Two Women in a Landscape-7 3/4" x 5 3/4" O/B-1940s-Gar Sparks

Description: This is a 7 3/4 x 5 3/4 inch (image size) modernist, almost surrealist oil painting on paperboard of two women in a dreamlike landscape. It was done around the 1940s by listed New Jersey artist Gar Sparks around the 1940s. With the frame it measures 12 1/4 by 10 1/4. It is signed and it has the estate stamp on back. I acquired it with the rest of the Gar Sparks estate from the Boston Art Club. The photos tell the story. It will be shipped for $20 via UPS or USPS. Gar Sparks was an artist of recognized talent that lived most of his life in or around Newark, New Jersey. He was born in 1888 in Akron, Ohio and died in 1954 in East Orange, N.J. He had an approach to painting that could be called dream-like, visionary, surreal &/or psychological with an often muted palette which could sometimes become high-keyed. He owned a candy store in Newark and painted for many years, at least from around 1910 until close to his death in 1954. Like many others, he has been overlooked both in regard to his talent and for his early-on contributions to the "art of the mind." His work usually avoids the pitfall of becoming dismal, depressing or negative, a result to which many artists involved in the graphic exploration & depiction of the mind succumb. His works are very scarce. To gain some insight into Gar Sparks & his art, the words of the great American modernist Stuart Davis are given here: "I first met Gar Sparks in a Negro saloon on Arlington Street in Newark,N.J. on April 12,1912. He was drinking celery tonic. I remember the date because I had found a new friend. And a good friend is hard to find. It seems that Sparks was inspired by some paintings by Glenn Coleman, which he had seen in Columbus, Ohio. Since Coleman was my best friend, we found it easy to talk. Sparks told me about his own paintings and shortly afterwards I saw them. They were portraits of people he had seen while running an elevator in New York City. They had the quality of authentic art. In some way, probably by an inner image, (certainly not by instruction) he knew that a shape had a shape. He also had some paintings of people standing around in an expanse. A river was involved in some cases. I never inquired into the psychology of these things. They looked good. At that epoch Sparks was the director of a Nedick's Orange juice stand. I used to meet him at midnight and we would go to the Arlington Street saloon to listen to real music, or to Childs restaurant to talk about art." (from the book Painting and Sculpture in New Jersey by William H. Gerdts, Jr.)

Price: 650 USD

Location: Westfield, New Jersey

End Time: 2024-08-26T13:38:26.000Z

Shipping Cost: 20 USD