Frank Howell "Lakota Summer" 1985 Signed Original Lithograph, 26/140, Framed

Details

Description

Lakota Summer is a 1985 original lithograph by Frank Howell. It is signed and dated in pencil, titled, and numbered … Read more Lakota Summer is a 1985 original lithograph by Frank Howell. It is signed and dated in pencil, titled, and numbered 26 of 140. The full sheet is floated on a black backing so its deckled edges show. It is matted in cream and framed in black under glass. Framed, it is 29 inches high and just over 36 inches wide.

A woman faces the viewer straight on, calm and direct. Her black hair parts at the center and falls in two long sweeps that spread nearly the width of the sheet, then breaks into loose strands. Howell modeled her face slowly in warm browns. He left her white garment as almost bare paper, defined by a few lines. Pale turquoise runs under the outer edges of the hair, and a few rust strands sit near her collar. Howell considered lithography a painter's print medium because it holds fine shifts in tone, and the face shows what he meant. Up close, the hair has the grainy crayon texture lithography is known for.

The edition was printed at Master Editions Limited in Englewood, Colorado, and published by American Design, Ltd. of Aurora. Three blind-embossed chops record the printing. At lower right are the chop of Melissa Katzman Braggins of Master Editions and a second chop reading TMB. A third chop sits at lower left. One small note: Howell's capital L in the pencil title looks almost like an S.

Frank Howell (1937-1997) was born in Sioux City, Iowa. He served in the Marine Corps and taught art for eleven years, then moved to Colorado in 1968 to work full time. He opened Breckenridge Galleries there and later his own gallery in Santa Fe. He worked as a painter, printmaker, sculptor, and poet, and he wrote and illustrated several books. He had more than thirty solo shows, including an exhibition of his lithographs at the Museum of Modern Art in Guadalajara, Mexico. He is best known for portraits like this one, where the hair moves like wind across the whole sheet. Lakota Summer strips that idea down to a face, the hair, and the paper.

It suits a few kinds of buyers:

Collectors. A collector of Southwestern and Western American prints gets a Howell signed in his lifetime and printed by a fine-art workshop, not a later offset reproduction.

Designers. A designer gets one large figurative piece in a quiet palette. The black, ivory, and warm brown read graphic and modern, so it fits a contemporary room as easily as a Santa Fe or mountain house. At 36 inches wide, it can carry the wall over a sofa, console, or bed by itself.
Colorado buyers. It was printed in Englewood and published in Aurora, by an artist whose full-time career began here. See less