1919 Lithograph Pamela Bianco Mother Baby Child Decorative Graphic Design XAQ1
These images are a mystery of perfection and simplicity. The sensuous line work betrays no hesitation, the subject matter and the figures' faintly elongated proportions evoking the aesthetic of children's drawings. They are the visualization of an imagination of innocence and a creativity free of the constraints of convention. In fact, these are the images of a child; a very gifted and talented thirteen year old, Pamela Bianco.
"It is as though Pamela Bianco," J.B. Mason stated in Volume 68 of The International Studio (1919), following her first solo exhibition at the Leicester Gallery in 1918, "were the mouthpiece of a divine spirit; as though, through her, a spirit fresh and sweet as a south wind over a field of violets finds concrete expression." So unique and imaginative is her early work, it garnered this type of international praise. It is the manifestation of a way of seeing that cannot be taught, and is so frequently quelled, suppressed and extinguished in pursuit of an art derived from intellect rather than intuition.
These prints capture the confident line work of a young, unencumbered mind and possess a grace and an intuitive and infallible balance. J.B. Mason emphasized the significance of Bianco's intuitive drawing style, declaring that Bianco had achieved a perfect art, because a "perfect art is pure intuition from which what we are pleased to call technique is inseparable, being indeed but the expression of the impression." The technique of printing carefully and deftly captures this technique; the subtle variation of the original line weight and character is well preserved. The cumulative effect is elusively gripping, evoking an emotive response within an adult that is difficult to define. It is as if these images, in J.B. Mason's words, "are expressions of the states of a soul; expressions of spirit clear as crystal. Through them one is privileged to get intimate glimpses of a child's dream - of a child innocent and naïve and yet, it would appear, gifted with the wisdom of ages."
CONDITION
This 92+ year old Item is rated Near Mint +. No creases. No natural defects.No Surface Rub.No tears. No water damage. Please note that there is print on the verso.
- Product Type: Original Lithograph; Monochrome
- Grade: Near Mint +
- Dimensions: Approximately 6 x 10.25 inches; 15 x 26 cm
- Authentication: Serial-Numbered Certificate of Authenticity w/ Full Provenance
- Protection: Packaged in a custom archival sleeve with an acid-free black board (great for display, gift-giving, and preservation)
This piece was illustrated by Bianco, Pamela Ruby. There is no visible artist signature.
Bianco, Pamela Ruby
Pamela Ruby Bianco (1906 - 1994) became an internationally recognized child prodigy at the age of twelve following her first solo exhibition at the Leicester Gallery in London. Her early artistic creativity and exceptional ability was encouraged by the literary and artistic circle surrounding her from an early age. This atmosphere and upbringing was attributable to her father, Francisco Bianco, a book department manager, and her mother, Margery Williams, who in 1922 wrote The Velveteen Rabbit (or How Toys Become Real), drawing inspiration for the story from her children's penchant for expressive play, creativity, and imagination.
In 1922, Bianco held her first American exhibition, arranged by Mitchell Kennedy at Anderson Gallery. Her work and the exhibition were met with immediate success, prompting Bianco and her parents to move to New York. That same year, Bianco printed her first lithographs with the renowned American printer George C. Miller. From 1924 to 1928, Bianco was a member of the Studio Club and exhibited throughout the United States and Europe. The imagery of this time, graphically rich and bold still life subjects and flowers, continued to bring her acclaim and it was during this time she developed as an American Modernist painter and printmaker, receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1930. Following the Fellowship, she spent a year in Florence and Rome, during this time writing Starlit Journey.
The chronology of her work includes her early drawings, watercolors, and illustrations; paintings from the 1920s produced in London and Wales; New York City paintings and paintings of rural America produced in Connecticut and Maine in the 1920s and 1930s; Modernist lithographs during the 1930s; portraits and graphically bold and stylized flowers during the 1930s and 1940s; and surreal paintings produced during the 1960s. Her final works are characteristically obsessive and meticulously detailed paintings.
During her adult life she continued to live in an atmosphere of creativity, moving among artistic and literary circles she had been accustomed to since her youth. Dividing her time between America and Europe, especially Italy, France, and England, Bianco developed and maintained wide ranging friendships, including the poets Gabriel d'Annunzio, Walter de la Mare, and Richard Hughes; American artists Joseph Stella, Leonora Carrington, and Joseph Cornell, British artists James Manson and William and Ben Nicholson; as well as Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, George Gershwin, Cecil Beaton, Charlie Chaplin, and Eugene O'Neill, all of whom were also patrons and collectors of her work.
Pamela Bianco died in New York in 1994. A decade later, England & Company held the first retrospective exhibition of her work in December 2005. This exhibition was comprised of a substantial group of the illustrations, watercolors, and delicate early drawings that had brought her recognition as a young girl. Her work has been in the collections of The Art Institute of Chicago and the San Diego Museum of Art.
The drawings, illustrations, and watercolors Bianco executed as a child and early adolescent are precursors to an "untrained" aesthetic that increasingly gained popularity and acceptance, being coined in 1972 by art critic Roger Cardinal as "outsider art" and acting as an English synonym for "art brut." The art loosely associated with the term "outsider" falls into various categories, including art brut, folk art, intuitive art/visionary art, marginal art/art singular, naïve art, neuve invention, and visionary environments. Notable "outsider" artists include Ferdinand Cheval, Felipe Jesus Consalvos, Henry Darger, and Scotti Wilson.
Keywords specific to this image: Naive
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