Primitive Worlds

Findlay Galleries is proud to present Primitive Worlds, an exhibition featuring paintings by Camille Bombois, Orville Bulman, Henri Maïk, Ljubomir Milinkov, Annette Ollivary, and Gustavo Novoa at our Palm Beach gallery in December 2022.

While the first Naïf painters made an appearance in the 1600’s, the work of Henri Rousseau in the late 1800’s strongly influenced a future generation of artists who desired a primitive freshness in their work. The unfettered creativity that came with being self-taught defined the Naif painter. As modern living reached all continents in the 20th century, the art world developed an affinity for the sophisticated simplicity of Naïf paintings, contrasting the graying and troubled world outside.

Beginning in 1931 with an exhibition at his Chicago gallery, Wally Findlay was the first US art dealer dedicated to developing and representing European Naïf painters. Findlay Galleries’ first selection of works by Rousseau and Bombois eventually expanded to include contemporary artists such as Maïk, Ollivary, and Novoa. This new group used the Naif style of painting to create art outside traditional realms; objects, landscapes, and creatures exist in an everlasting Eden. While different from their predecessors, they remained true to the craftsmanship, manifest sense of composition, expressive use of color, and solid foundation of design typical of Naïf painters. Findlay Galleries is delighted to share their creativity with you in Primitive Worlds.

Fritz Rauh was born in Wuppertal, Germany, in 1920. He enrolled in the Braunschweig Art School in 1938, although his studies were interrupted by WWII. Following the war, he completed his formal training in Braunschweig and met his future wife, Alix; they emigrated to the United States in 1954 and settled in Marin County, California.

Rauh had his first solo exhibition in 1956 at the De Young Museum in San Francisco. The exhibition was well received by critics applauding Rauh’s unique approach to canvas as a surface to be “opened” with color and shapes. Small amoeba-like shapes filled his canvases, closely packed on a contrasting and sometimes harmonizing ground in a way that foreground and background become interchangeable. The vibrating surface that resulted, heightened by areas of flat color defining the limits of the canvas, evokes the beauty of micro-organic worlds.

Rauh’s critical and commercial success in the following decades led to his works being exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide, including SF MOMA, Oakland Art Museum, International Art Expo in Osaka, Japan and Gallerie Schreiner in Basel, Switzerland. Today, Findlay Galleries is proud to represent the artist’s estate exclusively.

In the early 20th century, Paris became the epicenter of Western art. Painters and sculptors from around the world flocked to the city, giving rise to Fauvism, Cubism, Surrealism, and Modern Art as we know it today.

The School of Paris exhibition presents a select group of artists that were instrumental to the artistic developments of this period, along with others that benefited from and furthered their vison: Andre Lhote, Jean Dufy, Gen Paul, Paul Aïzpiri, Bernard Buffet, and Gilles Gorriti. Their works encompassed multiple themes and covered a wide range of styles; from the dynamic colors of Fauvism to the revolutionary forms of Cubism and the otherworldly compositions of Surrealism. The School of Paris took advantage of developments from a variety of sources as it forged a path that art would follow through the remainder of the century and into present day.

We invite you to our Palm Beach gallery to view The School of Paris.

Findlay Galleries is pleased to present the exhibition Figures: Now & Then, on view at our Palm Beach. This exhibition uses the human figure as the lens through which a variety of painting styles and themes can be explored and better understood. The eye and mind are highly attuned to observing, reading, and interpreting body language, making the human figure a focal point of artistic creation from the earliest onset of our culture. How an artist and style adapt to the challenge of capturing the nuances of the human figure as it communicates the inner life of the subject is part of the artistry that makes figurative painting an enduring theme. 

As a reflection of Findlay Galleries’ deep understanding and selection of works in the representative category, this exhibition includes artists with styles ranging from Realism to Modernism. Each artist takes a unique approach, while sharing in their achievement the attainment of a beauty that makes the invisible visible. We invite viewers to enjoy works by Beltran Bofill, Dimitry Gerrman, Hugo Grenville, Le Pho, Henri Matisse, Charles Neal, Nicola Simbari, Peter von Artens and Vu Cao Dam.

