Lot 244
Irma Cavat (American, 1928-2020). Painting of a dog, n.d. Signed at lower right. A beautiful painting of a dog rendered in a manner that recalls ancient Roman frescoes. A sweet black and white canine is the focus of this composition. Cavat featured the pup at the center surrounded by a red background. Perhaps delineated in encaustic, with a marvelous texture that suggests a stone wall. Note how Cavat created the appearance of loss to the peripheries to suggest abrasions to an ancient wall fresco. A very special piece by the late Irma Cavat mounted on linen-covered stretchers within an acrylic shadowbox. Size: 11.125" L x 9" W (28.3 cm x 22.9 cm) Size (shadowbox): 15.375" L x 13.375" W (39.1 cm x 34 cm)
About the artist: Born in Brooklyn, New York, Irma Cavat studied with Alexander Archipenko and modeled for surrealist Renee Magritte. Cavat also studied with Hans Hofmann at the New School for Social Research in New York City. She pursued various forms of visual expression, designing windows for Fifth Avenue's FAO Schwartz toy store, illustrating science fiction books, and designing jewelry. In the early 1950s, Cavat was an Abstract Expressionist and worked with Willem De Kooning. Her artist residencies included: Yaddo in New York, the McDowell Colony in Maine, the Djerassi Foundation in Northern California, and a Fulbright Grant to Rome, Italy. She lived in Rome from 1955 to 1964 and then moved to Santa Barbara where she was a Professor of Art at UCSB from 1965 to 2000. Upon returning to the U.S. she began to paint figuratively. In 1995, Cavat contributed to the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation's Sadako Peace Garden in collaboration with landscape architect Isabelle Greene and Nobel laureate in theoretical physics Walter Kohn on the 50th anniversary of the tragedy at Hiroshima. She sojourned in Paris, Provence, Athens, and London - and also traveled to Tiananmen Square in China, the open markets of Morocco, the Taj Mahal in India, as well as parts of Turkey, Japan, Hungary, the Baltic States, and Russia.
Cavat exhibited widely. Her first verified exhibition was "Recent Drawings U.S.A." at Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY in 1956, and her most recent exhibition was "View from Here: Santa Barbara Artists in the Permanent Collection" at Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA in 2011. Other exhibition venues include: Steinbaum Gallery, New York, NY; Arwin Gallery, Detroit, MI; Feingarten Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Phoenix Museum, Phoenix, AZ; Faculty Club Emeritus Show, UCSB, Santa Barbara, CA; Academia Americana, Rome, Italy; Gallery Gratticielo, Milano, Italy; Gallery Via Sestina, Rome, Italy; American Academy and Institute of Arts & Letters Fairtree Gallery, New York, NY; Kennedy Galleries, New York, NY; West Publishing Sullivan Goss Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA; and Sadako Peace Garden, Montecito, CA. Cavat's art has been collected by: Irving Stone, Beverly Hills, CA; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Mayor Sheila Lodge, Santa Barbara, CA; Cynthia Wood, Montecito, CA; New Orleans Museum of Art; Flint Museum, Michigan; and Detroit Institute of Art.
Provenance: ex-private Santa Barbara, California, USA collection
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#179670
- Condition: Signed at lower right. Artwork is mounted on linen-covered stretchers within an acrylic shadowbox. It has not been examined outside the shadowbox but appears to be in excellent condition overall.
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