LOT Davis Brothers Auction  /  Undiscovered Gems of the West  / 

814

Margo Hoff Lute Player Oil on Board Painting

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Western Americana Start Price:10.00 USD Estimated At:20,000.00 - 30,000.00 USD
Margo Hoff Lute Player Oil on Board Painting
A bid placed on our auctions is a legal contract – it cannot be revoked or cancelled for any reason. By registering for our auctions, you grant us permission to waive your right to execute any chargebacks against our company for any reason. Auctions will be sold with and without reserve. All items are sold as is, where is with no guarantees expressed or implied.
ALL SHIPPING IS HANDLED IN HOUSE.
21 1/2" by 41 1/2" framed. As good as it gets, this is one of the most pivotal paintings produced in the artists career. While researching the painting we found an image of it hung behind Mr. Frederick Sweet during the 1955 Paris Magnificent Mile Art Festival. The notation on the back of this photo reads: "Mr. Frederick Sweet, Curator of American Painting & Sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago participating in selection of Hoff exhibition for Paris with Mr. Vladimir Vissen and Mr. J.W. Alsdorf (not shown)." Directly behind Mr. Sweet at shoulder level is "Butterflies," Margo Hoff's winning entry in the Magnificent Mile Art Festival, 1955, which secured her a one-man show at the Wildenstein gallery in Paris. Other paintings in this photograph include (top right) "Dream of Flying" (1950); "The Lute Player" (resting on floor directly behind Mr. Sweet); "Three Babes" (leaning against radiator); "Murder Mystery" (1945) (to immediate right of radiator). Provenance: The Artist Fairweather Hardin Gallery Label. Sold at the 1955 Paris Magnificent Mile Art Festival. From the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Lee C. Shaw Evanston Illinois. Margo Hoff (1912 - 2008) was active/lived in New York, Oklahoma, Illinois. Margo Hoff is known for Abstract painting, woodcuts, lithography, crayon drawing, collage, textiles, stained glass. Artist Statement from the website of Margo Hoff, 1910-2008: I am a painter living in New York City. I am an autobiographical artist in that I have always used the events, places, images, remembrances of my life as central themes of my work. I am looking for an essence, or inner life of an idea. When asked what my influences have been my answer is "Almost anything except the work of other artists." I've been influenced by rocks, weeds, views from airplanes, rivers, subways, forests, machines, kinds of light, red things and imagination. One of my constant companions is my sketchbook. Since it is a small black book, people have thought me a poet, a scholar, a religious person carrying a prayer book. Once at Customs in Moscow my sketchbook was taken from me (later returned) because my notes were a "code." The sketches are actually a kind of shorthand writing. The world moves so quickly that images are blurred or lost. I try to record responses and moments. Later, I work with the note-sketches, developing them to the final form. I was born into a large family, six brothers and one sister, and into a small house. This made it natural to spend much time out of doors. In Oklahoma the summers were long and hot and filled with small adventures. In my childhood explorations of nature (plants, rocks, caves, landscapes) I made discoveries that I use even now in my painting. At six years, I modeled small animals and people from clay that the well drillers dug. I learned about color from rocks, leaves, and berries. A game we had was "coloring rocks." We pounded small rocks to dust, mashed berries or leaves, made colors, painted surfaces of large rocks and let them dry in the sun. At eleven I had typhoid fever. For a summer I was bedridden. I did many drawings and cutouts, and my imagination came alive. Thirteen was an important year. I began high school. I saw an oil painting for the first time. It was called Moonrise on Blue River. I began drawing from a live model, from casts, from imagination. I did a mural on four sides of the art room. The following year I won a silver medal in "Free-Hand Drawing" at the Scholastic Meet at the University of Oklahoma. Many years later I won another silver medal, at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Sign In to Bookmark Lot