?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
JAROSLAV H. "JARA" VALENTA (1899 - 1970)
Correspondence, exhibition programs, and membership cards of a W.P.A. artist. Jara Valenta was a Czech emigrant to the United States, settling in Oregon as a young man before coming to New York in 1931; he later worked in Los Angeles. His best known painting was "East River," which was exhibited alongside Grant Wood in a 1934 Corcoran Gallery W.P.A. exhibition, and is now in the Smithsonian collection. 45 items, sleeved in a ring binder, a few smaller items mounted on album leaves; various sizes, minor to moderate wear, some annotated in ink. Various places, 1929-1946.
Exhibition catalogues in this lot include "New York City WPA Art Project: One Hundred Watercolors," 27 June 1940; "4th Annual Membership Exhibition, American Artists Congress," New York, 6 April 1940; "Paintings by Brooklyn Artists, Brooklyn Museum," 6 April 1940; "Four Unit Exhibition, Paintings , Prints, Sculpture, Murals, Federal Art Project," New York, 21 October [1938] (one listed in OCLC); "First Annual Membership Exhibition, American Artists' Congress," New York, 16 April 1937; "Second Annual Membership Exhibition, American Artists Congress," New York, 5 May 1937; "Contemporary Arts: The Harvest," New York, 28 September [1938]; "The Sixteenth Annual Exhibition of Painters and Sculptors," Los Angeles, 25 April 1935; "August-September, the Twelfth First of the Month Exhibition at the Jumble Shop Restaurant," New York, [1934]; "An October Showing of Paintings by jaroslav Valenta," Jumble Shop Restaurant, New York, October [1933?]; "National Exhibition of Art by the Public Works of Art Project," Corcoran Gallery, Washington, 24 April 1934 (featuring his "East River" listed on page 17); "The Third Annual Exhibition of the Society of Oregon Artists," [Portland, OR], 21 October 1929; "The Fourth Annual Exhibition of the Society of Oregon Artists," [Portland, OR], 20 October 1930; "November 1932 Exhibition, the Jumble Shops," New York; "Catalogue of an Exhibition of Work by Former Students of the School of the Portland Art Association," 2 April 1930; "Contemporary Arts, $5.00 to $50.00 Budget Exhibition," New York, 30 November 1936; "Exhibition, Paintings and Water Colors, Federal Art Gallery," New York, 14 February 1939; "Exhibition of Oil Paintings, W.P.A. Federal Art Project," [New York], 23 February [1939?] (one listed in OCLC); "Artists of Los Angeles and Vicinity, 3rd Annual Exhibition," 14 March 1942"; "Artists of Los Angeles and Vicinity, 8th Annual Exhibition," 15 May 1947" (plus another example with incorrect date of 1946). 2 other exhibition invitations and postcards are included.
Valenta's W.P.A. employee identification card and two W.P.A. employee rating certificates (1940) are included. His membership cards include 4 from the American Artists' Congress (one signed by artist Stuart Davis as president), 1936-1938 and undated; 2 from the American Artists Professional League, 1945-1946; and a membership card / dues book from the Artists Union from 1935.
5 letters and other documents include a signed letter from Treasury Department official Edward Bruce welcoming Valenta to the Public Works of Art Project, 8 January 1934; a letter forwarding Valenta the Corcoran Gallery catalogue, 12 May 1934; authorization certificate for Valenta to pain historic structures at Fort Hamilton, NY for the W.P.A., 25 July 1939; his membership letter in the College Art Association of America, 27 February 1942; and his certificate of voluntary termination as an illustrator for the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, 12 September 1945. A typescript exhibition list of his works through 1986 is also included.
