'Tongues On Trees' Unbound Limited Edition Poetry Book Signed by Alfred Corn Author & John Gundelfinger Illustrator. Numbered copies limited to a 150. The book is in New unused condition with wear appropriate to age and use(check photos), feel free to ask questions and measures 8.5"h by 11".
About John Gundelfinger:
The following, submitted October 2005, is from Lorna Drake, friend of John Gundelfinger:
John
Gundelfinger was born in 1937, in St. Die, France, and grew up in
Queens, New York. His mother was a Quaker and his father a German Jewish
journalist. John's father left the family when John was young.
A
full-scholarship graduate of the High School of Art & Design (New
York City), John earned a B.A. in Illustration at the School of Visual
Arts (NYC) (also on full scholarship), and attended graduate school at
NYU, majoring in Philosophy of Art Education.
In the 1960s John's unique illustrations appeared in Time, Newsweek, McCall's, and Esquire,
as well as on book covers for Harper & Row, Scribner's, Macmillan,
and Viking Press. He exhibited in the Society of Illustrators Annual
every year from 1961 to 1968. The Society awarded him the Gold Medal
for Editorial Illustration, in 1962, and the Award of Excellence in
Advertising Illustration, in 1963. Throughout the sixties and
seventies, it was common to see Gundelfinger look-alike drawings by
artists trying to copy John's style.
Illustration
paid the bills and earned him awards and recognition, but John hated
it. He hated wasting his days on commercial work, dull-witted
advertising clients, and pompous account executives. At every free
moment he relentlessly pursued the painter's life, drawing, working in
watercolors and gouaches, preparing for an exhibition.
In
1967 Gundelfinger had his first one-man exhibition, which was at the
University of Tennessee, followed by scores of one-man shows and group
exhibitions every year from 1970 till 1989. His landscapes were bought
for the collections of AT&T, General Mills, Goldman Sachs, IBM,
Chase Manhattan Bank, Johnson & Johnson, The Museum of Fine Arts in
Caracas, Venezuela, and the Smithsonian Institution, among dozens of
other major organizations.
He
was heavily influenced by the work of French Impressionists Monet,
Degas and Manet. He often spoke of the strong influence of his drawing
teacher and friend, Jack Potter, at The School of Visual Arts.
An
art educator, John Gundelfinger taught drawing and painting in New York
City, at the School of Visual Arts, Parsons School of Design, and the
Fashion Institute of Technology. He also guest lectured at the
University of Tennessee, and taught at the Rhode Island School of
Design, and the Famous Artists School in Connecticut.
On
days when John wasn't teaching, he'd load up his black VolksWagen "bug"
and drive to New Jersey, or upstate New York, to paint the
countryside. He is best known for these spectacular landscapes,
particularly of the Delaware River Valley, which he painted in every
season but fall; John said it was impossible to paint the colors of a
fall landscape without having it turn out like a tourist's postcard.
He
drew anyone who'd sit for him, but he particularly liked the structure
of black faces. For over thirty years he drew portraits of black people
in the subway, young toughs and old workingwomen. With typical
kindness, he'd draw surreptitiously, using tiny matchbooks rather than
obvious sketchbooks, to keep his subjects from feeling watched and
unsettled.
In
later years, John began doing collages, using every material from old
postcards and magazine clippings to a vinyl LP record, to book covers,
to pieces of his own paintings.
When
he took a break, he enjoyed long talks and laughs on the phone with
friends. And he watched Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street, which he swore
was for grownups. John's wit and sense of humor were swift, dry, ready,
endless, and incomparable. When you remember John, you see him laughing.
He
made wonderfully funny collages and cards on silky red paper that he
hand cut in long narrow strips, and sent them to a few lucky friends.
Even his envelopes were inventive, with funny messages on the front,
sealed with blue glossy tape. He always had a stamp and wouldn't have
used e-mail even if he'd lived long enough to see it. Anything that
might have kept him from work was unthinkable.
