 1979 oil on paper sketch Drunk With Turpentine, the final study for Motherwell’s finished painting White Sanctuary, 1981. Similarly, included amongst three Stuart Davis drawings, is a sketch for his painting, Flags, 1931. The New York modernist Anna Walinska is represented by a powerful black and white oil painting, Tokyo Landscape, 1957, and a Shan paper collage Figures, 1961. Canadian Jean-Paul Riopelle’s colorful expressionist Landscape, circa 1958, is another highlight. The sculptor Ibram Lassaw is represented by seven unique works. The artist was among the earliest American sculptors to work in an abstract style, beginning in 1933. Lassaw was a charter member of the The Clay Club, 1934 (now the Sculpture Center) and American Abstract Artists, 1937, and exhibited at both annuals. Further exhibitions were held at the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1951, Kootz Gallery, New York, 1952-1958. The Museum of Modern Art included Lassaw in several exhibitions, including the influential Twelve Americans, 1956. Other institutions that have featured Ibram Lassaw include The Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, New York, 1973, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York, 1988, and Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa, 2023. Throughout his career the artist made open space a primary material in his work. Lassaw’s approach is both surrealist and abstract expressionist, and molten metal is an ideal medium for the spontaneous image he sought. His method is action sculpture, the image drawn from the metal itself: a wire core overlayed with globs of molten bronze or other alloys. The process is analogous to drawing in space, not as fluent as pen or brush, but still spontaneous. Changing from one alloy to another in the welding process achieves a myriad of surfaces, a variety of colors, textures. The process and materials are varied, a mixture of metals, brass, nickel-silver, stainless steel, bronze, iron, manganese, silicon and tin. Color was prized and created by treating the metals with salts, acids and alkalis, achieving greens, blues and other colors.

Graham Shay 1857, in collaboration with Lincoln Glenn, is set to open Artists of the 1913 Armory Show at their joint 17 East 67th Street gallery on Thursday, October 12th. The exhibition will run through December 8th, and the space will be open to visitors from 10am-6pm on Tuesdays-Saturdays. A complimentary exhibition catalogue comprising an essay by art historian Lisa N. Peters, Ph.D. accompanies the Upper East Side exhibition. As the key organizer Arthur B. Davies pronounced while standing in one of the 1913 Armory Show’s galleries: “New York will never be the same again.” The 1913 Armory Show not only made a huge impact on the masses of passive viewers, but also on the American artists, many of whom took in European innovations such as Cubism for the first time. The earliest work in the exhibition is a watercolor of the seaside town of Dieppe in Normandy from the mid-1880s. Whistler, although deceased by the original 1913 Armory Show, was included in the exhibition by organizers who hoped to establish a historical trajectory for modernist directions in American art, which is exactly what this exhibition attempts to rematerialize. The show is dominated by the works of the organizers, including examples by John Sloan, William Glackens, Walt Kuhn, Jonas Lie, Ernest Lawson, George Bellows, George Luks, Guy Pene du Bois and Jerome Myers. The exhibition proceeds to the modernist inclinations of Agnes Pelton, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Oscar Bluemner, and Joseph Stella, before zooming fifty years into the future to a fully abstracted painting by Paul Burlin from 1963. Amongst the approximately 300 artists included in the 1913 Armory Show were 50 female artists, and this 2023 exhibition highlights the artistic contributions by Bessie Potter Vonnoh, Abastenia St. Leger Eberle, Ethel Myers, and an extremely rare painting by Edith Dimock.

Deconstructing the Oval: Artist Statement For me the oval has always been the most pleasing form from which to embark on a sculptural exploration. As opposed to a circle, an oval's elongated shape allows for greater flexibility in removing mass while staying true to the lines of the exterior so the negative space remains complimentary to the whole. I also like the way the oval's curves bend light both inside and out of the form. In this latest series of sculptures, called "Oval Edge Forms," I have tried to create conditions where negative space becomes such an integral part of the form that the oval -- in its essential elliptical configuration -- is sensed by what is missing. Each of the sculptures in this exhibition has been carved after first starting with a solid three-dimensional oval form. Some were "egg-like," some almost as thick as they were wide, and others elongated and tapered. My intention was to convey the harmony of the original elliptical shape while offering added layers of visual interest through what has been removed. I feel the oval is most effective if all carving is resolved with smooth finishes. In this way the interplay of light on both interior and exterior surfaces creates shadows that echo and enhance the oval's fundamental curves. Cornelia Kubler Kavanagh

