Grapefruit Moon Gallery

Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration

industrial age

In the late 1930s, avant garde illustrator Mahlon Blaine, working under the pseudonym G.Christopher Hudson created a series of illustrations which were intended to become murals for the studio or showroom of noted New York City interior designer Paul MacAlister. In this work, the second of the series, a mechanical bird menaces the Medusa-inspired nude goddess who cowers atop a stone robot in a patriotic American apple pie infused red, white and blue color palette.

Mechanical Bird and Nude

Artist: Mahlon Blaine
Price:  $6,500.00

In this work, the first of the series, and the image that was to greet visitors as they entered the room, a nude showgirl dancer does a sad burlesque, her shadow duplicated in silhouette in a Coney Island funhouse style. Both evoking and critiquing the sordid and semi-underground world of Depression-era girlie shows, the artwork lures the viewer into the underbelly of the city that is explored in the nine images that follow.

The Sad Burlesque

Artist: Mahlon Blaine
Price:  $4,000.00

An inventive and forward thinking "progress through industry" original gouache illustration painting by Theodore Haupt. This was commissioned by The New Yorker magazine and used as their May 2, 1931 cover. The imagery attempts to put a positive spin on the Great Depression using modernism, industry and the technological advances of the Machine Age as rallying points in this bustling New York City cityscape. Haupt illustrated forty four covers for The New Yorker between 1927 and 1933.

Industry

Artist: Theodore Haupt
Price:  Sold

A stark, eerie, machine age/industrial revolution 1938 Works Progress Administration sponsored oil painting by Thomas Tyrone Comfort, this darkly modernist view titled "Heat on Steel" features a haunting view of an arc welder at work in a surrealist factory. This large scale painting was created as public art and exhibited by the Federal Arts Project in 1938 and retains its original verso label. 1938 marked the height of the WPA art movement, and Comfort was one of its promising talents, creating evocatively expressive, and moody visions of Depression era science and industry.

Heat On Steel

Artist: Tyrone Comfort
Price:  S O L D

Featuring a Depression-era machinist at work creating a Pratt & Whitney aircraft engine, this 1940 artwork by WPA artist Alton Tobey combines the unusual muted palate and composition of the regionalist movement with the dystopian feel of the surrealists. This powerful oil on canvas was created for the East Hartford Pratt & Whitney plant, and presents a deeply moving picture of industrialism in the lead up to World War II.

WPA Machinist

Artist: Alton Tobey
Price:  S O L D

A whimsical and dazzling watercolor by Heinrich Kley titled "Siche Rude Seiten;" loosely translated, "Our Unrefined Side". THe splendid cast of characters captures the essence of this fondly remembered avant-garde, Jugendstil, German Expressionist artist. This is a rare full color example of the artist's work, most surviving pieces by Kley are pen & ink drawings. Kley, whose work first appeared in "Die Jugend" in 1908 caught the eye of Walt Disney in 1937 and Kley inspired much of the animation of "Fantasia". This evocative painting is rich in humor, technique and imagery.

Our Unrefined Side

Artist: Heinrich Kley
Price:  S O L D

A technically dazzling pen & ink drawing by Heinrich Kley titled "Electrodämonen," translated "Electric Demons." A brooding and troubling satire on the machine age and ongoing industrialization. This captures Kley's technical brilliance and foreshadows the later science fiction pulp drawings of Virgil Finlay. Kley, whose work first appeared in Die Jugend in 1908 caught the eye of Walt Disney in 1937 and Kley inspired much of the animation of Fantasia. This drawing appears as a full page plate in The Drawings of Heinrich Kley.

Electric Demons

Artist: Heinrich Kley
Price:  Sold

 

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