Lester
Epstein (1919-1963)
I
have acquired a body of work by Epstein, consisting of abstract works on paper,
dating from around the 1950’s. Many works are signed and some dated. Papers
consist of drawings, watercolours, collages, etchings and monotypes, with a
strong influence of artists such as Klee, Miro and Wifredo Lam. Provenance:
John Skeaping RA (1901-1980); and thence by descent.
Epstein
studied at the Isaac Delgardo Museum of Art and later served as a registrar
there (Now the New Orleans Museum of Art (or NOMA). He was integral to the
artistic community in New Orleans and was known by some as the `St Louis
Gauguin`, when he was quoted in the St.Louis post in 1953, as an artist ‘Doing
a Gauguin’, where he devoted himself to painting in a remote fishing Mexican fishing
village until last August. The paper then mentions a one man show in London and
plans to travel following the exhibition. He wrote and published a few books in the late
1950s and met John Skeaping in Mexico (see Skeaping's publication `The Big Tree
of Mexico`, London, 1952, chapter 12). Epstein stayed with the artist and his
family in Devon although they briefly shared a house in Arles in 1960. The
Delgado Museum in New Orleans held a retrospective exhibit of his work in 1964
following his premature death at the age of 44.
The
last image details part of the whole collection. This listing is for a single
paper only, as detailed below.
Ink drawing on red wove paper, initialed top right. Reasonable condition, with light handling and other minor marks/blemishes.
Paper measures 9cm x 19.3cm