What a Picnic!

Beverly Sacks -- This painting is a work by Noel Rockmore (1928 - 1995), an American painter and a native son of New Orleans. He was a colorful character who loved women and jazz, along with booze and drugs. When he was in his twenties, he had a one-man show of his work in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was the son of two noted American painters, Gladys Rockmore Davis and Floyd Davis. This painting titled The Picnic could also be viewed as the Last Supper. It is open to all interpretations. The location could possibly be Coney Island. And we think he painted himself into the picture; please look at the man in the lower right-hand corner of the painting.

NOEL ROCKMORE
Starting in his early twenties Rockmore began to be included in exhibitions and collections of the most prestigious museums in the world. Rockmore reached what for most artists would have been a career pinnacle when he was given a show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1952 at age 24. His work is found in such prestigious collections as the Museum of Modern Art, the Pennsylvania Academy in Philadelphia, the Hirshhorn and the Cleveland Institute of Art. Private collectors include such notables Jimmy Buffett, Raphael Soyer and the late Vincent Price who had 100 works.

Rockmore asserted that the message in his art is "the inevitability of our decline." the son of New York artists, Floyd Davis and Gladys Rockmore Davis, Noel began studying painting when he was nine years old, and in 1947 he enrolled in the Art Students League in New York. His first studio was in the Bowery, where he painted the derelicts he saw on the street. Other subjects that fascinated him were the behind the scenes life of the circus and the amusement park at Coney Island.

Rockmore made his first visit to new Orleans in 1960 and set up a studio there in the house of artist Paul Ninas; soon he was spending his winters in the New Orleans. In 1962, he began in a systematic way to paint the old jazz musicians playing at Preservation hall in the French Quarter. During performances he made quick preliminary studies in polymer; his subsequent large oils were each painted during a single sitting in his studio.

Visit the Beverly Sacks Fine Art online gallery for more information on Beverly and her works.

A Timely Subject

Beverly Sacks -- A favorite painting in my gallery is titled Trickery at the Polls by Don Freeman, American artist, an oil on canvas measuring  23" x 26" done circa 1930. It is filled with wonderful images of people as only Freeman can do. Please look at  the unsavory character approaching an elderly lady as she attempts to enter the barber shop to vote. Also there is a group of men over to the left that look pretty shady. One also notices someone in the voting booth being approached by a another man while a policeman is standing guard. Outside there is a burning newspaper with Laguardia (mayor of New York City 1934-1945) in the headline. A newspaper boy is selling his wares. On the lower right a little girl is pulling a litle boy in a cart. It is a fascinating piece of Americana as well as a great regionalist oil by a great painter of the American scene.    

 

                                               

 

DON FREEMAN
1908-1978

 

Illustrator, painter, lithographer. Born in San Diego, CA on Aug. 11, 1908. Freeman studied at the San Diego School of Fine Arts and continued in 1928 at the ASL in NYC under John Sloan and Harry Wickey. Remaining in NYC, his drawings of the theater were published in the Herald Tribune, New York Times, and Theater magazine. Most of his career was spent in NYC where he captured the spirit and essence of everyday life during the 1930s and 1940s. He was most known for his paintings of theatrical scenes. He illustrated Human Comedy (Saroyan), White Deer (Thurber), and Once Around the Sun (Atkinson). He was the author of Come One, Come All and in 1951 he began illustrating a total of 33 children's books which he co-authored with his wife, Lydia. During his last 20 years he maintained a home in Santa Barbara, CA. He died on February 1, 1978 while in NYC to meet his editor at Viking Press. Three years before his demise, Mayor Lindsey presented him with the keys to the city and dubbed him the "Daumier of New York City."

 

Visit the Beverly Sacks Fine Art online gallery for more information on Beverly and her works.