Ed Sappin | Philanthropy & Community

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Brooklyn Progressive: The Art of Gertrude Sappin

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I am back after a hiatus and will continue to highlight unique and interesting artists. My next profile is of Gertrude Sappin, who was also my grandmother.

Gertrude Kellerman was born in Hungary in 1902 and emigrated to the United States in her teens. She settled in Brooklyn, New York and became a lifelong progressive. After having a family and raising them, Gertrude Sappin became a well known artist later in life. She passed away in 1992.

 

Gertrude Sappin Recollections

 

My grandmother’s art career began when she was in her 60s. A force of nature, she and her colleagues founded the Contemporary Artist’s Guild around 1968. Grandma Gertrude’s work ranged from oil paintings, to etchings, to lithographs, to sketches. My personal favorite is Recollections, with a representation of Winston Churchill at center and wartime images surrounding him.

Grandma Gertrude exhibited with CAG at the Brooklyn Musem of Art, Lincoln Center, and Lever House, amongst other venues. I fondly remember attending many of these exhibitions as a boy.

I’ve recently put together a basic website for my grandmother’s work. I hope to expand it over time.

 

Forever Paris: Willy Ronis’s Striking Style

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Amoureux de la Colonne Bastille, Paris, 1957

Amoureux de la Colonne Bastille, Paris, 1957

Willy Ronis passed away in 2009, leaving a long, dense catalog of photographs that chronicle France and Paris’ rich history during the twentieth century, particularly the post war years of the 1940s and 1950s.

Born in Paris in 1910, Ronis did not become a full-time photographer until his mid 30s. He was part of the well known Rapho Agency alongside fellow luminaries Brassai and Robert Doisneau. Ronis’s work focuses on the joy and love of day to day life.

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Le Petit Parisien, 1953 | Courtesy: Jackson Fine Art

Ronis’ stature grew in the 1950s as he was part of an exhibit in New York at the MOMA curated by Edward Steichen and a few years later was part of the famed Family of Man exhibition. His works began to enter major collections and throughout his lifetime he was well represented by major galleries around the world.

“Je n’ai jamais poursuivi l’insolite, le jamais vu, l’extraordinaire, mais bien ce qu’il y a de plus typique
dans notre existence quotidienne… ” Willy Ronis

“I have never pursued the unusual, the unseen, the extraordinary, but what is most typical
In our everyday existence … ” Willy Ronis

Ronis is very well known in his native land but never quite achieved the international fame that some of his contemporaries did, perhaps because (ironically) he was too positive in his outlook. This being said, he remains one of my favorite photographers for his ability to capture the everyday and its beauty and maintain a positive outlook in the aftermath of the destruction of World War II.

Nature, Technology and Humanity through the Worlds of Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison

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In 2007, I was living in Shanghai and decided to come back to the US for a visit to see my family in New York. I also passed through Chicago to attend the law school commencement of a cousin living there. Trudging through the winter in Chicago was actually fun (my cousin graduated midyear). I had some free time during the trip and visited the Catherine Edelman Gallery in River North, where I first saw the works of Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison.

I was taken with the worlds the ParkeHarrison’s depicted in their bleak photographic works – the environment suffering greatly, often with an everyman trying to help heal some of the ills that have befallen Mother Nature.

Earth Elegies by Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison (from the artists’ website)

Earth Elegies by Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison (from the artists’ website)

The ParkeHarrisons became one of my favorites from that day onwards. Their statement is one of alarm, concern and warning of the world we live in and where it may lead:

We  create works in response to the ever-bleakening relationship linking humans, technology, and nature. These works feature an ambiguous narrative that offers insight into the dilemma posed by science and technology’s failed promise to fix our problems, provide explanations, and furnish certainty pertaining to the human condition.  Strange scenes of hybridizing forces, swarming elements, and bleeding overabundance portray Nature unleashed by technology and the human hand.  

Rich colors and surrealistic imagery merge to reveal the poetic roots of the works on display.  The use of color is intentional but abstract; proportion and space are compositional rather than natural; movement is blurred; objects and people juxtaposed as if by chance in a visual improvisation that unfolds choreographically.  At once formally arresting and immeasurably loaded with sensations—this work attempts to provide powerful impact both visually and viscerally. 

– Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison (as posted on the artists’ website)

While their artistic statement expresses great concern of a potentially apocalyptic future, the ambiguity in their statement also points to the ability to correct our course and become better stewards of the land. On that day in Chicago, I was particularly taken with Gray Dawn, a dreary, contemplative work. Our everyman lays on a bed, asleep still or waking we do not know, with a dirty window in front of him and a scene outside dominated by a power plant or industrial facility. However, there are signs of life, of Mother Nature, as plant trimmings sprouting in the foreground point to another dawn.

Gray Dawn by Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison (from the Catherine Edeleman Gallery website)


Gray Dawn by Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison (from the Catherine Edeleman Gallery website)

The ParkeHarrisons are well represented by major galleries in New York, Chicago, and Colorado and their works have been included in the permanent collections of institutions including the Whitney, the National Museum of American Art in Washington, DC and the Museum of Arts in Boston. If you have a chance to see their creations I highly recommend it.