Description: This is an expressive and evocative Vintage Modern Social Realism Urban Cityscape Oil Painting on Masonite, by the esteemed New York born painter and printmaker, and tribal art dealer, Morton Dimondstein (1920 - 2000.) This artwork depicts a small storefront in Los Angeles's Chinatown district, with a sign above the door which reads: "...Main Song Co," and hanging rabbits or roasted ducks visible in the window. Out front, several colorful baskets of produce are offered for sale. Vertically signed: "Dimondstein" at the upper left edge. This artwork likely dates to the 1950's, when the artist was living in Los Angeles, California. This painting was acquired from the deceased estate collection of the actor Carl Reiner (1922 - 2020), and I was told that Reiner's wife, Estelle, was a former art student of Dimondstein, and that the couple were patrons of the artist while he was living in the area. Approximately 14 5/8 x 20 inches (including frame.) Very good condition for age and storage, with a few minor speckles of paint loss in the lower right corner, and mild scuffing and edge wear to the original period vintage wood frame (please see photos.) If you like what you see, I encourage you to make an Offer. Please check out my other listings for more wonderful and unique artworks! About the Artist: Morton Dimondstein Born: 1920 - New York, New YorkKnown for: Sculptor-wood, drawing, paintingName variants: Morton Diamonstein Morton Dimondstein (Born 1920) is active/lives in California. Morton Dimondstein is known for Sculptor-wood, drawing, painting. Morton Dimondstein studied at the Art Students League, American Artists School, Otis Art Institute and the Instituto Politecnico National.He won 5 one man shows include the ACA in New York and Fraymart Gallery in Los Angeles. His work has been exhibited in the Library of Congress, Carnegie Institute, Belles Artes, etc.He was a member of the Mexican Taller De Grafica Popular with whom he worked at engraving for 2 years. He was staff artist and instructor in visual at Patzcauro, Mexico. He also taught Painting and Graphics at the New School of Art, and was art editor of the "California Quarterly". "At the beginning of his career his work was abstract, influenced by the Paris School. Gradually, along with Picasso, Leger and others, but without the obstacles that have impeded the older painters, Morton Dimondstein, with the advantage of youth, faced the objectivity in art; a thing which has been lost as a collective impulse since the end of the Renaissance."— David Alfaro Siquieros, Letter of Recommendation for Morton Dimondstein Description: Siqueiros praises Dimondstein's work in the Social Realist school of painting. Biography from Papillon Gallery Morton Dimondstein was born in 1920 and died in 2000. At the age of seventeen Morton Dimondstein enrolled in the American Artists School and then the Art Students League in New York City, where he studied painting, drawing, and printmaking with Anton Refregier, Harry Sternberg, and Kimon Nicolaides.After serving in the 387th Field Artillery Battalion during World War II, Dimondstein continued his studies at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles. He was one of the first artists to produce serigraphic prints on the West Coast, marketing them as affordable art in galleries and retail stores.His prints and oil paintings garnered several awards during this post-war period, including an A.C.A. Gallery international competition for a one- man show in New York City.In 1951 he moved to Mexico, where he attended the Instituto Politécnico Nacional and studied art with José Gutiérrez and David Alfaro Siqueiros. During his three years in Mexico, Dimondstein worked as a staff artist and instructor in visual education for UNESCO and was a member of the Taller de Gráfica Popular.After moving back to Los Angeles, Dimondstein served as the art editor of the California Quarterly from 1953 to 1956. He briefly worked for the Saul Bass advertising firm where he designed books and book jackets and collaborated on the ad campaigns for films such as William Wyler’s “The Big Country” and Otto Preminger’s “St. Joan.” Dimondstein received industry recognition for the images he created, but cranking out art for commercial ventures with strict deadlines was not for him.He chose to leave that world in favor of working as an independent artist and art teacher. Over the years he taught at the Kann Art Institute, the New School of Art, the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and the School of Fine Art which he established with UCLA faculty member Martin Lubner.In 1960 