Francis Quirk Painting comes to light in New Jersey

We were recently contacted by a woman who inherited a painting by Francis Quirk from a New Jersey relative, and it raises a host of questions. The painting depicts three people at a table perhaps playing some sort of game. There is a fourth person whose face is shrouded in the background.

Painting by Francis Quirk

The painting has no signature on the front but is clearly marked on the back as a Francis Quirk painting from 1946. This brings up a whole host of questions. Who are these sitters? What are they doing? What is going on with the enigmatic character standing in the back? Why did he paint this scene? Can we infer something from his not signing the front?

Painting by Francis Quirk

The painting appears to be depicting a moment in time when there is activity around a table. The right-hand character appears to be placing a chip or coin. The middle person may be dressed as a woman in a yellow blouse with white lace collar but may actually be a man. (If she truly is a woman and a relative of a reader of this blog, please accept our apologies.) The person in yellow is looking apprehensively to the right at something outside the frame. 

Close up of Painting by Francis Quirk

The left-hand character is painted in profile and sitting stoically. The sitters are clearly portrayed, but almost have a cartoonish edge to them as if their features were being exaggerated for dramatic effect. And then we have the mysterious person in the rear; bundled up to hide their face with a hat pulled down low. Is that a person in disguise? Or is it an animal such as a large dog. The background consists of barren trees, a possible beach and then water. The execution of the scene and the lack of a front signature may indicate that this was an illustration. What do you think? The palate does appear to be similar to some other Quirk works.

The owner is selling the painting and if you are interested, we can make an introduction.

Francis Quirk Painting of Two Boys IDed by Antiques Guru

We were pleasantly surprised to receive an email from antiques and decorating guru Bob Richter. He had found a Francis Quirk painting in an antiques booth and sent us an image of it in situ. 

Bob graciously sent us a link to his page and when we landed there we saw some old friends. 

In the upper left hand side, we saw his image of an antique booth which prominently featured Quirk's painting of two boys with one holding several gladiolas. 

We had first seen this painting when a collection of Quirk's paintings and drawings were auctioned off in Maine in 2016.  At the time we loved the painting as the flowers really "popped," and the boys were well executed. We were unable to identify the boys.

Portrait of Two boys with gladiolas by Francis J. Quirk

We have seen a few of the works from that liquidation event turn up in various places including a New Jersey auction and an antiques event in upstate New York. 

You can see Bob's Instagram at the link below. 

https://www.instagram.com/bob_richter/

Francis Quirk organizes exhibit for Melville Stark and draws 700!

We have mentioned several times how Francis Quirk was a pillar in the arts community in the Lehigh Valley and beyond. We have also marveled at his ability to draw attention to art at the Lehigh. 

This post focuses on the December 1954 exhibition of Melville Stark’s paintings that also included art from Samuel Wolf and his children. Stark’s art clearly was the draw for the show, but Samuel Wolf was active in the local arts community, although not a professional artist. In any case, we can’t help but be impressed by the crowd of 700 people turning out. 

Mel Stark, born in Honesdale, Pennsylvania in 1903. He was a student of the Impressionist style of the New Hope School, finding a mentor and lifelong friend in Walter E. Baum. Stark studied painting, early on, at the University of Pennsylvania, Syracuse University and the Philadelphia Museum School before he became Baum's lead disciple in Allentown. Baum's bold and painterly, plein-air style had enormous impact and influence on Stark's artwork. Stark was considered a member of the informal group known as the Baum Circle. In 1934, he was one of four Baum students along with Joseph Gehringer, John Berninger, and Walter Mattern accepted into the Circulating Picture Club of the Philadelphia Art Alliance.

Allentown Church by Melville Stark

In the 1930s Stark became a teacher at the Kline-Baum School. He also began to travel to the coastal town of Rockport, Massachusetts, where he rented a home every summer until his death. In Rockport, Stark studied with Anthony Thieme, one of the leading painters of the Rockport School. At one time, Stark was also considered one of the ten leading painters at the summer colony of Rockport, Massachusetts. In 1945 he joined the staff at Cedar Crest College. By the 1950s he became the director of art at Muhlenberg College, and was a founder of the Lehigh Art Alliance. 

Boat Dock with Figures by Melville Stark

Looking at Stark's work, we see some clear similarities with that of Francis Quirk. Quirk loved painting boats and seascapes. Both used lots of color and were skilled at developing accurate portrayals with detailed brush work.  

Bell's Fish House by Mel Stark

Rockport Mass by Melville Stark

Stark had become acquainted with Philip and Muriel Berman, leading collectors and philanthropists in the Allentown area. Actually, Muriel had taken one of Stark's oil painting classes at the Kline-Baum School. The Starks and Bermans socialized together, and Stark helped them in their collecting by bringing them to the studios of other Pennsylvania artists, including Redfield's at Center Bridge. The Bermans became the most significant patrons of Stark's work. 

