Out of the Crate: New Acquisitions

The Contessa Gallery specializes in masterworks of the most prominent American and International artists of the past and present. Always with an eye toward quality, the gallery has assembled and is continually expanding a world-class collection of sculpture, painting, masterprints and photography.

CLEVELAND – The Contessa Gallery at Legacy Village is pleased to announce the opening of a new exhibition “Out of the Crate: New Acquisitions” featuring such important artists as Joan Miró,
Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, James Rosenquist, Robert Rauschenberg, Helen Frankenthaler,
Frank Stella, and the photography of Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Horst P. Horst, William Klein and Edward Weston. 

If one is to be truly alive he or she must have passion – passion for life, for love, for family, for work, for interesting experiences, and for fine things. Our true passion is Art. We continually strive to bring the public the finest examples of modern and old masters by doing extensive research and acquiring new works. “Out of the Crate” will feature works by some of the greatest artists of the 20^th century. They were all genuine and powerful innovators both in their subjects and technique.

In the fifty years since he first appeared on the New York art scene, Andy Warhol has become synonymous with Pop Art and with the wry definition of fame as something that never lasts more than fifteen minutes. But Warhol spent his career working so prodigiously as to assure long lasting renown. Roy Lichtenstein was the master of the stereotype, and the most sophisticated of the major Pop artists in terms of his analysis of visual convention and his ironic exploitation of past styles. James Rosenquist brought Pop Art to enormous billboard-size painting.
Robert Rauschenberg found his signature mode by embracing materials traditionally outside of the artist’s reach. He would cover a canvas with house paint, or experiment with prints on aluminum, clothes and other surfaces.
Of the generation of painters who succeeded the Abstract Expressionists, Helen Frankenthaler is considered a major innovator in the technique of color-field painting. In her work immense canvases are painted in an open composition often building around a free, abstract, central image. Frank Stella produced works which emphasized the picture-as-object, rather than the picture as a representation of something, be it in the physical world, or in the artist's emotional world.  Besides introducing new subject matter in their work, all of the above artists were major innovators in the printmaking process.

Also on view at the Contessa Gallery will be a full suite “Ubu Roi” by the great Surrealist painter Joan Miró.

The suite consists of 13 lithographs illustrating the first Surrealist play by Alfred Jarry. Additionally collectors will find on display black and white photographs by such notable 20^th century visionaries as Ansel Adams,
Henri Cartier-Bresson, Horst P. Horst, William Klein and Edward Weston. The range of their subjects stretches from highly refined fashion photography to landscapes and “street photography”.

The exhibition presents a wonderful opportunity for collectors and the general public to view and acquire rare and unique works by true masters of 20^th century art.