Dimondstein and his family moved to Italy. During these Italian years (1960-1964) he began to sculpt, which proved to be a turning point in his career. While continuing to produce works in various print and paint media, Dimondstein devoted himself to developing his new form of expression. Sculpting in wax, he would then cast his nudes, semi-nudes, and allegorical figures in bronze. In the late sixties, Dimondstein began sculpting in wood and in polyester resin. He continued to paint, but no longer on canvas. Instead, he painted life-sized portraits using acrylic on paper with a “sure sense of composition...ability to exploit color as a formal device...and a free-spirited feeling for improvisation” (Los Angeles Times, October 18, 1986).Active as an artist until 1998, Dimondstein shunned artifice and gimmickry, never synthetically creating a style or embracing a fad. He took what he regarded as “the more difficult road...permitting my work to be shaped by changing ideas, the materials I use, the accidents of place and displacement....” Critics concurred that he eschewed “changing fads and fashions, evolving instead within the ongoing Modernist figurative tradition” (Los Angeles Times, 1986).The road Dimondstein traveled from early on branched off in many directions, but each path took the same route, toward an art that attained the highest level of craft and workmanship, an art that sought solutions to its intrinsic concerns, and an art that, according to La Vita in 1961, conveyed an appreciation for “the human image...without esthetic excesses... always granting it its own sense of poetry, its rightful dimension, its dignified pathos.”Whether stripped down to its most elemental and biologic forms or embedded in a life sized, richly detailed environment, the human image--and the human condition--was central to Dimondstein’s vision. Morton DimondsteinAmerican1920-2000Biography Painter, sculptor, and printmaker Morton Dimondstein was born in New York City in 1920. After graduating high school at age 17 he enrolled in classes at the American Artists School, New York (1937-1939), followed by the Art Students League (1939-1941) where he studied painting, drawing, and printmaking with Anton Refregier, Herry Sternberg, and Kimon Nicolaides. His studies were interrupted by the Second World War, in which he served in the 387th Field Artillery Battalion. After the war, he moved to Los Angeles to study graphic art at the Otis Art Institute (1945-1948). He would become one of the first artists to make and promote serigraphy as a fine art, appealing due to its accessibility to all collectors. He continued to paint and print, and he exhibited in both California and New York. In 1950 he traveled to Mexico City to study at the Instituto Politecnico Nacional under Jose Gutierrez and David Alfaro Siqueiros, and he served as a staff artist for UNESCO in Patzcuaro, Mexico from 1952 to 1953. While living in Mexico, he was a member of the Taller de Grafica Popular. In late 1953 he was given his first major solo show at the American Contemporary Art Gallery in New York City. He then returned to Los Angeles, securing a position as the art editor at the California Quarterly. Additional work included artistic collaboration on films such as William Wyler's "The Big Country" and Otto Preminger's "St. Joan". He also designed book covers for the Saul Bass advertising firm. Dimondstein quickly abandoned commercial art, however, and by the late 1950s he was focused solely on his own art. In 1960 Dimondstein moved with his family to Italy, where he continued to paint and create fine prints while also learning sculpting. This would become one of his preferred mediums and by the late 1960s he was focusing almost entirely on large format acrylic paintings on paper and sculptures made from wood and polyester resin. These mediums were his primary outlet upon his return to the states and for the rest of his career. Dimondstein taught drawing and sculpture at the University of Southern California from 1964 to 1958, and in 1963 he co-founded the School of Fine Art in Los Angeles with UCLA faculty member Martin Lubner. Teaching also took him to the Kann Art Institute, the New School of Art, and the University of Southern California. In the 1970s he began collecting tribal art from Africa and Asia and would establish a gallery in Los Angeles that continues today. He was a member of the Society of American Graphic Artists. Dimondstein died in 2000 in Los Angeles, CA.Solo Exhibitions: A.C.A. Gallery, NY, 1953; Galleria Penelope, Italy, 1961; Jaqueline Anhalt Gallery, LA, 1967-'72. Group exhibitions: Paintings by