North Lehigh County by Melville Stark

In 1956, the year of Walter Baum's death, Stark was elected the director of the Allentown Art Museum. In 1962 he was given first award for the best landscape by the National Society of Painters in Casein at the National Arts Club in New York City. Stark began to winter in Florida in 1969, still maintaining his home in Pennsylvania, after accepting a job at the Longboat Key Art Center, where he continued to paint marine scenes en plein-air. Stark died in Allentown on October 28, 1987. 

Stark’s work can command prices in the $1000-$5000 range despite his not having a Wikipedia page or a strong brand image. This is a testament to the quality of his painting, as hype is not driving the valuation. Today Stark’s paintings hang in many private collections throughout the country and at the Berman Museum at Ursinus College, where an exhibition of his works received national notice. 

Mel Stark and Samuel Wolf discuss a painting with two friends

Samuel R. Wolf was born in Nazareth, Pennsylvania and became a well-known local artist. He was a founder, president of the original board and chairman of the Circulating Picture Club at the Allentown Art Museum. Wolf was founder and a former president of the Lehigh Art Alliance and a board member of the Baum Art School. He was also founder of the adult education department of the Upper Perkiomen School District, an art instructor for adult education in the Allentown School District, and a school authority member of the East Penn School District. Interestingly, art was not his main occupation as he maintained a full-time industrial job. He worked at Bradley Pulverizing Co., Allentown, for 43 years before retiring as treasurer in 1971.

Peppino Mangravite Exhibits at Lehigh University Art Gallery

Continuing our discussion of artists supported by Francis Quirk through curated exhibitions, we now look at Peppino Mangravite who was part of a two man show with Kenneth Evatt that opened on November 4, 1962.

Peppino Mangravite  

Mangravite was a well-respected painter and teacher whose oeuvre found its way into numerous museum collections. He had a semi-abstract style, yet his work was approachable and, in some ways charming in its execution.

There were several areas of potential overlap with Francis Quirk. Both were active in academia. Both had exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Both had contact with the Rehn Gallery in New York. 

In checking up on recent sales we were a bit surprised to see his paintings sell for $5,000-$10,000. This is unusual for an artist that we thought we were literally pulling back  from obscurity. 

The Senate in Session by Peppino Mangravite

Biography

Peppino Mangravite, an artist of Italian descent, created poetic works based on personal experience and observation, and filtered through his romantic sensibility. His paintings deal more with mood and sensuous effects than with description.

Mangravite was born in 1896, on Lipari, an island north of Sicily, where his father, a naval officer, was stationed. As a child he began a traditional Italian art education in Carrara. Mangravite and his family later immigrated to the United States.

1914, at the age of eighteen, Peppino Gino Mangravite settled in New York City with his father. He had already completed six years of study at the Scuole Techiniche Belle Arti in his native Italy, where coursework included the study of anatomy and Renaissance fresco techniques. Upon arrival in New York, he enrolled at Cooper Union, and by 1917 was studying under RobertHenri at the Art Students League. 

Peppino Mangravite with students

Mangravite began his teaching career - one that lasted half a century - as assistant to Hans Peter Hansen at the Hansen School of Fine Arts in New York during the academic year 1918/19. He was an involved and committed teacher who worked equally well with young children and college students. For several summers in the 1920s, he ran summer art camps in the Adirondacks for children and adults. From 1926-1928 Mangravite lived in Washington D.C., where he taught at the Potomac School. Most of his life was spent in New York where he served on the faculties of Sarah Lawrence College, Cooper Union, the Art Students League, and, most notably, Columbia University. In addition, he spent 1937-38 as head of the art department of Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, and from 1940-1942 taught at the Art Institute of Chicago. Mangravite was active in professional arts and education organizations. He wrote several articles about art education and served as chairman of the College Art Association's Committee for the Study of the Practice of Art Courses, 1943-1944.

Mangravite also was a working artist; represented by Dudensing Gallery, and later Rehn Galleries, he exhibited widely throughout the United States, and, occasionally, abroad. He won a few awards, including a gold medal for mural painting at the Philadelphia Sesquicentennial Exhibition, 1926; the American Gold Medal Purchase Prize, Golden Gate Exposition, San Francisco, 1939; Alice McFadden Eyre Medal for best print, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1946; and a silver medal for mosaic design, Architectural League of New York, 1955.

Mangravite was awarded Guggenheim Fellowships in 1932 and 1935, and during that same period was commissioned by the U.S. Treasury Department to paint murals for post offices in Hempstead, N.Y. and Atlantic City, N.J. Other commissions of note include a mural for the Governor's Mansion in the Virgin Islands, and a mosaic mural for the main altar of the Workers' Chapel, St. Anthony's Shrine, Boston, Mass. 

