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THBARTHUR KRAFT (1922-1977) IMPORTANT EARLY MURAL ON BOARD
Lot 10
About Seller
Soulis Auctions
Lone Jack, MO 64070
United States
Founded in 1985 by Dirk Soulis as a college student while working the ring at a Saturday night Antique Auction. Over the next thirteen years he exhibited at Antiques Shows in Kansas City, St. Louis, Chicago, Atlanta, New York and Brimfield, Massachusetts buying , selling, auctioning and learning. In...Read more
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About Auction
LiveCatalog Only
By Soulis Auctions
Oct 14, 2023
Set Reminder
2023-10-14 12:00:00
2023-10-14 12:00:00
America/New_York
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Featuring Regionalism & Kansas City Art History Soulis Auctions Dirk@SoulisAuctions.com
Featuring Regionalism & Kansas City Art History Soulis Auctions Dirk@SoulisAuctions.com
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- Lot Description
Arthur M. Kraft (1922-1977)
Untitled: A Soldier's Surreal Reverie
Early to mid 1940s.
The small mural in oils painted on a type of fiber board in two sections is signed 'Art Kraft' lower right.
Kansas City artist Arthur Kraft is best known as a late 20th century Expressionist. With the discovery of this early work, a known gap in his style progression is filled. One of his biographers refers to, ''a short-lived realist period in the 1940s'' but few examples exist, none more definitive than this. Not to break character, Arthur's brand of Realism steeped in the surreal.
The backstory for this small mural is not known. What is known is that Arthur Kraft served in WWII as Private First Class with the Air Corps in the Pacific, assigned work as an artist with the Fifth Air Force. It is also known that he was awarded First Prize in the 1945 Army Arts Exhibition in San Francisco. A $100 war bond was given to the winner in each of 8 classes: oil and tempera, watercolor and gouache, sculpture, renderings, drawings, prints, photographs - and mural design.
Even in 'Realism', Arthur Kraft went surreal. Of this, his mother delivers a delightfully amusing quote, ''Arthur always just ruins a painting for me that way,'' she sighed. ''The picture will be pretty and then he'll put in an evil eye or a black bird picking at an eyeball. He says, though that it's to remind people that there is a thorn in every rose.'' Her lament for pretty pictures was likely echoed a great deal after World War Two.
Just before the War, Arthur Kraft had graduated from Southwest High School in Kansas City where, as a freshman, he won third prize in a youth forum art contest populated by entries from 280,000 students from across the nation. He then received a one-year scholarship to the Kansas City Art Institute, followed by studies at the Yale University School of Fine Arts on a second scholarship. With just six months to go at Yale, he was drafted into military service. After the War, he returned to get his degree and finish his monumental kaleidoscopic panorama of a New York neighborhood with its sixteen-word title and cutaway sections of the city's neighborhoods - a painting six years in the making that won him the Fifth Annual Audubon artist exhibition in New York City in 1946.
Arthur Kraft went on to win many awards, and numerous public commissions. He was delightfully eccentric and, depending on your approach to life, some might see him as having lived refreshingly carefree at times. Others might call it irresponsible. Conversely, it appears life may have also been very intense for Arthur. These complexities sometimes overshadowed his brilliant artistic career.
Frame measures 60.5 x 84 inches.
Without proof of exemption, be aware that internet sales tax applies to all Internet transactions and local sales tax may apply to local pick-up transactions.
We happily provide seamless in-house packing and shipping services on nearly everything we sell.
Until further notice, we cannot offer international shipping in-house.Very good just found in storage condition, noting scattered rubs, dry surface, shrinkage of the two panels the work is painted on, minor light effects of age and storage. There are no issues of damage, repair, serious losses, inpainting or alteration.Condition
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We happily provide seamless, low-cost in-house shipping on nearly everything we sell. Handling and materials fees range $12 to $16.50 per box shipment for most items, depending on size, weight and or fragility. Items requiring construction of a crate will be charged at $17.50 per hour for labor plus the cost of materials. Items designated as over-sized by commercial carriers and those weighing more than 100 pounds may be best shipped by 'blanket wrap' carriers. We can provide rough shipping estimates for any lot at request. Until further notice, we cannot ship internationally at this time.
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