LEONARD PYTLAK
Standees (Garbo and Gilbert).
Color screenprint, circa 1940. 270x330 mm; 10½x13 inches, full margins. Edition of approximately 10. Signed in pencil, lower right and titled in ink, lower left. A very good impression of this scarce print with strong colors.Pytlak (1910-1998) studied art at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art and at the Art Students League, New York. From 1934 to 1941 he worked almost exclusively in lithography. During the 1930s he made numerous lithographs under the auspices of the New York Chapter of the W.P.A. (Works Progress Administration). Around 1940 Pytlak began to experiment with the newly discovered graphic arts medium of the screenprint (or silkscreen). He was among the first artists to be included in the silkscreen unit of the Graphic Arts Division of the New York Federal Arts Project. At this time he also founded the National Serigraph Society. Pytlak's screenprints of New York from the 1940s evoke the optimism and dynamic of the immediate post-war era as well as the gritty, sometimes lonely feel of the urban experience.