'Gondolas at Santa Maria Della Salute' by Katherine Westphal, Venice, Basilica, Smithsonian, Boston Museum of Fine Arts

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Description

Initialed lower right, 'K.W.' for Katherine Westphal (American, nd painted circa 1965; additionally bearing label, verso, bearing the artist's name … Read more Initialed lower right, 'K.W.' for Katherine Westphal (American, nd painted circa 1965; additionally bearing label, verso, bearing the artist's name and titled 'Venice'.
Framed Dimensions: 33.25 H x 2 D x 29 W Inches

A large, Post-Impressionist oil showing a view of the Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute on the Punte della Dogana with half-a-dozen gondolas bobbing on the gentle swell of the Guidecca. A vibrant modernist vision of this iconic Venetian church that the artist has chosen to show as if suspended in a sea of golden light, both reflecting the sunset and, itself, reflected in the shimmering waters.

Born in Los Angeles, Katherine Westphal first attended Los Angeles City College and, subsequently, the University of California at Berkeley where she studied painting and art history and received both her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees. In 1943, she was awarded the Phelan Travelling Scholarship for Practicing Artists which funded her travel to Mexico where she visited the studios of both David Siquieros and Diego Rivera, an experience that confirmed her life-long preference for Modernist principles in her work. Over the course of a long and multi-faceted career, Westphal exhibited widely and with success and was the recipient of numerous prizes, medals and juried awards. In addition to her path as an artist, Westphal also became a beloved teacher. In 1966, she agreed to teach a one-quarter design class at the University of California, Davis. She stayed on, becoming a tenured faculty member in 1968, a full professor in 1975 and retiring, in 1979, as Professor Emeritus. Katherine Westphal’s work is held in the permanent collections of numerous American museums including the Smithsonian Museum of American Art and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. (With thanks to Nancy Dustin Moure )

Selected permanent collections and exhibition venues:
Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York;
Trondheim Museum, Norway;
National Museum of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.;
Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Lausanne, Switzerland;
San Francisco Craft and Folk Art Museum, California;
Museum at the Rhode Island School of Design
American Craft Museum, New York, New York
de Young Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, California
Bellevue Arts Museum, Washington

Award: Fellow: American Craft Council; Gold Medal

Books:
Chinese Dragons and Other Creatures: Chinese embroideries of the Ch'ing Dynasty, Lancaster-Miller Publishers, 1979; Katherine Westphal: Artist and Professor, Fiber Arts Oral History Series, University of California, Berkeley, California, Interview conducted by Harriet Nathan in 1984, published 1988. The Surface Designer's Art, Introduction by Katherine Westphal, Lark Books, Asheville, NC, 1993. See less