Portraits are a key category of the Pantages Portfolio. And there's no denying that Jim Pantages had a keen eye for this distinctive and often highly personal genre of art. Judy recently came across two marvelous portraits by painter Joseph Solman (1909-2008). The first, pictured above, is of a beautiful young girl who is looking intently at something - the artist, perhaps? Everything about this work is lovely and feminine, with the color pink a unifying element from top to bottom.
And here we have another Solman portrait, this one of a woman dressed entirely in black. It's interesting that her facial expression and appearance are that of an older lady, yet her hair is brown, not grey. Solman was very well known for his "Subway Gouaches," and this is one of them. These were portraits of real people he saw riding on the New York City subway system. Solman, who was born in Russia but came to the United States in 1912, was a founder of "The Ten," a group of NYC expressionist painters in the 1930's. The New York Times, in a 1964 article about Solman's subway-inspired works, referred to him as a "Pari-Mutuel Picasso."
