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Morris Kantor (Russian-American, 1896-1974). "Elysian" oil on canvas, ca. 1960s. Signed on the upper right. An abstract painting by Morris Kantor that demonstrates the artist's avant-garde aesthetic. The title "Elysian" suggests associations with paradise or heaven, and Kantor's Elysian visions are comprised of various biomorphic forms suggesting abstract plant and human imagery. Kantor presents spaces from different angles and viewpoints, rendering shapes that while two dimensional conjure sculptural forms and suggest movement along with the passage of time. All is delineated in a vibrant palette of tangerine, peach, buttercup yellow, kelly green, spring green, aqua, teal, lavender, and violet hues and set in a custom frame. A striking piece in which Kantor masterfully engaged with Modernism. Size: 50" L x 59.375" W (127 cm x 150.8 cm) Size of frame: 50.875" L x 60.875" W (129.2 cm x 154.6 cm)

Born in Minsk, Russia (now Belarus) Morris Kantor immigrated to the United States in 1906 when he was just a child. There is some debate as to whether he was with family or alone, but we know that he was very young, lived in New York City, and earned enough money working in the Garment District to enroll in art school by age 20. Kantor began attending the Independent School of Art in New York in 1916 and went on to teach at Cooper Union during the 1940s and the Art Students League from 1936 to 1972. Many of his students - including Robert Rauschenberg, Knox Martin, Susan Weil, and Sigmund Abeles - became quite famous in their own right.

Kantor maintained a studio in Manhattan, close to Union Square, as well as on Cape Cod in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. During the 1920s, he also worked in Paris. His arts circle included notable modernists such as the sculptor Isamu Noguchi. During the 1930s, Kantor supervised a Federal Arts Project Easel Painting Project in Rockland County, New York. The following decade he spent some summers in Monhegan, Maine, and in the 1960s his work was shown at Bertha Schaefer Gallery in New York City. Kantor's work has also been exhibited at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Denver Art Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and other prestigious institutions. His honors include receiving the Logan Medal of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Temple Medal of the University of Illinois. Kantor's oeuvre was vast and impressive, as he explored numerous styles ranging from realism colored by a hint of Surrealism to abstract movements including Cubism and Futurism.

"Schaef" is handwritten on one of the stretcher bars suggesting that the painting was exhibited at the Bertha Schaefer Gallery. According to the Archives of American Art, "Bertha Schaefer (1895-1971) was an interior designer and director of the Bertha Schaefer Gallery in New York, New York. Schaefer was born in Yazoo City, Mississippi to Emil and Julia (Marx) Schaefer. She received her B.A. on June 1, 1914 from Mississippi State College for Women, and received a diploma for interior decorating from the Parsons School of Design in New York City. In 1924, after living in Paris for 5 months, she opened Bertha Schaefer Interiors in New York. In 1944, she opened the Bertha Schaefer Gallery of Contemporary Art, which featured American and European paintings and sculpture."

Provenance: Private M. C. collection, Irvine, California, USA; Ex-Morris Kantor collection

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#168228

Painting is intact and signed by the artist in the upper right. Wooden frame has a few scuffs, stains, and nicks commensurate with age, but is otherwise intact and very nice. "Schaef" is handwritten on one of the stretcher bars suggesting that the painting was exhibited at the Bertha Schaefer Gallery.