Modern & Post-War Art: May 25, 2023 Auction Highlights

**Lot 88:** Natvar Bhavsar, *Sumnaa,* raw pigment & acrylic binding agent on canvas, 1973. Estimate $25,000 to $35,000.

Our May 25^th Modern and Post-War Art auction has a wide array of art from the Post-Impressionist era, ranging from a work on paper by Gwen John up to the works of abstract artist, James Siena.

Among the highlights are a large oil by African American abstract painter, Norman Lewis, dated 1966, and an oil from the same year by the author of the New York Times’ “Times Critics’ Top Books of 2021” list, The Loft Generation, Edith Schloss.

Edith Schloss was born in Germany. She immigrated to the United States from England, where she was living and working as an au pair at the time of the London Blitz. After settling into New York City she quickly made contact and formed lasting friendships with the Chelsea crowd, amongst them writers, photographers, painters, and film makers. In 1947, she married film maker, Rudy Burkhardt. The newly married couple traveled to Europe and met many of the prominent Avant Garde painters and sculptors. Their circle of friends included, Elaine and Bill de Kooning, Fairfield Porter, Ellen and Walter Auerbach, Nell Blaine and Edwin Denby.

In her later years, Edith Schloss moved to Italy where she would remain for the remainder of her life. Her painting continued while she shared her creative time writing. In the 1950s she was an editorial assistant for ArtNews. From 1968 until 1986 she was the art editor for the International Herald Tribune.

After her death in 2011 a major exhibition, curated by Jason Andrew, was organized by Sundaram Tagore Gallery, NY. Edith Schloss, A Retrospective, February 26 – March 28, 2015. In 2021, a publication of her writings about her time in New York was released — The Loft Generation: From the de Koonings to Twombly: Portraits and Sketches, 1942-2011.