Recent Acquisitions at Surovek Gallery

Works by Frederic Edwin Church, Andrew Wyeth, Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein and Tom Wesselmann

Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900) was an important artist of the Hudson River School. Church was a master at depicting the luminous quality of natural light in his paintings. Unlike other painters of the Hudson River School, who painted local scenes, Church traveled to exotic and remote areas, from the Arctic Circle to the Middle East, to render the scenic beauty of the locations he explored.

 

 After the Rainstorm, painted in 1875, captures the brilliance of Church’s work.

 


 

Two watercolors by Andrew Wyeth are among the recent acquisitions at Surovek Gallery. Both works are studies that Wyeth did before completing final paintings. Antler Chair was done in 1996. Ridge Church, done in 2004, is a study for the drybrush painting titled Shellback. Ridge Church is located near Tenants Harbor, Maine, where Wyeth and his wife, Betsy, purchased the Tenants Harbor lighthouse in 1978. They converted the base of the bell tower into a studio. The family spent most of the year at their home in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania and summers in Maine, where Wyeth spent many decades painting the Maine landscape.

 


 

Frank Stella (1936 - present) spent much of his career creating complex prints that focus on color, shape and composition. The title of the recent acquisition, Double Grey Scramble, is a bit ironic, since the screenprint is composed of 50 colors. 

 

At age 87, Stella has expanded his oeuvre and has recently been using computer generated designs to create large, star-shaped sculptures.

 


 

Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) would have been 100 on October 27, 2023. The Roy Lichtenstein Foundation has been celebrating the life of the great artist with donations of works to major museums and exhibits throughout the world.

 

Two Paintings: Beach Ball , another recent acquisition, combines Lichtenstein's instantly recognizable Ben-Day Dots with the sophisticated techniques: woodcut, lithography, screenprint and collage, that Lichtenstein incorporated in many of his works.

 


 

Tom Wesselmann (1931-2004) has been called Pop Art’s Unsung Hero. His works have  a large following, especially in Europe, and in the last few years they have been greatly appreciated by a new, younger generation of art lovers.

 

Monica Lying on a Blanket, uses a technique that Wesselmann pioneered,  to turn his drawings into works of laser-cut steel.

 


 

Please contact us if you would like more information about the recent acquisitions or any of the other fine art available at Surovek Gallery.

 


 

References:

David Carrier. Frank Stella: From the Studio. The Brooklyn Rail. June 2023.

Casey Farmer. Frank Stella’s ‘Abra I’ to Lead at Christie’s Post-War to Present Sale. Barron’s/PENTA. September 26, 2023.

Deborah Solomon. Heading Upstairs With Roy Lichtenstein. The New York Times/Art & Design. September 20, 2023.

October 5, 2023
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