McCarthey Gallery - Monthly Auction
Thomas Kearns McCarthey Gallery

Monthly Auction

August 2012 Monthly Auction

Congratulations to M. Turpin who placed the winning bid of $2,750 for July's auction painting ""The Lilac, The Opened Window" by Victor Butko, estimated at $4,000- $4,500.

This month we present as the auction painting "Summer in the Village" by Ukrainian artist Vasili F. Kondratyuk.

This is a Ukrainian painting, using a strong traditional Ukrainian color base with a universal Ukrainian theme of a fine summer day. In Soviet times, Ukraine was known as the breadbasket of the Soviet Union. Additionally, the area of Kiev was known (and still is) as the City of Parks. The City has a tremendous acreage of green, lush parks that dot the landscape. This delightful, simple, joyful landscape reflects both the vivid green of the breadbasket along with the sheer pleasant enjoyment of a bright, sunny day in a park.

We invite you to participate in this month's auction and thank everyone who placed bids last month.

Bidding begins at $250, followed by minimum bidding increments of $250. The auction will end Friday, August 31st at 9:00 pm.

BID FORM

1264w
Vasili Fedorovich Kondratyuk
"Summer in the Village"
23½'' x 31½'', (60 x 80 cm) 1967, Oil on Canvas
Estimated Value $3,000- $3,500, Current Bid, $1,000, L. Oren

Vasili Fedorovich Kondratyuk, b. 1914

Vasili F. Kondratyuk was born February 10, 1914 in the village of Skviry, Kiev Region, Ukraine. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he did not begin studying art at a young age. Instead he fought in W.W.II before studying art at the Kiev Art Institute. There he studied under the leading Ukrainian realists O. Shovkunenko, V. Kostetski, and K. Eleva. He graduated from the Institute in 1952 and began to exhibit that very same year. He exhibited primarily in the Ukraine and continued to work there after graduating although he exhibited at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow in 1954.

A selective list of exhibitions follows:

1952 - 11th Exhibition of the Visual Art of the Ukrainian SSR, Kiev.
1953 - Itinerant Exhibition of Works by Ukrainian Soviet Artists, Lvov & others.
1954 - Exhibition of the Visual Art of the Ukrainian SSR Dedicated to the 300th Anniversary of the Unification of the Ukraine with Russia, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
1954 - State Museum of Ukrainian Art, Kiev.
1955 - Itinerant Exhibition of Works by Ukrainian Soviet Artists, Lvov Museum of Ukrainian Art & other venues.

Member of the Union of Artists.

Studied under Aleksey Alekseevich Shovkunenko

Born in Kiev 1914. Studied at Kiev Art Institute until 1952. Active in Kiev.

 

September 2012 Monthly Auction

Congratulations to L. Oren who placed the winning bid of just $1,000 for August's auction painting "Summer in the Village" by Ukrainian artist Vasili F. Kondratyuk, estimated at $3,000- $3,500.

This month as our silent auction piece we are pleased to present a superb drawing, "Lady with Violin", by the master Ivan Nikiforovich Stasevich, Estimated at $3,000- $3,500, Winning Bid $2,250, H. Milne.

Drawings have a very special place in Russian Impressionist art and are a fundamental part of the education and training process for students. A direct pass-through from the rigid academic training of a hundred and fifty years ago, all Russian art students were required by the great Russian Art Academy's to draw, draw, draw. The academy's six years of intensive academic training was built on a foundation of great drawing and a demand that every artist not just be proficient but a grand master at drawing. Good drawing was considered the gateway to great art. In some academies, first year students were permitted to do nothing but draw. An observer to the small (but very impressive) museum at the Ilya Repin State Academic Institute Of Fine Arts, Sculpture And Architecture in St. Petersburg (the "Repin Institute"), can see academic drawings (with the grades attached) from student works dating back to 1769.

Drawing is a skill that many Russian artists inter-disperse throughout their careers. They see it as a warm up. A skill enhancer that even after their rigid training, Russian artists throughout their career, return to again and again.

It is this strength in drawing technique that makes possible the uncompromising realism of Russian art and this month's auction piece.

We invite you to participate in this month's auction and thank everyone who placed bids last month.

