Lot 3117
Herman Maril (1908-1986), Suburban Development
Lot Details & Additional Photographs
Stretcher size 24 x 40 1/4 in.; Frame dimensions 24 1/2 x 40 3/4 in.
From the Private Collection of the late Ola Maie Foushee, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Ola Maie Foushee (1905–1999) was a North Carolina artist, writer, and arts advocate born in the mill village of Avalon in Rockingham County. Showing artistic talent from an early age, she studied art at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Greensboro and later taught privately while exhibiting her largely abstract paintings throughout the Southeast. She was a charter member of the Associated Artists of North Carolina and active in several regional arts organizations, while also becoming known for her lectures and her long-running newspaper column, “Art in North Carolina,” published during the 1950s and 1960s.
In addition to her work as a painter, Foushee was an influential author and historian of North Carolina art. Her book Art in North Carolina: Episodes and Developments (1970) was long considered a foundational text on the subject. She also published works on regional history and biography, including studies of Avalon and North Carolina arts patron Katherine Pendleton Arrington. Foushee spent much of her adult life in Chapel Hill and Durham, where she remained active in the arts community until her death in 1999.
The Athena Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
Herman Maril was a Baltimore-born artist who received early training at the Maryland Institute of Fine Arts. He worked during the Depression years on federal projects and during his military service. After the war, he began his career as a teacher and painter at the University of Maryland. His paintings emphasize simplicity and are created with broad, flat, color masses in a style related to Cubism. He exhibited widely in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and New York, receiving numerous prizes and awards.
During his career in Washington, D. C., Maril was particularly loyal to one of his dealers, Franz Bader of Franz Bader Gallery, where he exhibited frequently for over 40 years. Bader would visit the Marils in Provincetown each summer to see the artist's latest work, maintaining a close relationship with the artist and his family.
Today, Maril's works are in the collections of the Baltimore Museum, Bronk Collection at Adirondack College, Butler Institute of American Art, Cape Museum of Fine Arts, Cleveland Museum, and Corcoran Gallery. Maril pieces can also be found at the Hyde Collection, the Phillips Collection, the National Academy of Design, the Provincetown Art Association, Smithsonian's National Museum of American Art, the San Francisco Museum, the Whitney Museum, the Walters Art Museum, Wichita Art Museum, Worcester Art Museum, and numerous others.
Good estate condition, minor craquelure.