Gundelfinger
never worked without music. He loved the blues and rock and roll, Muddy
Waters, John Lee Hooker, The Stones, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan,
bluegrass, and gospel. He loved movies, but he wouldn't own a VCR
because it had the potential to keep him from work.
He
was highly social, with aristocratic manners and a wide circle of
diverse and loyal friends. His wife's parties for him were a successful
mix of scientists, artists, writers, musicians, well-known actors, and
old pals. He read voraciously and remembered verbatim parts of books
he'd read twenty years before. He loved Nabakov and Flaubert.
The
modern art world was not in John Gundelfinger's universe. If people
wanted to buy canvases of triangles or white space, it was their
business. He had to paint the New England skies and trees and fields,
and he painted them as though they were his own creations. His friends
still call a clear azure sunset with streaks of changing pinks a
Gundelfinger Sky.
John's
portraits of his friends show us as better looking than we thought we
were on our best day because that was how he saw us.
His
favorite color was deep purple. He was superstitious, adored beautiful
women, feared blindness, and resented having to sleep because, he said,
he wanted to spend as much of life as possible awake.
I
was a close friend of John's from 1961 until his death in 1991. He was
the warmest, kindest, gentlest, most highly moral person I've ever
known, with a brilliant mind, an extraordinary wit, and a stunning
breadth of knowledge. John Gundelfinger was a generous, wise, loving,
and true friend, and a superb artist.
JOHN ANDRE GUNDELFINGER
Born: October 3, 1937, St. Die, France
Died: January 23, 1991, New York City
EDUCATION
1951-1954 High School of Art and Design, NYC
Major: Illustration. (Full scholarship)
1954-1957 School of Visual Arts, NYC
Major: Illustration, Painting, Drawing (Full Scholarship)
Degree: Bachelor of Arts
1964 Graduate School, New York University
Major: Philosophy of Art Education
MURAL COMMISSIONS
1979 Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., New York, NY, 6' x 13' Curved Wall
1985 American Electric Power Co., Columbus, OH, 10' x 7' Vertical
ONE-MAN EXHIBITIONS
1967 University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN
1972 Museum of Fine Arts, Caracas, Venezuela
1975 Fundacion Eugenio Mendoza, Caracas, Venezuela
1972, '77, '79 Adler/Castillo Gallery, Caracas, Venezuela
1979 Keystone Junior College, La Plume, PA
EXHIBITION OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Society
of Illustrators Annual: Exhibited almost every year from show's
inception, in 1961, to 1968. Over 24 pieces of art exhibited.
Art Directors' Club of New York: Represented in numerous exhibits since 1960.
New York State Council of Gallery Directors: "Illustrations by Five Prominent Illustrators" 1971
AWARDS:
Gold Medal Editorial Illustration, 1962
Award of Excellence Advertising Illustration, 1963
ILLUSTRATIONS SELECTED FOR INCLUSION
Art Direction Magazine Graphics Annual
Art Directors Annual Commercial Art "CA"
ILLUSTRATIONS PUBLISHED IN NATIONAL MAGAZINES (PARTIAL LIST)
Time, Ladies Home Journal, Life, Good Housekeeping, Newsweek, Seventeen
Esquire, Ingenue, McCall's
ILLUSTRATIONS COMMISSIONED BY ADVERTISING AGENCIES (PARTIAL LIST)
Young & Rubicam Benton and Bowles
McCann-Ericson Gray Advertising
Compton Advertising BBD&O
Doyle, Dane, Bernbach
TRAVEL ASSIGNMENTS
Sports Illustrated, 1960
NBA Champion, St. Louis Hawks (2-week drawing assignment)
IBM, Caracas, Venezuela, 1970
BOOKS ILLUSTRATED (PARTIAL LIST OF PUBLISHERS)
Harper & Row Scribners
Viking Press Macmillan
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Amerada Hess Corporation
American Bank
AT&T
Avon Corporation
Bank of Boston International
Chandler Cowles Foundation
Chase Manhattan Bank New York; Athens; Tokyo
Chemical Bank
Commerce Bankshares
Confluence, Inc.