Bidding begins at $250, followed by minimum bidding increments of $250. The auction will end Sunday, September 30th at 5:00 pm.

BID FORM

Lady_with_Violin
Ivan Nikiforovich Stasevich, "Lady with Violin"
13'' x 11'', 1957, Pencil on Paper
Estimated value $3,500- $4,500, Winning Bid $2,250, H. Milne

Ivan Nikiforovich Stasevich- (1929 - 1998)

Translated from the original Russian

Ivan N. Stasevich, painter and honored artist of Byelorussia, was born on January 9, 1929 in the village of Medvednya, in Starodorozhensky district of Minsk region.

In 1952 he graduated from Minsk Art School and left for Moscow in order to become a student of the V.I. Surikov Institute. D.V. Mochalsky was his teacher. In 1958, Ivan Stasevich painted his graduation work Among the Bogs of Byelorussia describing partisan movement of the time of the Great Patriotic War in which he had participated himself when still very young. The subjects of fighting against Nazi remained very important for the artist in the subsequent years. There were such pictures as Life Everlasting, Oath (1965-1967), May (1945), and Happy Meeting (1969-1970). The subjects of the artist's pictures also reflected the optimistic attitudes of the post-war years, the years of construction work. In the 1960s, the artist worked at the construction site of Bratsk Hydropower Station where he painted portraits of wood-cutters, industrial landscapes and genre compositions, such as Angara, Angara (1960) and Winners of Padun Rapids (1961).

When he returned to Byelorussia, the artist's creative work became closely connected with teaching. For many years, Stasevich worked in Minsk Institute of Theater and Art. An Associate Professor, and then a Professor of the Institute, he was awarded the title of Honored Artist of Byelorussia.

Ivan Stasevich is an active participant of all Russia's and all Byelorussia's exhibitions. Before the independence of Byelorussia from Russia, he was a member of the USSR Union of Artists. His works are in museums and private collections of Byelorussia, Russia, Germany, France, the United States and other countries. During many years of the artist's creative work, there were his numerous one-man exhibitions.

Ilya Repin State Academic Institute of Fine Arts, Sculpture and Architecture, St. Petersburg

The Arts Academy was founded in 1757 and is the largest arts educational institution and one of the most important scientific centers in Russia. For almost two and a half centuries, the Academy has been promoting the traditional and classical fine art of Russia and plays a key part in the preservation of its native style. Presently there are more than seven hundred students during the day and over five hundred attending evening courses at the Academy. About 100 professors, associate professors, and 60 teach at the Academy. The Academy has 5 faculties: Fine Art, Graphic Arts, Sculpture, Architecture, and Art Theory and History.

The Library of The Russian Fine Arts Academy is the oldest art library in Russia. During the first decades of the Library's existence, many important books on painting, sculpture, architecture and on adjacent and subsidiary branches of art like anatomy and perspective and so on were acquired by the Library. Today the Library houses editions from the XVIth, XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries, some of which have the monogram and the coat of arms of the founder of The Arts Academy Ivan Shuvalov. Many of the books contain remarkable examples of Russian and Western European polygraphic art.

There are two exhibition halls, one called "Raphael," and the other "Titian". The reason behind this is the fact that each individual hall displays frescos of these two fantastic artists. Temporary exhibitions are mostly held there - for example, the "Exhibition of Diploma Works" and the "Exhibition of the Academy Professors."


 

November 2012 Monthly Auction

Congratulations to S. Omans who placed the winning bid of $1,500 for September's auction painting "Girl with Pink Bow" by Nikolai F. Sokolov, estimated at $3,000- $3,500.

This month as our silent auction piece we are pleased to present this wonderful work "Still Life with Book", by the well-known artist Nikolai Aleksandrovich Sysoev, estimated at $4,000- $5,000.

This painting is a wonderful example of a Russian classic still life. It was painted by a renowned artist, Pavel Dmitrievich Sysoev. Sysoev participated in several of the most important exhibitions in the second half of the 20th century in Russia. A still life such as this should be a part of every collector's cache. The artist reports in his commentary that painting was painted in the last days of fall as the long gloomy winter had already begun its full assault, with the apples representing a last harvest of fall and the book symbolizing the long months ahead.