A woman ahead of her time, Anna Walinska never let contemporary stigma stand in the way of artistic expression. Born in London to Russian activist parents in 1906, moving to Brooklyn in 1914, Walinska was destined to lead an unconventional life. She enrolled at the National Academy of Design to study painting at just 12 years old, moving from there to the Art Students League. Her oldest dated watercolor is from 1918, evincing a raw talent full of potential. Despite her father’s objections, the young artist was determined to study in Paris and secured funding from her father’s employer by offering to paint him a copy of a masterpiece in exchange for $2,000. She set out in 1926, taking up residence on the Left Bank at 67 Rue Madame, just around the corner from Gertrude Stein. Calligraphy of Line: The Drawings of Anna Walinska (1906-1997) brings together a dynamic selection of the daring artist’s works on paper from the 1920s and 1950s. At a time when women were expected to marry young and devote themselves to raising children, Walinska instead dedicated her life to the arts, unabashedly experimenting with different mediums and styles throughout her career. The influence of Picasso and Matisse on the young artist’s work is apparent, as both artists immediately captivated Walinska during her Parisian foray. In fact, Paris was the first place she was able to take a nude figure drawing class complete with live models, which she had wanted to do for years. She produced hundreds of line drawings, delicately capturing her subject’s form in visceral, unplanned sketches that hint at the artist’s natural grasp on composition. Walinska arguably would have been a champion of the body positivity movement today – beyond her admiration of the human form, she fearlessly painted nude self portraits and modeled for other artists. Corresponding with the 2023 edition of Master Drawings New York, Calligraphy of Line features a number of works on paper inspired by Walinska’s international travels. Two distinct series are represented: Nude figure drawings sketched from live modeling classes in Paris during the 1920s, and abstract works on paper inspired by Burma [now Myanmar] from the 1950s. The common thread between these bodies of work is a careful and intentional use of line; bold, thin, sweeping lines characterize the Paris drawings, while angles and curves weave together to form compelling compositions in the Burma pieces. By placing these series into conversation with one another, they can be compared and contrasted to highlight Walinska’s artistic evolution. The title of the show refers to the beginnings of her figurative work in Paris, about which she later said: “I developed the calligraphy of line that stayed with me from then on.”

Winter Whites is comprised of a selection of fine American paintings depicting snowy land and cityscapes. These timeless scenes capture moments of transition, as New York embraces the winter months each year.

Graham Shay 1857 is pleased to present The Arabian Horse – By Antoine-Louis Barye, a curated exhibition celebrating the grandeur and legacy of the Arabian horse as exquisitely modeled by the French sculptor, Antoine-Louis Barye (1796-1875). For thousands of years, the Arabian horse has been a prized breed, originally reared by Bedouin nomads in the Arabian Peninsula. In contrast to the stocky horses needed to carry heavily armored knights bred in Europe through the Medieval period, the Arabian was light, fast, and agile, moving unlike any other equine the continent had seen. As international trade and correspondence grew into the 1600s, leaders of the Ottoman Empire made it a practice to gift Arabian horses to European heads of state as a gesture of diplomacy. Three of these horses became the basis for the English Thoroughbred, and the majority of Thoroughbreds can be traced back to one of these sires today. Royalty of Europe drove up the demand for this Eastern breed, and certain royal families established notable studs from their breeding programs in the 1800s. The first Arabian stallion to cross the pond was imported into Virginia in 1725, and allegedly sired 300 foals from grade mares. This virile breed has appeared in some of the most notable moments of history and culture, serving King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, Egyptian pharaohs, sheikhs and sultans of the Near East, Indian Maharajas, Napoleon Bonaparte, and U.S. Presidents, establishing themselves as a symbol of nobility, beauty, and prestige. It is no surprise that these horses became a popular subject for artists - the famous painting Napoleon Crossing the Alps (1801) by Jacques-Louis David features Napoleon atop his mighty steed Marengo, an Arabian stallion. In fact, much of our knowledge about the breed in its early years comes from ancient art; Egyptian tomb paintings from the New Kingdom (c. 1570 - c. 1069 BCE) show the characteristics of these horses where archeology falls short. In The Arabian Horse – By Antoine-Louis Barye, we bring together a distinguished selection of bronze sculpture illuminating the Arabian horse’s beauty, grace, nobility, and strength.

Figure and Form analyzes the artist’s interpretation of the human figure, focusing on work from the 20th century that persisted in realism and figuration amidst an art world that increasingly favored abstraction.

This Spring, the Gallery will exhibit a selection of American Modernist works that playfully approach the subject of color and form. A 1958 painting by Sewell Sillman, a student of Josef Albers, reminds of principles of Abstraction borne from the Bauhaus, compared to a 1972 painting by Ralph de Burgos, a Washington Color School affiliate, that takes a classic psychedelic appearance. A centerpiece of the show is a 1982 painting by Ida Kohlmeyer, a pioneer for women abstractionists, that uses her trademark symbolism to create a busy composition characteristic of the ‘80s. Fast forward 10 years to the 1990s, and you get a delineated geometric painting from Gabriele Evertz that preempts the transition to the new millennium. Canvases are complemented by Hayward Oubre’s wire sculptures, bringing form off the wall and into a three dimensional space. Figuration is represented in still life paintings by Paul Resika and Lynne Drexler to further illustrate the incorporation of color into more recognizable archetypes.