Davis, Polk & Wardwell
Deloitte Haskins & Sells, New York
Diane Dunning Associates
Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation
First International Bank, Houston, TX
General Mills
Goldman Sachs
Graham Gund Associates
Great Lakes Carbon Corporation
Hadler/Rodriguez Galleries
IBM
Johnson & Johnson
Lehman Bros.
Lloyds Bank, California
LTV Corporation
Marsh McLennon
McDermott, Will & Emery
Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
Museum of Fine Arts, Caracas, Venezuela
Penn Central Company
PLM Design, Inc.
Prudential Insurance Company
R.J. Reynolds Industries
Richard Brown Baker Collection
Sara Roby Foundation at The Smithsonian Museum
Schroder Rockefeller Bank
Schutz & Co., New York
Sherman and Sterling
Thomas A. Greene & Company
U.M.C. Industries
Western Electric Company
Xerox Corporation
Yale University Museum
ARTICLES AND PUBLICATIONS
New York Magazine, June 27 July 4, 1988
The Christian Science Monitor, June 18, 1987: Theo. F. Wolff, "Romancing the Landscape" Article
Register Star, May 21, 1987: Stan Buckles, "Sneed Gallery Back and Aglow" Review
The New York Times, July 12, 1987:
William Zimmer, "Bronx Show Looks at Origins of Food in Natural Settings" Review
Art Talk, Scottsdale, AZ, June/July 1987:
Ruth Bass, "Paintings by John Gundelfinger N.Y. Stock Exchange Visitors' Bureau Gallery"
Art From the Midlantic Collection, (Midlantic National Bank) 1987
Art in America, Dec. 1987: Gerrit Henry
The Nantucket Diary of Ned Rorem 1973-1985
Arts Magazine, Feb. 1981: Michael Hunt Stolbach,
"Gouaches by John Gundelfinger A.M. Sachs" Review
Art Now Gallery Guide, May 1980: Quotes by John Russell and Hilton Kramer
American Artist, John Gundelfinger Draws from Life, January 1977
Art News, March 1978: Madeline Burnside, "Oils on Paper" Review
"Recent Paintings/John Gundelfinger," May 1977
John Bernard Myers, Essay published on Sachs Gallery
"Art International," July-Aug. 1977: John Bernard Myers Essay
The New York Times, Jan. 16, May 13, 1977: Hilton Kramer, Review at A.M. Sachs Gallery
Arts Magazine, March 1976: Allen Ellenzweig
The New York Times, Jan. 4, 1976: John Russell Review
"57th St. Review," Dec. 1975: John Bernard Myers, "The Gouaches of John Gundelfinger" Essay
The New York Times, April 1974: James R. Mellow Review at John Bernard Myers Gallery
"Art Collection in Japan," Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A., 1974: Catalog, page 17
Art International, March 20, 1972: Carter Ratcliff Review
"John Gundelfinger Landscapes," Museum of Fine Arts, Caracas, Venezuela,
Catalog Essay, Richard Lanier
The New York Times, Jan. 16, 1971: Hilton Kramer, Review at John Bernard Myers Gallery
200 Years of American Illustration, by Walter Reed (book and traveling exhibition)
On the Spot Drawing, by Nick Meglin (Watson-Guptil)
Tracking the Marvelous, by John Bernard Myers (Memoir)
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
1963 1991 School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
Instructor: Watercolor Technique, Painting, Drawing
1971 1991 Parsons School of Design, New York, NY
Instructor: Painting, Drawing, Watercolor Technique
1983 University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, TN
Guest Lecturer
1978 Rhode Island School of Design
Instructor: One Week, Advanced Drawing
1975 P.S. 179, Queens
Full-time Board of Education Teacher
1972 Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY
Instructor: Painting, Drawing, Drawing Techniques
1969 Famous Artists School, Westport, CT
Instructor: 10-week seminar for 25 art instructors
1969 1971 Private Painting Classes, Delaware Valley
Studio in Figure, Outdoor Landscape Painting