We invite you to participate in this month's auction and thank everyone who placed bids last month. Bidding begins at $250, followed by minimum bidding increments of $250. The auction will end Friday November 30th at 6:00 pm.

BID FORM

1266

Pavel Dmitrievich Sysoev, "Still Life with Book"
14¼'' x 19¾'',1960, Oil on Board
Estimated value $4,000- $5,000, Current Bid $750- M. Roberts

 Pavel Dmitrievich Sysoev, 1929 -2002ss

Translated form the original Russian

Sysoev was born Slanskoe Tolstoyan ¬ Ryazan region in 1929. He studied at the Moscow Regional Art School 1905 under professors: L.A.Shitov, O.A.Avseyan, S.N.Pomazov. He graduated in 1959.

Sysoev is famous for his lyrical landscapes celebrating the natural beauty of Russia and his rich still life paintings..

He was a participant in important All-Russia and All-Union Art Exhibitions including one-man shows in 1974, 1989 and 1998 (Noginsk, Moscow region). He became a member of the Russian Union of Artists sin 1975 and a member of the Union of Soviet Artists in 1976.

He served as secretary of the Artists Union of Noginsk, chairman of the Arts Council of painting NHPM, and was a member of the Moscow Arts Council.

Works by Sysoev are found in several museums of the Russia Federation including the Solovetsky Museum, the Noginsk Lore Museum, the Art Museum of Elektrostal, the Russian Ministry of Culture of Russia and in private collections in Russia, France, USA, Germany, United Kingdom, Yugoslavia, Poland, Italy, Spain, Turkey.

He died in Noginsk city in 2002.

He was awarded the medal "For Labor" (1953), "Veteran of Labor" (1989).

 

October 2012 Monthly Auction

Congratulations to H. Milne who placed the winning bid of $2,250 for September's  auction painting "Lady with Violin" by Belorussian artist Ivan N. Stasevich, Estimated at $3,000- $3,500.

We have chosen for October's auction painting this delightful work by Nikolai F. Sokolov, which brings to mind the grand Soviet tradition of the first day of school. A tradition which continues to this day.

The young girl with the pink bow, all prepared with her new clothes and her hair styled just right. The sweet smile on her face shows how excited and pleased she is. This young student is set to join her friends in a trip to school, and, the beginning of the journey into life. Such a moment surely brings her parents feelings of both pride and apprehension. They are ready to see their child head out into the world, but like all parents everywhere, they are watchful. While this lovely painting has a definite Soviet slant it reveals a universal family theme--it's a subject that Norman Rockwell would have been proud to paint too.

We invite you to participate in this month's auction and thank everyone who placed bids last month.

Bidding begins at $250, followed by minimum bidding increments of $250. The auction will end Wednesday, October 31st at 6:00 pm.

BID FORM

pink_bow1sm
Nikolai Fyodorovich Sokolov, "Girl with Pink Bow""
27¼'' x 19¼'', 1964, Oil on Canvas
Estimated value $3,000- $3,500, Winning Bid, $1,500- S. Omans

Soviet_Children_in_The_Kindergraten_Of_The_1960s_7In Russia, the school year begins on September 1st, or as it is known in Russia the 'Day of Knowledge', officially designated by the Supreme Council of the USSR in 1984.

Like all celebrations, this one has its own traditions. On this day, schools have a special celebration to mark the start of the year with teachers and pupils assembling to listen to songs, poetry and congratulatory and inspirational speeches made by the schools' head-teachers, and sometimes by members of the local administration.

It has also become traditional for top politicians, including Russia's president and prime-minister, to take part in the new-term assemblies at the country's most prestigious schools. This year an unusual surprise awaits schoolchildren in Moscow, where in some places the Day of Knowledge will be marked by a visit from medal-winners at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Flowers and ribbons form an integral part of the celebrations. Flowers are traditionally given to the teachers, and white ribbons are worn by schoolgirls of all ages, who fasten them into their hair. At the end of the ceremony, a girl in the first grade will sit on the shoulders of one of the boys in the top-grade (aged 17-18), and the little girl is then given a bell which she rings loudly as she is carried past the spectators. Ringing this bell officially starts the school year.