Findlay Galleries presents the second installment of Summer Selections with our Works on Paper series on view at our Palm Beach Gallery. This exhibition includes a carefully coordinated and diverse selection of works from our vast collection of works on paper by artists such as Henri Matisse, Joan Miro, Alexander Calder, Marc Chagall and others. Visit or view this exhibition online to discover the works on paper that provide the foundation for the artists’ styles we treasure today.

Paper was one of the first mediums used by artists to express their creativity and vision and often affords the viewer a glimpse into the artist’s thoughts and experimental practices. We see many expressions of art born from the initial process of a sketch. At the same time, we also have works on paper that encompass the complete process of artmaking, not only a new concept but a finished work. Findlay Galleries’ collection of Works on Paper showcases a vital and unique artistic genre unlike any other. Often the result is small and intimate, allowing the viewer to engage with each piece personally. We invite you to view this carefully curated collection of works that are not only historically significant but beautiful and inspiring.

Findlay Galleries is pleased to present this year’s highly anticipated first installment of Summer Selections, an exhibition of works from our stable of artist estates and contemporary artists, displaying a wide breadth of paintings in various formats and styles. 

From en plein air artist Isabelle de Ganay’s vibrant colors and rhythmic brushstrokes to Ward Jackson’s carefully composed hard-edge paintings, the variety presented within this exhibition provides our collectors the perfect opportunity to explore new ideas and accomplish new visions for their homes. We invite you to enjoy these works and explore the entire exhibition in person at our Palm Beach location or online on our website.

Though born in Riga, Latvia, in 1912, Constantin Kluge grew up in China, spending his adolescent years in Shanghai, where his family was forced to migrate during the Bolshevik Revolution. There, among his studies of Mandarin and the art of calligraphy, Kluge found excitement in visual art as an active member of the Shanghai Art Club. As a young adult, his parents urged him to study something more practical than fine art. Kluge found a compromise in architecture, but it was ultimately his exceptional drawing skill that secured his place at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts as a student of Architecture in 1931. In 1937, he graduated with the title of French Government Architect. His passion for the city of lights grew exponentially during his time there. Kluge was so profoundly moved and deeply in love with the city that he remained for several months after completing his studies. He stayed to paint views of Paris in oils, purely to portray and preserve the scenes he cherished so much.

Kluge returned to China and practiced architecture in Shanghai. After persuasion from friends, he began exhibiting his paintings, which reared great success, to Kluge’s surprise. However, his painting career paused during World War II. Beginning in 1950, Kluge worked as an architect in Hong Kong. Supported fervently by friends and urged by his heart, he returned to his dear Paris due to rumors of the Communist invasion. Unsurprisingly, as an already mature and successful painter, in 1951, Kluge won an award at the Paris Salon. After, he frequently exhibited in the Salon shows, which proved to be his gateway to ever-increasing public attention. Kluge then also became a member of the Sociéte des Artistes Francais and received the Médaille d’Argent and the special Raymond Perreau prize given by the Salon’s Taylor Foundation.

By the late 1950s, Kluge’s paintings caught the eye of the world-renowned art dealer Wally Findlay, Jr., who immediately presented Kluge’s Parisian paintings to the American market and consolidated his stature in Europe. He launched his career in the 1961 with exhibitions in all Findlay Galleries locations. In 1990, after many critically successful years, French president François Mitterand awarded Kluge the highest French order of merit for military and civil merits, Chevalier de la Légion D’Honneur. Throughout the nineties Kluge continued to paint Paris’s poetic landscapes until his passing in 2003.

After more than 60 years of representation, Findlay Galleries has exhibited Kluge’s work in Chicago, Palm Beach, New York, Paris, Beverly Hills, Tokyo, East Hampton, London, Monte Carlo and Barcelona. Today, Kluge’s estate is still exclusively represented by Findlay Galleries and his works are a highlight of the gallery’s roster of highly valued artists.

Findlay Galleries began representing the works of Constantin Kluge in 1961 and exhibited his works in Chicago, Palm Beach, New York, Paris, Beverly Hills, Tokyo, East Hampton, London, Monte Carlo and Barcelona. Today, Findlay Galleries represents the artist’s entire estate internationally.

