Art, Silkscreen Prints, "Masterpieces of Primitive American Art," Second Seriers by WPA Artist Louie Ewing, Signed, Vintage 1944, 1189

Own a piece of alluring artwork by the legendary Louie H. Ewing.

This unique vintage piece is a limited-edition silkscreen print from the 1944 series, “Masterpieces of Primitive American Art”. The late Louie H. Ewing (1908-1983) was a American artist largely accredited as one of the first in the southwest to incorporate the innovative technique; he became a master of the technique and taught it to other artists which then became a significant form of artistic expression in the region. This particular print is of an ornate and colorful Chihuauha Polychrom Olla. It’s been signed by the artist, matted and framed. It has a southwestern charm and authenticity that will instantly add to the aesthetic of any room.

Louis H Ewing 1908-1983 WPA New Mexico/Idaho. In 1938, the Federal Arts Project of New Mexico funded a Portfolio of Spanish Colonial Design in New Mexico, and with this, he began a long series of book publications in which his original silkscreens were tipped into the books. Although Ewing was not the first to produce silk screens for books, he was the first in the Southwest, and it was an original innovation for him. In 1939, Kenneth Chapman, curator of the Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe, collaborated with Russell Vernon Hunter in a WPA project in which Ewing made silkscreen prints from his original paintings of fifteen Navajo blankets. The fifteen silk screens were each printed 200 times, and the resulting portfolios were distributed to libraries, universities, and museums. He joined the WPA's Federal Art Project, where he worked under Russell Vernon Hunter. In the late 1930s, the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the Federal Art Project sent Russell a group of materials on the silk screening process with encouragement to spread the technique in the Southwest. Russell selected Louie Ewing to master the technique and show it to others. Ewing headed the WPA printmaking workshop in Santa Fe. Ewing had set up a silk screening shop and was producing prints. Silk screening became a significant artistic expression in the Southwest. Some view Louie Ewing as one of the first artists in the United States to "work creatively with serigraphy" on posters and book illustrations. He also did many landscape paintings of New Mexico.

• artist: Louie H. Ewing (American, 1908-1983)
• hallmarks: Louis Ewing (signed in pencil)
• vintage condition
• evidence of age
• signed in pencil by artist
• style: Art-1189