WPA

This is the largest and most detailed and only signed painting from this series by Mahlon Blaine, number eight of ten the verso is titled “Nude on Gadget – Out of Control” and signed “G. Christopher Hudson” with a New York City address. In this image a nude sits atop the observation deck of the Chrysler Building high above New York City in a frozen in time Salvador Dali like winter surrealist cityscape. A frozen water faucet has created a block of ice that a nude goddess sits on oblivious to the cold as city workers attempt to break the ice and another hoists construction lumber from the skyscrapers iconic art deco modernist machine-age observation deck.

Nude on Gadget (Out of Control)

Artist: Mahlon Blaine

The seventh of ten mural concepts by Mahlon Blaine for a New York City public space designed by noted industrial designer Paul Ritter MacAlister. This work is stylistically a departure, a cubist abstract half man/half woman nude that guards or invites one into a passageway in a color palette and modernist style suggestive of Picasso.

The Passage

Artist: Mahlon Blaine

The sixth of ten 1939 mural designs by Mahlon Blaine, which were intended to become murals for the studio or showroom of noted New York City industrial designer Paul MacAlister. A vacuum tube headed, praying mantis-like robot battles a cowering nude goddess in the ongoing saga of the menace of industry. Marked on verso design #6, this comes beautifully matted and framed from the estate of Paul Ritter MacAlister.

Cowering Nude With Robot

Artist: Mahlon Blaine

The fifth of ten 1939 mural designs by Mahlon Blaine, which were intended to become murals for the studio or showroom of noted New York City industrial designer Paul MacAlister. In this scene our nude goddess pours flower petals into the mouth of a robotic machine as a Buckingham Palace Royal Guard on horse cleverly protects her modesty. The adjoining stone masonry watches on in amusement as a bird of pray hovers above tied from a high building rafter that frames the scene. An inspired visionary artwork in a red, white and blue Americana color palette. Marked on verso design #5, this comes beautifully matted and framed from the estate of Paul Ritter MacAlister.

Nude Feeding Industry

Artist: Mahlon Blaine

The fourth of ten 1939 mural designs by Mahlon Blaine, which were intended to become murals for the studio or showroom of noted New York City interior designer Paul MacAlister. In “The Toast of Manhattan” a nude goddess with serpents for hair pours a martini for a tuxedo clad robot as the adjoining stone masonry watches on disapprovingly. Even the tenements have eyes in this surrealist and inspired visionary artwork. Marked on verso design #4, this comes beautifully matted and framed from the estate of Paul MacAlister.

The Toast of Manhattan

Artist: Mahlon Blaine

The third of ten gouache paintings created by Mahlon Blaine in 1939 under the pseudonym G. Christopher Hudson, offering a dark and pessimistically erotic take on the skyscraper landscape that was taking over Manhattan. In this scene a nude Medusa like creature ball dances with a robot in a high wire styled act on scaffolding high above the city. Blaine treated each individual painting in the series as its own completed stand alone artwork, with painstaking detail and inspired yet terrifying imagery.

Nude Dancing with Robot

Artist: Mahlon Blaine

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

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

From a recent east coast estate auction, Grapefruit Moon Gallery is delighted to have acquired a previously unseen collection of American Impressionist oil paintings dating to the 1940s and executed in a WPA, Regionalist, and often times stark Ashcan School design aesthetic. These are the work of the important American photo-journalist Alfred Statler, who […]

Train Platform At Night

Artist: Alfred Statler

The Statue of Liberty beckons in this inspired dated 1949 fine-art exhibited watercolor by the Russian/American artist Vladimir Yoffe, who was an active New York City WPA artist and art deco designer in the 1930s and 40s. A colorful sunrise is captured in this moody, ominous city-scape, which shows lower Manhattan’s picturesque skyline greeting the day as the bustling urban […]

New Day Rising

Artist: Vladimir Yoffe

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