Davis received no formal art [...] Click here to continue reading.]]> Gene Davis (American, 1920 to 1985)

Gene Davis was a prominent member of the Washington Color School, known for his vertical stripe paintings. Born in Washington D.C. in 1920, Davis first worked as a sportswriter, and then as a White House correspondent covering the administrations of Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman; several of his photographs of Truman-with whom he played poker-are in the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art.[1]

Davis received no formal art training, though he did frequent museums and galleries, and was “smitten with the complex color harmonies” of works he viewed in the Phillips Collection.[2] He acknowledged the influence of Paul Klee, Jasper Johns, and Barnett Newman, whose color stripe paintings inspired Davis to elaborate on the theme.[3]

After his first solo exhibition in 1952, Davis subsequently had three one-man shows at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and was included in the 1965 exhibition at the Washington Gallery of Modern Art that fixed a loose collective of local color field painters with a name that stuck, the Washington Color School. Davis taught at the Corcoran School of Art, American University, Skidmore College, and the University of Virginia.

“What drives them is their colors, their tall, performing colors, some of which step forward as if to take a solo, while others, less assertive, appear to retreat. These colors work in teams, joining with their neighbor stripes, or colleagues far away, to form ever-rearranging chords.”[4]

Although he began his paintings by methodically placing strips of masking tape on cotton duck canvas, Davis’s approach was propelled neither by theory nor program. “The way to really make good art is to do the outrageous, the unexpected — to be a renegade.”[5] To that end, Davis often partook of the unexpected: he painted one-foot wide stripes across a road in Philadelphia, created a series of paintings “no bigger than a credit card”, and channeled the anarchic humor of Marcel Duchamp by capturing the air in front of the White House in a glass container.[6]

In 1974 Davis received a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, and in 1984 he was appointed commissioner of the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. He died in Washington D.C. in 1985.

[1] http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/collection/gene-davis-papers-7153.

[2] Gene Davis biography, http://www.phillipscollection.org/research/american_art/bios/davis_g-bio.htm.

[3] Steven Naifeh, Gene Davis (New York: The Arts Publisher, 1982), 40.

[4] Paul Richard, The Primary Figure of the Color School (The Washington Post, April 28, 2007).

[5] Richard

[6] Richard

Essay written by Jerry N. Weiss.

Information courtesy of Shannon’s Fine Art Auctioneers, October 2011.

The Madame Alexander Doll Company made popular dolls at affordable prices, but their success was as due to innovative marketing as well as unique [...] Click here to continue reading.]]> Madame Alexander: Quality Dolls & Innovative Marketing

Doll collectors love her high quality toys, but it was marketing savvy of this Russian-Jewish immigrant entrepreneur that put Scarlett O’Hara of Gone with the Wind into the arms of millions of little girls in the industry’s first ever licensed movie merchandise tie-in.

The Madame Alexander Doll Company made popular dolls at affordable prices, but their success was as due to innovative marketing as well as unique products. Industry firsts included the first doll based on a licensed character (Scarlett O’Hara in 1936), as well as the first dolls modeled after actual people such as Queen Elizabeth and other members of the British Royal Family. Introduced in 1935, the Dion Quintuplets (not one but five dolls in this set!) were reissued periodically as the girls grew.

Madame Beatrice Alexander
It’s not surprising that the creative force behind a dynamic company would have a colorful history. She was the daughter of Austrian immigrant Hannah Pepper, whose first husband and children were killed in a pogrom. Her mother named her Bertha, which she later changed to Beatrice, which she considered more elegant. No one is certain how the title “Madame” came into use, but those that knew her felt it fit. When Madame was very young, she was adopted by her step-father Maurice Alexander, and she and her sisters grew up above the first Doll Hospital in the U.S, which was run by Maurice. The Doll Hospital provided the Alexanders with a relatively stable existence until embargoes during World War I made it impossible to import dolls or doll parts from Germany. Up until this time, Germany had led the world in doll and toy manufacture, but that was due to change.

The Madame Alexander Doll Company
By 1918, Beatrice had graduated from high school (unusual for a girl in an immigrant family) and married Philip Behrman. The ambitious and energetic Beatrice used the German embargo as the opportunity to enter the doll market. Her first doll offering was a Red Cross Nurse executed in cloth. In 1923, with a loan of $1,600. from friends and relatives the Madame Alexander Doll Company was born. Madame’s innovations in marketing were matched by innovations in manufacturing. In the late 1940′s, the company pioneered the use of plastic in the manufacture of its products. The 1955 introduction of Cissy, the first high fashion doll predated Barbie by four years and proved to be very successful. Madame retired from day to day operations in 1988, but remained active in company affairs. She died in 1990.

Today, Madame Alexander Dolls have their own collector club – www.madc.org, and occupy their very own niche in the world of doll collecting. Although the market has softened for common examples in marginal condition, the market remains strong for the unusual, hard to find, or mint in box Alexander Dolls.

-by p4A Contributing Editor Susan Cramer.

Reference: Madame Alexander Dolls, 1965-1990 by Patricia R. Smith

Reintroduced by Knoll in collaboration with the [...] Click here to continue reading.]]> Cyclone table

Designed by Isamu Noguchi, the Cyclone table was conceived in 1953 as a rocking stool made of metal wire and wood. The rocking stool was manufactured in 1954 in varying sizes, and later evolved into a table that became a companion piece to the Bertoia wire children’s chair. At the suggestion of Hans Knoll, Noguchi’s small table was enlarged to full size in 1957.

Reintroduced by Knoll in collaboration with the Noguchi foundation, the design is produced from Noguchi’s original drawings. The sculptural base consists of a column of chrome-plated steel wires set into a cast-iron black porcelain-finished foot. Knoll is the only authorized and licensed manufacturer of Noguchi’s Cyclone table. Each piece has a signature plate under the table top bearing the KnollStudio logo and Isamu Noguchi’s signature. Contemporary examples are available with a black or white laminate top with an exposed birch edge.

Source: www.hivemodern.com

p4a.com Reference Note by contributing editor Don Johnson