Noah Landfield was born and raised in New York City in a Tribeca that was still full of commercial lofts and artists’ residences; fertile soil for a budding artist. The naturally gifted Landfield followed in the path of his father and grandfather, both accomplished painters, and began making art from a young age. His formal training led to an MFA, after which he immediately began exhibiting in galleries throughout the United States.

Landfield’s paintings are redolent of the tension between urban structures and the forces of nature, reflecting on their ability to coexist and allowing for a further mediation on time and energy. Line, shape and texture underscore the highly saturated color and imagery in Landfield’s work, inviting the viewer to enjoy the challenge to their perception. Vibrant colors draw our attention to a seemingly abstract composition, which in turn, reveals clouds and a city below. 

The artist states that “Paintings can be magic, healing objects, and I am interested in this idea of how my paintings function in the world that way. We are all ephemeral beings in an ephemeral world. My paintings have a lot to do with these ideas of ephemerality: color, light, duration. I also depict images of cities and objects we might think to be permanent and solid but, in fact, are just as ephemeral as flesh and blood. In a way, I would like the work to speak to this totality of nature that we are all a part of.”

“Billowing, flowing, and crumbling, the recent paintings of Noah Landfield, in Ephemeral Cities, chart vectors of movement, force, and energy as they play out in both natural and human-made manifestations.”  

–  William Corwin, Brooklyn Rail, 2022

The works of Henrik Simonsen connect the viewer with the mysterious and almost magical side of nature. While exacting in detail and technically virtuous, his paintings are truly about the spirit behind that which man did not create. The craggy forms of his trees, the rhythms of the leaves, the detailed petals in his flowers are all a reminder of the natural world’s beauty; and yet, they are not realistic or naturalistic works, they are contemporary works that combine the strength and movement of abstract painting with an insight of nature’s rhythm and beauty.

“As an artist working alone in my studio, I was fortunate to have my own space during the pandemic; but none of us exist in isolation. The influence from the outside world filtered through me onto the canvas. I became more aware of time than ever, how we measure it and what it means to us. For me, my experience of time altered, stretched, felt longer and more fragile. Everything slowed down and seemed less defined.

Many of the paintings in this exhibition originated from the observation of time. For example, the four paintings that make up the season series demonstrate the change in the natural world that occurs during a year in Northern Europe, while the works from the light series (Winter Light and “Green Light) aim to capture an ephemeral and brief moment.

As the world opened and scaled down on its restrictions, my work also took on a renewed sense of space as it acquired layers of depth. This renewed sense of space is the source of the perceived three-dimensional quality that enhances the precise details that make up the elements in my work.” – Henrik Simonsen, 2022

Findlay Galleries proudly presents a collection of classically beautiful ceramic works by contemporary ceramicist Amanda C. Ross. Ross’ intricate ceramic sculptures denote a nuanced and deep understanding of form and color. While some of her sculptures burst with the exuberant hues of nature, others show an absence of color, highlighting her delicate form and technique. Findlay Galleries invites you to view these works at our iconic Worth Avenue Gallery in Palm Beach.

“My clay sculptures replicate an artistic journey inspired by the precision of hyperrealistic still lifes created by the Dutch Masters to the abstractions of Arp and Brancusi. Both styles start with a block of clay, and the finished works embody the essential beauty of nature in their floral form.

The way seeds morph into things of beauty is an analogue to the creative process. My approach consists of arduous hand modeling techniques. I build these vessels using wheel and coiling techniques, then form and arrange each petal by hand. I then glaze the stoneware and sometimes introduce color using acrylics to transform the clay into an aesthetically pleasing and permanent object. The contrast between my work’s handmade, heavyweight permanency and the natural, impermanent featherweight fragility of flowers creates a unique tension in my works.

Just as every floral species is particular to itself, so is each of these works of art. In this case, the hand of the creator is invisible yet somehow palpable and personal, making each work of art unique. My work has universal appeal; whether you are an art historian or a casual viewer, I aim for my works to resonate uniquely with each viewer, promoting life and beauty in a permanent medium.”

– Amanda Ross, 2022