Martin Lubner and Morton Dimondstein, Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, CA, 1960; 3rd International Biennial of Sculpture, Carrara, Italy, 1962; International Biennial Art, Palermo, Italy, 1964; Jaqueline Anhalt Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (dates unknown). Collections: World Bank, Washington, D.C.; Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; Pushkin Art Museum, Moscow, Russian; Seattle Art Museum, Washington; Portland Art Museum, Oregon. Morton Dimondstein (November 5, 1920 – November 27, 2000) Was an American painter, sculptor, printmaker, woodcutter, and activist who lived in the United States, Mexico, and Italy over the course of his life and career. One of his self-portraits is held by the Library of Congress and his screenprint work Industrial Scene #1 (1948) is in the National Gallery of Art. Dimondstein is the father of three children and adoptive father of notable feminist philosopher, author, and speaker, Susan Griffin. Dimondstein was raised in a secular, Yiddish-speaking and culturally Jewish home in New York City.In 1942 he married fellow artist and activist Miriam "Mimi" Green, who followed him to Colorado Springs and Camp Adair in Oregon before he was deployed with the 104th Infantry Division. They divorced in 1948. Dimondstein's second wife was Geraldine "Red" Holtzman, dancer and professor of arts education who he married in 1950. They remained married until his death in 2000. Dimondstein enrolled in the American Artists School and the Art Students League in New York City. During this time, he studied printmaking, drawing, and painting with Kimon Nicolaïdes, Anton Refregier, and Harry Sternberg.In 1939, Dimondstein was a member of the Youth Workshop in New York, an affiliate group of the American Youth Congress. It consisted of about 100 members who organized around a mutual interest in cultural work. During his time, he fraternized with Pete Seeger. Their relationship would be the subject of an interview conducted by the Federal Bureau Investigation during an investigation of Seeger for his communist affiliation.After relocating to Los Angeles, Dimondstein enrolled at the Otis College of Art and Design (then the Otis Art Institute), studying painting with Paul Clemens and Boris Deutsch. Dimondstein served in the 104th Infantry Division in the 387th Field Artillery Battalion as a forward observer and fire director center operator. During his service, Dimondstein was interviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for his association with Pete Seeger, who was the primary focus of their investigation. Dimondstein's oil painting “The Attack,” which depicts a "wounded buddy" in a razed German town, was awarded first place by the California Art Club in 1946 at the First Annual G.I. Art Exhibit at the Los Angeles Museum. Attendees were confounded by the simplified color scheme and distorted proportions and were perplexed that it merited the award. A local news article published after the event speculated that the controversy stemmed from a prevailing lack of appreciation for the significance of simplicity in modern design techniques, which was becoming increasingly evident in the creation of furniture, houses, movie sets, and various objects of the era. Dimondstein, along with many other actors, screenwriters, and artists, were blacklisted due to McCarthyism.Dimondstein started the Fraymart Gallery on Melrose avenue in 1948 with his then-wife Miriam, art dealer Felix Landau, and Manny Singer. There, they sold original, affordable serigraphs (silkscreen prints). Dimondstein's 21-color "Ocean Park Pier" was selected by the Carnegie Institute as one of the 100 best prints in 1947. This serigraph, along with others by Miriam Dimondstein, were exhibited at Fraymart Gallery in June 1948. At the time, the pair were considered leaders in the new art medium.Dimondstein, along with his second wife Geraldine "Red" Dimondstein, were blacklisted during the worst years of McCarthyism, which made it difficult for them to sell their work. They were members of the Communist Party and Marxists by social ideology. The FBI's investigations into Dimondstein continued during this time, which included visits to their home by presumed federal agents meant to intimidate. Media attention to their works was censored.To avoid the blacklist, Dimondstein and his family moved to Mexico in 1951. There, he attended the Instituto Politécnico Nacional, where he worked with the renown muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros. Siqueros penned a personal recommendation for Dimondstein, which was also published