After the children have gathered for the first assembly and have been introduced to the teachers, most schools hold open lessons for guests and parents. This year, many schools will give a "lesson in valour" in remembrance of Russia's victory in the Patriotic War in 1812. As a rule, September 1 is not a full school day and the children can return home once the celebrations have finished. But the next day the school routine starts in earnest and parents only come back to the school for parent-teacher meetings.

1966
1966

4foto3_RIAN_00573492.LR.ru
2012

Nikolai Fyodorovich Sokolov- b. 1921sokolov_m

Translated form the original Russian

Nikolai F. Sokolov was born in 1921 in the village Verkhnekokovskoye (now Sosnovka) of Ulyanovsk oblast, where he spent his childhood. In 1936 his family moved to Orenburg where he spent much of the following years of his life.

Sokolov served as a sailor in the Pacific Fleet in the war with Japan receiving a medal "For the victory over Japan."

He studied at the Tashkent Art School without completing the course and passed directly to the Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. There he worked in the studio of the artist JM Neprintsev. Sokolov Graduated in 1961, became a member of the Union of Artists in 1970. Sokolov participated in republican and regional exhibitions. His works are in many regional museums of Russia, Orenburg, Krasnodar, Perm, Sverdlovsk, as well as in private collections in the United States and France.

Nikolai Sokolov drew, listened to music and loved attending ballet school. Wherever the artist was, in his studio, on an artistic trip, at rest -- a piece of paper and a pencil are always with him. Drawings, sketches and work-outs are collected in thick files in the artist's archives. Among them there is not only auxiliary material for his future works, but also finished graphical portraits of our fellow countryman. His simple unpretentious still lives and landscapes are imbued with a special sensation of happiness and admiration of his native environment.

Artists, like we all, are very different. Some are purposeful, others are given to contemplation, but Sokolov is impulsive by nature, easily carried away, apt to rises and falls. Sokolov, feeling the lack of professional training Sokolov in 1955 entered the Tashkent Arts College, which he left after the third year. However the artist did not give up. He studied anatomy at Orenburg Medical Institute, studied in the studio of academician Neprintsev several times at the Repin Institute, held a life-class and drew a lot, doggedly mastering the artist's skill hour by hour, day by day.

One of the sides of his creative work soon revealed the interest in the person, sitting for him, and the deepest respect to this person. Whatever subject and whatever genre the artist turned to, he always craved for picturesqueness.

Of great importance for Sokolov were his trips to the Academic Dacha, where his contact with the leading masters of Soviet Art (People's Artist of RSFSR Yuri. Kugach, Alexsie. and Sergei Tkachev) broadened his experience and skills.

In the 1960s, the artist paid a lot of attention to the development of color and shade. The works of that period are very different, sometimes enhanced sense of color, sometimes restraint of similar shades. At the time Nikolai met recognition and success, joining the Artists Union of RSFSR and participation in zonal and republican exhibitions.

In early 1970, the artist's painting changed. The color became more reserved and the stroke less noticeable. The model's face became the center of composition of a half or a three quarters portrait, and sometimes a bust portrait. The landscape is rarely introduced in the portrait, which more often has an interior or just a colored background. The artist became more strict to the model, searching for the characteristic features.

As always, the workers of the village are the heroes of many of his works. The trip to village Konstantinovka of Sharlyksky district in 1980 was very fruitful for the artist. The landscapes, sketches and portraits drawn there are full of the artist's immediate impressions from life.

Nikolai Fyodorovich Sokolov took a strong liking to Orenburg region. The artist is interested in the people living there and in the history and nature of Orenburg. The workers of the town and villages, legendary Chapaev, flowers of the steppe and fast rivers -- this is what the artist narrates with his heart. He cordially and sincerely tells us about the most important things, about homeland, contemporary people and the beauty of life.


 

December 2012 Monthly Auction

Congratulations to M. Silom who placed the winning bid of $1,000 for November's auction painting wonderful work "Still Life with Book", by Nikolai Aleksandrovich Sysoev, estimated at $4,000- $5,000. This month as our silent auction piece we are pleased to present this wonderful work "Ship in Repair" by Mikhail Alexandrovich Kamanin, estimated at $4,000- $5,000.
 
