KATHERINE SHUBERT-KUNIYOSHI SCHMIDT Brioche and Petit Pain.
Oil on canvas, circa 1959. 455x595 mm; 23 1/2x17 3/4 inches. Signed in oil and titled in pencil on the stretcher, verso.
Ex-collection Daniel Gallery, New York; Zabriskie Gallery, New York, with the labels on the frame back.
Schmidt (1898-1978) began her training at the Art Students League in New York, where she met her husband Yasuo Kuniyoshi (1889-1953, see lot 157). Throughout the 1920s, she received critical priase for her still lifes, landscapes and portrayals of the homeless. She became dissatisfied with her work from around 1939 until 1960, when a crumpled paper towel on a table inspired her to explore the motif of dead leaves and discarded paper, the style of which approached "magical realism." She is known for her impeccable technique and her elevation of everyday, overlooked subjects.
