Sigmund Joseph Menkes Oil Still Life Painting

Item Details

Sigmund Joseph Menkes (New York/Poland; 1896 – 1986)
Untitled (still life)
Oil painting on canvas
Signed to lower right

An oil painting on canvas by listed artist Sigmund Joseph Menkes (New York/Poland; 1896 – 1986). This still life painting features a simple wooden bowl filled with fruit and a woody potted plant, both resting on a window sill, bathed in sunlight. The rich textural surface adds depth and weight to the simple composition and subject matter. This work is signed to the lower right and is housed in wooden frame with gilt finish.

Sigmund Menkes was an Expressionistic painter of Jewish descent, born in Lvov, Poland in 1896. He studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow beginning in 1919, until he went to further his studies in Berlin in 1922. He was finally able to move to Paris, his ultimate aim, in 1923 and remained until 1935. There he became a member of the École de Paris, and was a contemporary and friend of artists Marc Chagall (1887 – 1985) and Leopold Gottlieb (1883 – 1934). During this time he exhibited in many of the city’s salons, until the early 1930s when severe economic crisis provoked his emigration the the United States. He settled in New York, and had his first solo exhibition at the Sullivan Gallery in 1936. He was represented by the Associated American Artists Galley and spent years as a lecturer at the Art Students League. His work resides in many notable institutions, including the National Museum of Warsaw, The Museum of Art in Lodz, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.

Condition

- areas of light accretion to painting surface.

Dimensions

- measures frame.

Item #

18CIN517-267