Recent Acquisitions at VFA

Alexander Calder (1898-1976) is best known for his mobiles and stabiles, that introduced the element of movement to sculpture. Many of his mobiles were based on his contour-line drawings, which he transformed with wire into three-dimensional linear sculptures.

 

 

Calder’s early use of printmaking was a practical one: he printed flyers while living in Paris in the 1920s, to announce performances of his Cirque Calder.

 

Serendipity played a role in Calder refining his printmaking skills; while in Paris he met many of now-famous avant-garde artists, like Piet Mondrian, Joan Miro, Marcel Duchamp and British expatriate William Hayter. Hayter studied at the Académie Julian and became known for his innovative printing techniques. Hayter’s influence had a profound effect on Calder.

 

Calder  continued to produce boldly colored lithographs throughout his lifetime. Works like Spirale et poulpe (Sprial and Octopus), available at VFA, have the form and movement of his sculptures and may even have been an idea for a mobile. 

 

Works by Alexander Calder are currently on exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum, MASI Lugano in Switzerland and the Azabudai Hills Gallery in Tokyo.

 

---

 

 Polly Apfelbaum (b.1955) has received international acclaim for her large, colorful works and her use of varying medium, including painted, cut and dyed fabrics. She  also  creates fine art woodblock prints, like Love Alley, available at VFA.

 

Apfelbaum was one of the artists from around the world, and, for the first time, only women, to reinterpret the iconic Lady Dior bag.

 

 

 Her work is currently on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, as part of an exhibit called Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction through July 28, and is also part of an exhibit titled Thread: Making Patterns at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City that will be on display through January 11th, 2025.

 

Her works in the permanent collections of such fine venues as MoMA, the Whitney, the Miami Art Museum, Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC.

 

Polly Apfelbaum lives and works in New York.

 

---

 

Alex Katz (b. July 24, 1927) will turn 97 next month. Next month also marks the opening of his first solo show at the Museum of Modern Art: Alex Katz: Seasons consists of four giant paintings that he began in 2022, chronicling the change of seasons at his summer home in Lincolnville, Maine. Katz also has a show in Venice, at the at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, to coincide with the Venice Biennale.

 

We have recently acquired four portraits from his Porcelain Beauty Series, made in 2022.

 

The art world has finally caught up to Alex Katz, after his stunning retrospective at the Guggenheim in 2023. He has always been not just artist’s artist, but an artist who has inspired poets, dancers and musicians. 

 

“This is the end game.” Katz said in a recent interview with the Financial Times. “It’s just sleep and paint. When I was young, we’d take everything in — concerts and dance [performances]. Now, I’m not taking much in.”

 

Alex Katz may not be going out much, but he’s still creating wonderful paintings, prints and sculptures that are being appreciated now, more than ever.

 

---

 

Donald Sultan (b. 1951) uses tar, flocking and etching to create textured images in his paintings, prints and sculptures.

 

 

Sultan used etched paper to create texture, and soft, springtime-hued  archival pigment ink, for his Poppies April 24, 2024 series, now available at VFA. Like most of Sultan’s paintings and fine art prints, this works in this series are large and dynamic.

 

---

 

 Please contact us if you would like more information about the fine art prints available at VFA.

 

---

 

June 12, 2024