Family Recreation by Peppino Mangravite  Atlantic City NJ

Settlement of Hempstead by Peppino Mangravite  Hempstead, NY

Arrival of British dirigible R.34 with the first air mail in 1919 by Peppino Mangravite  Hempstead, NY

Development of Jackson Heights by Peppino Mangravite  Flushing, NY

Sponsored by Columbia University and with the assistance of the United States Information Agency, Mangravite met with art department heads of several European universities in 1955 to discuss the University's plans for a new arts center. He also interviewed eight artists - Georges Braque, Marc Chagall, Giorgio De Chirico, Marino Marini, Henry Moore, Giorgio Morandi, Georges Rouault, and Graham Southerland -recording their ideas about art, life, and education.

With the passing of Covid, we were able to visit the Workers Chapel, St. Anthony's Shrine in Boston's Financial District. There we were able to obtain the following images of Mangravite's mosaic behind the altar,. It is quite nice.

Peppino Mangravite's Mosaic at the Workers' Chapel, St. Anthony's Shrine Boston, Massachusetts USA

Peppino Mangravite's Mosaic at the Workers' Chapel, St. Anthony's Shrine Boston, Massachusetts USA

Peppino Mangravite's Mosaic at the Workers' Chapel, St. Anthony's Shrine Boston, Massachusetts USA

Peppino Mangravite's Mosaic at the Workers' Chapel, St. Anthony's Shrine Boston, Massachusetts USA

Peppino Mangravite's Mosaic at the Workers' Chapel, St. Anthony's Shrine Boston, Massachusetts USA

Francis Quirk TV Star! Broadcasting Pioneer Brings Art to the Masses

Throughout his time at Lehigh University Quirk championed art and its appreciation on campus as well as the broader community. He brought many prominent and cutting edge artists to campus for exhibitions, participated in exhibitions and supported local art competitions. But, perhaps one of his most far reaching efforts to spread art appreciation would be through his involvement in television.

Philadelphia Families Enjoy Francis Quirk on Television on Friday Nights

Through our ongoing research effort we obtained information on his hosting several programs:

·       Art and I   WGLV WGPA   1956-1957

·       Its Happening There  WGLV WGPA   1957

·       These Our Own (American Art) WFIL 1955 

·       You Should Know What You Like  WFIL Philadelphia 1954-55

The first broadcast television came out of Schenectady, New York in 1928 from a General Electric facility. Television really began in 1950 when CBS was licensed to form a national network. In 1954, the first color television broadcast was made of Pasadena’s Rose Parade, but the sets were too expensive and did not enter the main stream until the mid-1960’s. During that period, most broadcast programming was in black and white during that time, so a color set was of little benefit.

Quirk was active in the early days, when the broadcasts were live. The comedian-TV-pioneer Milton Berle broadcast from 1948-1956. So, Quirk had to present well and think on his feet. The fact that he put on multiple programs in a significant market indicates that he had a reasonable to high level of proficiency.  While we cannot substantiate it, we think it is highly likely that Quirk also prepared his own material as well. 

Below we share the image of the 1956 story in Lehigh University's Brown and White Student Newspaper. 

 

Sculptor Victor Riu Exhibits at Lehigh in Show Organized by Francis Quirk

 

In March of 1962, sculptor Victor Riu would have his second show in twelve years at Lehigh University Art Galleries. At the time he was 74 years old. Works were borrowed from museums  including the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and private collections.

Riu made Coopersburg, Pennsylvania world-famous by promoting the igneous blue-black granite (Gabrogrannidiorite) that is eponymous with the town. Coopersburg granite is an extremely hard material generally avoided by sculptors because of the difficulty of working with it. The stone is often compared to Egyptian basalt that has endured in sculptured form for 5000 years. The beautiful granite takes a high polish and resists staining.

Riu’s sculptures include figures of mathematical concepts such as the Moebius curve, emotions, or animals such as birds and cats. In an article published at the time Riu said his aim was to create a “fluid form pleasing to the eye from every angle.” Riu went on “Sometimes it is necessary to change the form. If a line is lost or vague, I must find it. Frequently, the raw stone suggest – but never dictates to me.”

Photos of a Riu sculpture provided by a Pennsylvania collector. 

Lehigh Professor Francis Quirk was quoted as saying “Nobody has ever handled this high-density material better than Riu. His fluid moving planes of stone seem to exceed the limitations of the material.”

Born in Trieste, Italy, in 1887, Mr. Riu studied at the Scuola per Capi d'Arte in Trieste from 1899 to 1903. Afterwards he worked in his grandfather and uncle's Studio of Fine Monuments before coming to the United States in 1906 at the age of 19. He was an ornamental stone worker on projects like the New York Public Library, the new Grand Central Station, and the Chicago Court House. It would be an interesting historical tidbit if he worked on the famous lions: Prudence and Fortitude. He continued his work in Barre,Vermont where he also ran a farm and experimented with plaster sculpture.