in A Collection of Engravings by Morton Dimondstein (1952)While in Mexico, Dimondstein was a member of the artist print collective, the Taller de Gráfica Popular, a collective founded in 1937 by artists Leopoldo Méndez, Pablo O'Higgins, and Luis Arenal. During his three years in Mexico, Dimondstein also worked as a staff artist and instructor in visual education for UNESCO. Dimondstein was the art editor for multiple editions of The California Quarterly from 1953 to 1956, which published works by various local artists and poets, including Thomas McGrath.Dimondstein worked for the advertising firm headed by Saul Bass, designing books jackets and collaborating on advertisement campaigns for films, including Otto Preminger's Saint Joan (1957) and William Wyler's The Big Country (1958).Dimondstein created woodcut covers used for two Vladimir Nabokov stories published by Penguin Books, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight and Laughter in the Dark.Dimondstein continued to receive recognition in his work into the 60's.Dimondstein would continue to paint through the 1960s. Moving away from painting oil on canvas, he painted portraits using acrylic on paper with a “sure sense of composition...ability to exploit color as a formal device...and a free spirited feeling for improvisation” (Los Angeles Times, October 18, 1986).Dimondstein worked closely with friend and fellow artist, Martin Lubner. A shared exhibition for their work was established at the Norton Simon Museum from November 15 to December 31, 1960.Dimondstein created a woodcut portrait of Tal Farlow that was used for the cover of his 1959 album release, The Guitar Artistry of Tal Farlow. Dimondstein and his family moved to Italy in 1960. During his time in Italy, Dimondstein continued to create using print and paint, but his focus transitioned to sculpture. He would sculpt using wax and then cast the wax in bronze. Most of his sculpted works during this time centered on the nude or semi-nude human form. The Three Graces, a series of three sculpted works, abstracts multiple bodies and body parts into a blossoming knot. This series is canonized by Dimondstein in one of his self-portraits, The Artist at Work (c.1955), which depicts Dimondstein working behind a sculpted blossom of limbs. He also sculpted with wood and polyester resin. Dimondstein had established The School of Fine Art, where he taught and worked alongside photographer Harry Drinkwater, and artists Arnold Mesches, Ted Gilien, Keith Fitch, and Martin Lubner. Later, he also taught drawing and sculpture at the University of Southern California. Notable artist Jesse Lott was a student of the school, where he learned directly from Dimondstein. Dimondstein signed a petition within the 1942 State-Wide Nominating Petitions and List of Signatures and Addresses, which was filed by the Communist Party with the Secretary of State in the State of New York.Dimondstein was identified as a sponsor of the Los Angeles Committee for Protection of Foreign Born.Dimondstein taught classes at the California Labor School in 1949.Dimondstein was on the board of directors for the Artists for Economic Action.Morton Dimondstein was a member of the Los Angeles Artist's Protest Committee, his name appearing on a two-page protest article published in the Los Angeles Free Press in 1965. His name also appears on Stop We Dissent (1965), an iconic sign held up by protestors at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Dimondstein's name appears on a list of artists who participated in the Peace Tower showcase in 1966, a collaborative art demonstration organized by Irving Petlin and members of the Artist's Protest Committee. It is likely that he contributed his own panel, though this is unverified. The following obituary appeared in the Los Angeles Times on December 7, 2000:Morton Dimondstein, 80, Los Angeles artist noted for woodcuts in the Mexican realist tradition who also was a collector and curator of African art. Dimondstein grew up in New York City, where he attended the American Artists School and the Art Students League. After serving in the infantry during World War II, he moved to Los Angeles and studied at the Otis Art Institute. Influenced by the Mexican muralist tradition, he lived in Mexico City for several years and produced woodcuts that were praised by the great Mexican painter and muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros. Dimondstein also was a sculptor whose work was called “unpretentious . . . honest, handcrafted” by a Los Angeles Times critic. His paintings and sculptures appeared in many galleries and museums, most