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Bird, Art, Tropical, Hornbills, Allen Blagden, Pair Hand-colored Lithographs, 1980

$2,800

Allen Blagden (born 1938)
Hornbill I (Artist’s Proof 7/12)
Hornbill II (Artist’s Proof 6/12)
American: 1980
Two hand-colored lithographs, limited artists proofs
Signed, dated 1980, titled and numbered “A.P. 7/12” and “A/P 6/12” respectively, in pencil
34.5 x 25 inches, each, approximate, overall
Provenance: Ashton Hawkins
$2,800, the pair

Pair of large, hand-colored, limited edition prints depicting two different species of hornbill, by prominent ornithological artist Allen Blagden. Both focus on the head and shoulders of the birds, forming bold, larger-than-life shapes against the page. The abstraction of the body is more extreme in Hornbill II, where the black head and body form a simple, lightly textured silhouette, with the red eye and colorful beak in shades of red, yellow, pink and tan rendered in detail. Hornbill I models the body in shades of dark gray and black with more differentiation of the feathers, and a white stripe flecked with yellow on the wing. The color scheme is predominantly gray, black, and bright yellow, with touches of red, including the eye.

This pair, with their large size and impressive bold composition are perfect for an interior designer to use as statement pieces in a modern room.

Product description continues below.

Description

Allen Blagden is an American realist artist, specializing in watercolor, and known for his paintings of birds and wildlife, landscapes, and portraits. Born in New York City, he grew up in Connecticut; his first art teacher was his father, Thomas Blagden. After graduating from Cornell University, Blagden worked briefly as an illustrator in the Department of Ornithology at the Smithsonian Institution before returning to Connecticut. He had his first solo exhibition in New York in 1964 and has been included in dozens of solo and group exhibitions at museums and galleries throughout the U.S. from the 1960s to the present. These include ten of the juried touring Birds In Art shows originated by Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, Wisconsin, between 1986 and 2012, and touring to locations such as the Field Museum in Chicago. In addition to the Woodson Art Museum, his paintings are in the collections of the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA; the Adirondack Museum; the Bennington, Vermont, Center for the Arts; the Butler Museum of Art, Ohio; the New Britain Museum of American Art; and the Shelburne Museum, in Vermont. Blagden is the author of Marking the Moment, a 2017 book about his paintings and artistic career with an essay by art historian John Wilmerding. A related exhibition was mounted in 2017 at the Hyde Collection museum in Glen Falls, New York.

Condition: Printed on paper with deckled edges, top and bottom. Generally fine overall with only light toning and wear.

References:

Allen Blagden. http://www.allenblagden.com/ (13 August 2019).

“Marking the Moment: The Art of Allen Blagden” opens at the Hyde Collection.” Art Daily. 13 February 2017. http://artdaily.com/news/93730/-Marking-the-Moment–The-Art-of-Allen-Blagden–opens-at-the-Hyde-Collection (13 August 2019).

Additional information

Century

20th Century