Still later, he became superintendent of the Montpelier  (VT.) Granite Co. whose memorials and monuments were sent throughout the U.S.  In 1922 he moved to Coopersburg and bought the Coopersburg Granite Co. The famous Coopersburg “blue-black” granite was shipped to users throughout the world.

Sculptors also came to Coopersburg to see the stone and Riu worked with many of note including Wharton Esherick, Jose de Rivera and Ahron Ben Shmuel. Schmuel’s Fairmont Park sculpture of the Boxers is made of Coopersburg granite. Rui collaborated with these luminaries on monuments to Connie Mack, Sherwood Anderson, World War II heroes and other notables. Jose deRivera also exhibited at Lehigh and is on our agenda for a dedicated blog post. 

Rhythm by Victor Riu   Photo courtesy of Woodmere Art Museum 

Riu’s sculptures are in several museum collections including the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Woodmere Art Museum and numerous private collections. In addition to exhibits at Lehigh University Art Galleries and the Woodmere Art Museum he showed at galleries in New York, Boston, San Francisco and Philadelphia. 

Victor Riu   Resurgent Harmony 1957   Photo courtesty of the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Art

Victor Riu’s business continues to operate and you can learn more about them at this site- Coopersburg Granite Company.

Walter Murch Exhibits at Lehigh University and Quirk Writes Review for Bethelehem Newspaper

We continue our exploration of artists whoe showed their work at Lehigh Univeersity Art Galleries in exhibitions organized by Francis Quirk. Walter Murch's work was included in the annual exhibition of contemporary works in both 1965 and 1966. But in the spring of 1966, Murch would have a solo show at Lehigh on exhibit from March 13 through April 17. Francis Quirk reviewed the exhibit for the local paper, the Bethlehem Globe-Times.

Walter Tandy Murch (August 17, 1907 – December 11, 1967) 

Walter Murch  Self Portrait

Murch was a painter whose still life paintings of machine parts, brick fragments, clocks, broken dolls, hovering light bulbs and glowing lemons are an unusual combination of realism and abstraction. 

Murch was born and grew up in Toronto, Ontario.He attended the Ontario College of Art in the mid-1920s, studying under Arthur Lismer, a member of the Group of Seven, a group of Impressionist to Post-Impressionist painters mostly active from 1910 to 1940. Murch moved to New York City in 1927 and studied at the Art Students League of New York under Kenneth Hayes Miller and later, with Arshile Gorky at the Grand Central School of Art.

In 1929 he married Katharine Scott, and from then until 1950 Murch supported himself and his family through a number of jobs on the fringes of the art world including department-store window design, book illustration, restaurant murals, freelance illustrations (notably covers for the magazines Fortune and Scientific American) and advertising commissions while he continued painting and studying contemporary art. Other paid work included windows at Lord & Taylor, and the Viennese Roof at the St. Regis Hotel. 

April 1949 Scientific American Magazine Cover by Walter Murch

October 1949 Fortune Magazine Cover by Walter Murch

June 1947 Fortune Magazine Cover - Fine Chemicals by Walter Murch

Viennese Roof at the St. Regis Hotel New York, NY

In 1941 Betty Parsons presented Murch's first one-man exhibition at the Wakefield Gallery in New York City. When Parsons established her own gallery in the mid-1940s, Murch moved with her, mounting one-man shows every two years until his death in 1967. After 1950, he also began teaching at Pratt Institute and later at New York University, Columbia University and Boston University. In 1966, Murch had a one man show at Lehigh University under the aegis of Francis Quirk. Later that year Daniel Robbins at The Rhode Island School of Design organized Murch's first major retrospective, a year before his death from a heart attack on December 11, 1967.

Murch's style remains difficult to classify, although he has been variously described as a Magic Realist, Surrealist, Romantic Realist or just plain Realist. For subjects, he favored motors, tools and scientific equipment which would often be incongruously arranged with more traditional still life elements such as fruit, bread and fragments of rock. These mysterious and eccentric juxtapositions seem to imply poetic associations although Murch himself tended to dismiss this sort of interpretation of his work, saying of the objects he chose to paint that they were simply an excuse to paint. This response seems perfectly appropriate because the broken surface of his work gives it a visibility equal to the virtual image (the objects depicted), which themselves are depicted with undistorted clarity and geometric precision. This creates a fascinating ambiguity.

Murch's works are in numerous museum collections around the country. Both his personal art and his business commissions occasionally come up for auction.

Through the catalog published by the the Rhode island School of Design at the Walter Murch Retrospective, we were able to trace down images of two Murch paintings that were exhibited at Lehigh.

Radio by Walter Murch

Doll by Walter Murch