Abstract, Ash Can School

Alfred McNamara (1911-1994) American

Medium: Oil on Masonite
Image Size: 30” x 40”
Frame Size: 36” x 46”
Signature: Signed lower right
Price: $4800

Biography/Statement

Alfred McNamara was born in Tompkinsville, Staten Island and lived most of his life in Staten Island.  He was heavily influenced by John Sloane, Edward Hopper, and others of the Ash Can School in the 1920’s and 1930’s.  During the 1930’s, he received his basic art training under Walter Drewes, through a program sponsored by the WPA (Works Projects Administration) at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.  Later McNamara also studied with Bernie Klonis at the New York Industrial School of Art.  He then worked professionally as a costume and scene designer for James P. Balderson, who designed for the stage of the old Roxy Theater in Manhattan.  He also illustrated in part several popular pulp magazines of the pre-war period.  During World War II, he served in the United States Air Force for four years, spending most of that time overseas.  In 1944, he won second prize in an Eighth Air Force Show in England.  In the 1960’s, he took several prizes in various group shows of museum members of the Staten Island Museum in St. George, including the Julius Weissglass Art Award, first prize in 1967.  In 1970, he won the silver medal at the American Veterans Society of Artists for the best figure composition with his picture entitled Two Women.

Artist Profile Page: McNamara, Alfred / Categories: Abstract, Ash Can School

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Ash Can School, Figurative, Regionalist (Urban)

Reginald Marsh (1898-1954) American

Medium: Oil on Board
Image Size: 4” x 3”
Frame Size: 8” x 7”
Signature: Initialed lower left
Price: SOLD

Biography/Statement

An urban realist painter of New York City genre, Reginald Marsh devoted his career to depicting people going about their everyday business including Bowery bums, vulgar party goers, and persons elbowing their way in crowded subways.  He was also a printmaker, completing about 236 etchings*, lithographs*, and engravings*, and devoted much time, especially in the 1930s, to printmaking*. Many of his paintings were done in watercolor and egg tempera*.

He was born in Paris to American-born artist parents, Fred Dana and Alice Randall Marsh.  His family settled in Nutley, New Jersey in 1900 and later in New Rochelle, New York.  After graduating from Yale University, he worked as a free-lance illustrator in New York City for the Daily News and The New Yorker and studied at the Art Students League*.

He was much influenced by urban realists John Sloan, George Luks and Kenneth Hayes Miller.  He went briefly to Europe and then returned to New York to pursue his sympathetic depiction of low-life subjects.  In the 1930s, he did murals for the W.P. A., and in 1943, he was elected a full Academician to the National Academy of Design.   Reginald Marsh died in Dorset, Vermont in 1954.

Source:
Michael David Zellman, 300 Years of American Art

Artist Profile Page: Marsh, Reginald / Categories: Ash Can School, Figurative, Regionalist (Urban)

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