Lot 82: HUGH MESIBOV

Nocturne.

Color screenprint, circa 1942. 180x260 mm; 7 1/8x10 1/4 inches, wide (full ?) margins. Signed, titled, dated annotated and numbered 5/8 in pencil, lower margin. A superb impression of this scarce print with vibrant colors.

Philadelphia native Mesibov (born 1916), the son of a Russian artist, studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and was active during the 1930s in the Federal Art Project (WPA). He was the co-inventor with Dox Thrash, in the late 1930s, of the carborundum print process. By the 1940s, likely spurred by European art movements and the catastrophes of World War II, his style transformed from social realism to Surrealism--evidenced by the current work. In 1945, Mesibov moved to New York and came under the influence of Cubism and the Abstract Expressionists. By this time his style drifted toward more loosely handled, geometric compositions (see the following lot). His first New York one-man show was exhibited at the Chinese Gallery on 57th Street.