Mid 20th Century "Ace Bar" Gouache American Scene Painting by Witold Gordon

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Witold Gordon
(1885 – 1968)
The painter and muralist, Witold Gordon, was born in Warsaw, Poland. He moved to Paris … Read more Witold Gordon
(1885 – 1968)
The painter and muralist, Witold Gordon, was born in Warsaw, Poland. He moved to Paris as a young man and studied there at the Ecole de Beaux Arts before moving to the United States. He had a distinguished career including the production of two major murals at Radio City Music Hall in 1932. These were coordinated by the prominent American designer, Donald Deskey, and included Witold Gordon among the periodʼs foremost avant-garde artists along with Stuart Davis and William Zorach, among others.
Gordon was later commissioned to conceive a 6000 square foot mural for a building at the New York Worldʼs Fair in 1939 and this amazing feat is captured in postcards from the fair as well as commemorative film footage and color photographs. His modernist aesthetic is evident in his illustrations for The Travels of Marco Polo and his fine poster for the 1932 Olympics in Lake Placid. In the summers of 1939 and 1949, Gordon traveled through the Southeastern United States painting, in gouache, houses and businesses he considered samplings of true Americana. In some he found sophistication and a refined taste; in others a naive interpretation of designs and forms. This series of 35 gouaches was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in February of 1941, titled “American Scene.” Vogue magazine, in a review at the time, said “These paintings show the true face of America - its houses, churches, and gas stations. Stripping it of the fog of habit, Mr. Gordon gives the familiar scene a fresh inventiveness, a gaunt, unexpected beauty.”
In the mid-40s, Mr. Gordon was commissioned by The New Yorker magazine tocreate a series of covers illustrating the New York City of a bygone era. Polish artist Witold Gordon portrayed his adopted New York in loving detail and typographic glory with his New Yorker covers in the 1940’s. He was commissioned by Radio City Music Hall to create two large murals in 1932 and went on to create another for the New York World’s Fair in 1939. Take a peek at his ‘Nobody Collages‘ from 1940, exhibited at the Pavel Zoubok Gallery last year, as they look au courant even today. See less