Every serious Russian art collector should have at least one industrial painting. The industrial genre was a very significant part of the Soviet art. Most of the working day of Soviet artists was spent in fulfillment of official contracts favoring and promoting industrial work. The Soviets were proudly building their way to communist utopia. The evidence of the stoic workers doing their part to build the perfect society is perfectly frozen in time with the industrial works of art. Smoke billowing, train tracks crisscrossing and power lines in the foreground all working to supply the people with the goods they needed. In this 1959 painting, we witness a great industrial painting created at the very height of the belief of communism.
 
We invite you to participate in this month's auction and thank everyone who placed bids last month.
Bidding begins at $250, followed by minimum bidding increments of $250. The auction will end Monday December 31st at 6:00 pm.

BID FORM

1315
Mikhail Alexandrovich Kamanin, "Ship in Repair"
15½'' x 23½'', (39.50 x 59.50 cm), 1959, Oil on Canvas
Estimated Value $4,000 - $5,000, Current Bid $2,250, A. Bassenian

 

Mikhail Alexandrovich Kamanin, b. 1933

 

The works of Mikhail A. Kamanin follow the traditions of Russian realistic landscape painting.   

 

In his landscapes, one can see the Volga, his favorite river, forests and lakes of Siberia, fields, the streets of the town of Gorki, and the small town of Chkalovsk where he lived in his childhood. When painting scenery, the artist makes it look like a living being, closely connects it with the life of people ("A Village Near the Volga" and "Tillage"). 

 

He paints the Volga not only as a beautiful river--part of picturesque scenery, but also as a part of an industrial landscape ("At Gorki Hydroelectric Power Station," "A Stormy Petrel" etc.). The same emotional attitude is characteristic of the portraits of river sailors ("The Portrait of Captain F. Chubarov" and "The Portrait of Captain L. Romanov"). 

 

Portraits, together with landscapes, are very important for understanding of the talent of M. Kamanin. He artistically portrayed workers, collective-farmers and educated specialists. These portraits show that the artist is deeply interested in the spiritual world of his contemporaries. Most models of the portraits are placed in plain air and often depicted in the process of their work (for example, portraits of the workers of the factory "Red Sormovo"). There are also small lyrical portraits of women, such as "Margarita."

The artist also paints still-lifes, often with river fish or with wild flowers ("Fresh Fish," "Fish Caught in March," "Cornflowers" and "Camomiles"). He is a promising artist. His studies in V.I. Surikov Art College of Moscow and many years of his successful work are sure to contribute to his future masterpieces

 

BIOGRAPHY

 

1933 - On June 3, M. Kamanin was born in Gorki. 1941-1945 - He lived in the town of Chkalovsk (Gorki region) where he studied in primary school. 1945 - Returning to Gorki. He studied in the art society at the Pioneer Club. 1946-1948 - He studied in the art society at the Center of Amateur Art. 1948-1952 - He studied in Moscow secondary school specializing in art. His teachers were L.N. Shipovsky and N.I. Andriyaka. 1952-1958 - He studied in the Faculty of Painting of the V.I. Surikov Art College of Moscow. His teachers were F.I. Nevezhin, P.P. Sokolov-Skalya and F.P. Reshetnikov. The supervisor of his graduation work "The Volga Ship builders" was V.G. Tsyplakov. 1961 - M. Kamanin became a candidate for membership in the Union of Artists of the USSR. 1964 - He became a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR.

Kamanin, Mikhail A. (1933)  Born in Gorky in 1933. Studied at the Moscow Intermediate Art School from 1948-1952; the Surikov Institute from 1952-1958. Began exhibiting in 1950. Important shows include "Soviet Russia", Moscow, 1960. He specialized in landscapes and portraits. The son of A. M. Kamanin and the nephew of S. M. Kamanin.

 

 

 

Past Auction Results

Sign up for our FREE monthly newsletter.

Thomas Kearns McCarthey Gallery
444 Main Street
Park City, Utah 84060
Tel: 435-658-1691
Email: info@mccartheygallery.net