recently the Jan Baum Gallery in Los Angeles. He also was prominent as a collector and curator of African art and founded Dimondstein Tribal Arts in 1964 to showcase African tribal art he had collected on travels throughout Europe and Africa since the 1950s. He helped organize the first major U.S. shows of tribal art from the Benue Valley in Nigeria and of Betak art from Sumatra. On Nov. 27 in Los Angeles after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. Biography of Morton DIMONDSTEIN (1920)Birth place: New York, NYAddresses: Los Angeles, CAProfession: Sculptor, painterStudied: Am Artists Sch, New York, NY, 1937-1939; ASL New York, 1939-1941; Otis Art Inst, Los Angeles, Calif, 1945-1948; Inst Politecnico Nac, Mexico City, Mex, 1950-1951.Exhibited: One-man shows, ACA Gallery, New York, 1953, Galleria Penelope, Rome, Italy, 1961 & Jacqueline Anhalt Gallery, Los Angeles, 1967-72; Third Int Biennial of Sculpture, Carrara, Italy, 1962; Int Biennial Art, Palermo, Italy, 1964; Jacqueline Anhalt Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.Member: Soc Am Graphic Artists.Work: World Bank, Washington, DC; Libr of Cong, Washington; Pushkin Art Mus, Moscow, USSR; Seattle Art Mus, Wash; Portland Art Mus, Ore.Comments: Preferred Media: Wood, Bronze. Positions: Staff artist, UNESCO, Patzcuaro, Mex, 1952-53. Publications: Mexico (portfolio of woodcuts), Posada Graphics, 1954. Teaching: Instr all media, Sch Fine Art, Los Angeles, 1963-72; instr drawing & sculpture, Univ Southern Calif, 1964-68. Dimondstein Tribal Arts was established in 1970 by Morton Dimondstein. He began collecting tribal art in the early sixties and I, subsequently, was exposed to it from an early age. After college, where I first earned a degree in music and later an MBA in Operations Management, my career path took me from restaurant kitchens, to tech, to working for the pharmaceutical industry. And then, after all, I returned to work with my father and Dimondstein Tribal Arts in 1996. The incredible art, the passionate collectors, the thrill of the quest for a great piece, and the satisfaction of the sale bonded me to the world of tribal art to which I’m forever attached.My commitment as a dealer is to sell only authentic works of art; that is, objects that were made by indigenous people for their community and culture rather than for sale to outside markets. I hold myself to the highest standards by guaranteeing authenticity and working within a framework of honesty and integrity. I am fair in my offerings and follow through with my commitments.Though the art that Dimondstein Tribal Arts sells is predominantly from the African continent, we also sell high-quality tribal art from Indonesia, Oceania and Nepal. Our inventory includes masks, figures, textiles, beads, jewelry, utilitarian objects and furniture. Pieces from our inventory have been included in numerous publications and exhibited in venues such as the Smithsonian Institution, the Chicago Institute of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Fowler Museum and the Baltimore Museum.Dimondstein Tribal Arts is based in Los Angeles, but I split my time between Los Angeles and San Rafael in Marin County. I’m available by appointment in both Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. I participate yearly in the San Francisco Tribal and Textile Art Show and the Parcours des Mondes in Paris. The first year I participated in the Parcours des Mondes was 2002.Dimondstein Tribal Arts is proud to be a founding member of SFTribal and I am grateful to again be a member.Joshua Dimondstein
Price: 1350 USD
Location: Orange, California
End Time: 2025-01-04T19:58:35.000Z
Shipping Cost: N/A USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
All returns accepted: ReturnsNotAccepted
Artist: Morton Dimondstein
Unit of Sale: Single Piece
Signed By: Morton Dimondstein
Signed: Yes
Size: Medium
Period: Post-War (1940-1970)
Material: Oil, Masonite
Region of Origin: California, USA
Framing: Framed
Subject: Cityscapes, Community Life, Figures, Hare, Landscape, Men, Rabbit, Silhouettes, States & Counties, Still Life, Working Life
Type: Painting
Year of Production: 1950
Original/Licensed Reproduction: Original
Item Height: 20 in
Theme: Americana, Architecture, Art, Cities & Towns, Continents & Countries, Cultures & Ethnicities, Exhibitions, Famous Places, History, Social History
Style: Americana, Expressionism, Impressionism, Modernism, Social Realism
Features: One of a Kind (OOAK)
Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
Production Technique: Oil Painting
Item Width: 14 5/8 in
Handmade: Yes
Time Period Produced: 1950-1959
