2 Jon Reich Transparency I-IV Male & Female Nude Figure Drawing Art Prints 16"

Description

Set of four (two are framed in each) framed nude figure prints by Jon Reich, framed in corresponding pairs: Transparency I (male front) with Transparency III (male back) and Transparency II (female front) with Transparency IV (female back). / THE TRANSPARENCIES I-IV: A salute to Escher are Jon's signature works, his classic masterpieces, his most widely recognized nudes. The four are a set, but each stands very much on its own. The first, the male torso front, was one of five pieces drawn for a 1980 show in Milwaukee. Jon had recently moved from Jacksonville to be with friends in Milwaukee before pursuing his ambition to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The series salutes one of Jon's idols, the late M.C. Escher, an artist who drew very intricate and illusory black and white pencil images, and who drew a pair of hands drawing each other. In each picture, the illusion that the hand is drawing on a creased piece of paper thumb-tacked to a board gives the art immediacy. It's as though Jon sketched it on a piece of scratch paper that was taken from his pocket. The leaves surrounding the body give the drawing a warmer, closed, protected feeling. When the four pieces from this series are lined up in the sequence they were drawn, the eye should flow from one to another along the "creases" in the paper. / THE ARTIST: Jon Reich was born on August 31, 1953, in rural Mississippi, the youngest of nine children. At age six, he was given a paint-by-number set by an older sister, and his talent and dedication were immediately evident. When his coloring books were full, he utilized the only clean white surfaces available: shoe box dividers. With the seven cents a day his father gave him for popsicles, he bought crayons instead. When Jon was seven, his father perished in a forest fire. The sudden loss hit Jon's mother especially hard. To cheer her up, Jon gave her a 4" x 5" drawing of roses. When Jon was twelve he picked cucumbers for an entire summer, earning enough money to buy a $30.00 oil painting set through Spiegels mail-order. He sold each of the seven canvasses in the set for $5.00, netting a small profit of $5.00. Upon finishing high school, Jon's desire to study drawing led him from Mississippi to Florida. In 1971 he enrolled at Florida Junior College in Jacksonville. Jon left Florida in 1980 to continue his education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. After many street shows, and several highly successful one-man shows in and around Chicago, Jon had aquired a large following of patrons. In 1983 Jon decided to open his own studio-gallery on Chicago's north side. Jon took over the promotion and distribution of his posters and prints. In 1986, Jon's star was on the rise, he expanded his activity, participating in the New York and Los Angeles International Art Expositions. In 1991 an artbook of many of Jon's nude figural studies was published by Predictable Press, Inc. After a long illness, on September 7, 1992 Jon passed away at the age of 39. Jon's spirit lives on in the many beautiful works of art he produced during his short, but prolific life.

Condition

Very Good – See pictures

Dimensions

16.25” x 0.5” x 13.25” / Sans Frame - 4.25” x 5.25” (Width x Depth x Height)