Graham Shay 1857 is pleased to present Within Small See Large, a discerning presentation of Sal Sirugo’s rarely shown Abstract Expressionist drawings. Ranging in date, many of these drawings are modest in size, and in some cases measure just 2 x 3 inches. Sirugo referred to these small scale drawings as “miniature universes'' — despite their size, they retain the presence and intricacy of earlier, larger works, condensing vast galaxies into tiny canvases. The absence of color in these ink drawings likewise converts the works into mesmerizing microcosms of space and time, evoking imaginary landscapes by surrendering form and saturation. The title of the exhibition comes from a 17th century album of Song and Yuan dynasty paintings that enchanted Sirugo, and the concept of “Within Small See Large” defined how he came to view his own work.

Graham Shay 1857 is pleased to present our new fall exhibition Clouds in My Karma, featuring recent paintings by the contemporary artist Shelly Malkin. Amongst many things, Shelly Malkin is an environmentalist and has worked on behalf of numerous environmental causes, including the New York Restoration Project and the Natural Resources Defense Council. She is also an avid outdoors woman with a passion for skiing and rock climbing that has taken her all over the world. The natural landscapes that she experiences on her adventures often provide an almost divine inspiration for her paintings; her large-scale watercolors sensitively combine mica and iridescent pigments to create sweeping panoramas that are simultaneously intimate and vast. In her past exhibits, accompanying each body of Shelly’s work, has been a series of small intimate subjects, an accent to the main body of work. The current exhibition is primarily based on this set of small works, the series here is clouds. None are specific representations, but instead are drawn from the artist’s memory catalogue of sights seen over a life spent in the open air. Each painting evokes a sense of nostalgia, examining the collective human relationship with nature by opting to portray an idea rather than a true-to-life depiction. As she says, “I don’t plan each piece beforehand, and I don’t really know what will be the end result, but the journey is exciting.” Shelly Malkin grew up in New York City and attended the Dalton School. She graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Art History and a minor in European Cultural Studies, and went on to teach at the Nightingale-Bamford School in New York. She studied painting at the School of Visual Arts and the National Academy of Design under Serge Hollerbach in New York City, and at the Silvermine Arts Center and the Renaissance Workshop of Dmitri Wright in Connecticut. She is a member of the Advisory Council of the Princeton University Art Museum. Malkin has participated in group shows at the National Academy of Design and at the Greenwich Art Society and has had a number of solo shows at Arcadia Gallery in Old Greenwich and at the Audubon Gallery. Her first New York solo show opened at the Graham Gallery on April 14th, 2013, followed by a second one in April, 2017. Her forthcoming exhibition: Shelly Malkin: Clouds in My Karma, is scheduled at GRAHAM SHAY 1857, October 6th through October 23rd, 2021. Contact: Cameron M. Shay GRAHAM SHAY 1857 17 E. 67th Street, No. 1A New York, NY 10065 Tel. 212 535 5767 info@grahamshay.com

A unique presentation of smaller scale artworks, abstract paintings and sculpture, spanning a period from the 1940’s through the 1980’s. The focus of the exhibit is of moderate scale artworks, pieces that are sometimes overshadowed by their larger counterparts, as much of mid-century abstraction is impactful and large in scale. Accessible and intimate in size, the featured three-dimensional works are easily placed on a table, desk, bookshelf or in a vitrine. A painting or sculpture of smaller scale is often a sketch or study where the composition is being worked up to a larger scale. Including works by Avery, Bertoia, Bluhm, Bultman, Cramer, Engman, Ernst, Gottlieb, Gordin, Jenkins, Jonson, Lipton, Louis, Padovano, Parker, Pepper, Meadmore, Shahn, Shaw, Sirugo and Slobodkina

Artist Benedict Tatti combined the originality of a self-taught artist with the sophistication of a vanguard artist and the technical know-how of a trained artisan. In truth, he was not strictly any one of these things, but a bit of all of them. He was adept in the wide range of media and methodologies of 20th century sculpture, even including video art. Tatti’s “day” jobs may have been what kept his vision fresh, as they were tangential to but not in the thick of the art world: from 1952 to 1963, he worked for the influential design firm of Raymond Loewy, developing and making models for real-life and prototypical objects: following that, he taught sculpture to city kids at the High School for Art and Design in New York City, for which his temperament seemed marvelously suited. He attended Hans Hofmann’s classes on Eighth Street in New York for two-and-a-half years. Here he could pick up on contemporary currents , while benefiting from Hofmann’s critiques of students works. The result was a freeing up of Ben’s concepts of space, as well as a gradual lean towards abstraction. He was an inveterate learner. He visited the Met and the Modern, the Museum of Natural History and the Central Park Zoo – all fodder for his sculpture. A walk in the city was always a treasure hunt , with demolition sites yielding troves of sculptural media - from building materials to everyday objects.