James M. Guy

Estimate

20,000 - 30,000 USD

bidding is closed

Description

James M. Guy
The Death of Fascism
signed Guy and dated '37 (lower right)
oil on board
19 3/4 by 30 3/4 inches
(50.2 by 78.1 cm)

Provenance

Martin Diamond Fine Arts, New York
John P. Axelrod, Boston, Massachusetts
Brock & Co., Carlisle, Massachusetts
Private collection, Boston, Massachusetts

Catalogue Note

James Guy was an artist and a political activist, who used his art to reflect his strongly held beliefs. In 1931, Guy encountered the work of Salvador Dali, Giorgio de Chirico and Max Ernst in the Newer Super-Realism exhibition held at the Wadsworth Athenaeum, which had profound effect on his artistic sensibility. He began to paint in the epressive Social Surrealist style of The Death of Fascism. Ilene Fort writes that Guy’s work from this period was focused on “national problems: unemployment, worker’s rights and bureaucratic control” (James Guy, 1983, n.p.).