Berta R. Golahny (1925 - 2005)
Painter, printmaker, and educator Berta Golahny was born Bertha Rosenbaum to immigrant Jewish parents in Detroit, Michigan. Immersed in the Progressive social consciousness of her parents and their circle, she was actively encouraged to develop her manifest artistic talents beginning at the rigorous Cass Technical High School in Detroit, where she won a National Merit Scholarship that funded studies at the Art Students League in New York in 1943 and 1944. There she advanced her studies across a broad range of disciplines, including painting with George Grosz and screen printing with Harry Sternberg.
Golahny then attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1944 to 1947, earning her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. It was there that she met Argentinian etcher Mauricio Lasansky, then an associate professor of art at the State University of Iowa, who pioneered the rebirth of classical intaglio techniques as a vehicle for artistic expression in the twentieth century Americas. Golahny enrolled at the University of Iowa, where she divided her studies between painting and printmaking, receiving her MFA in 1950 and winning the Ben Shahn Award, juried by Shahn himself.
In 1950, Berta Rosenbaum married Yehuda Golahny; they moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts and ultimately settled in nearby Newton. In the late 1950s, Golahny began teaching art at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, and continued there for forty-two years. Throughout her mature years, she continued to create paintings and prints that explored her profound anxieties about the state of mankind and the perils of the nuclear age. Her works are those of a clear-minded, unsentimental observer of the human condition, resigned to the moral frailties of mankind while remaining cautiously hopeful for its betterment. During her long career, she received many awards for her paintings and prints, and exhibited her works widely. Berta Golahny died at Newton, Massachusetts.
Brier Hill Gallery is the exclusive dealer for the print work of Berta R. Golahny.
Please Note: All prints are ex-estate of Berta R. Golahny. Unless otherwise stated, impressions were printed by the artist in her studio.
Self Portrait
Woodcut, 1950; edition not stated, but probably 5 or fewer. Image size 11¾" x 14-3/8"; sheet size 14" x 18½". Signed by the artist in pencil in the lower margin. Very good overall condition. While her woodcuts were typically executed on a more finely grained and smoother block, the young artist boldly cut this early Detroit self-portrait on a coarsely-grained plank in order to exploit its arresting texture and to enhance the visual complexity of the image.
SOLD
My Father
Woodcut, 1953; edition not stated, but likely no more than five impressions were made. Image size 8-7/8" x 11½"; sheet size 12-5/8" x 16½". Titled and signed in pencil by the artist in the lower margin. Printed on brown paper. The photograph has been lightened to better show the detail. A very good impression in overall good condition.
$500
Portrait of the Artist #2
Woodcut, ca. 1957; edition of 20. In all likelihood, about ten impressions were made. Image size 19½" x 24-3/4"; sheet size 24½" x 34½". A well-inked impression in fine condition; exhibited at the Ainsworth Gallery, Boston and at the Boston Arts Festival.
$800
Portrait of the Artist
Woodcut printed in dark brown ink, 1962; edition of 10. Image size 15¼" x 23-7/8"; sheet size 25" x 37". Titled, numbered 3/10, and signed by the artist in the lower margin. A beautifully inked impression in fine condition. Exhibited at both the Ainsworth and Charles River Galleries, Boston.
$1,500
Thoughts on Man #3
Color woodcut, 1962; edition not stated. Image size 17¼" x 21-1/8"; sheet size 23" x 29-5/8". Artist's proof, titled and signed in pencil in the lower margin.Exhibited in the traveling exhibition of The Boston Printmakers. A vibrant impression in fine condition.
$750
Man Triumphant
Woodcut, 1962; edition of 25. Image size 33¼" x 21-7/8"; sheet size 34" x 24½". A crisp impression titled and signed by the artist in pencil in the lower margin. Margins are very tight but likely to have been printed as such. Exhibited by The Boston Printmakers and at Ainsworth Gallery, Boston.
$1,200
Night Shineth as the Day
Wood engraving, ca. 1970; edition of 50. Image size 9" x 11¾"; sheet size 14-5/8" x 20¾. Printed in dark blue ink by David Godine, Newton, Massachusetts. Titled, numbered 33/50, and signed in pencil by the artist in the lower margin. Widely exhibited; winner of the Cambridge (MA) Art Association Prize. Fine.
$500
Joy Cometh in the Morning
Wood engraving, ca. 1970; edition of 50. Image size 9" x 12"; sheet size 14-5/8" x 20¾". Printed by David Godine, Newton, Massachusetts. Titled, numbered 33/50, and signed by the artist in the lower margin. Widely exhibited. Fine.
$500
Genesis - Day 5
Wood engraving, 1975; artist's proof - edition not stated. Image size 9" x 11½"; sheet size 12-1/8" x 19½". Titled, annotated, and signed in pencil by the artist in the lower margin. In the collection of the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University. Fine
$500
The Tyger
Wood engraving, 1967; edition not stated - very few prints were made. Image size 5-7/8" x 4-7/8"; sheet size 14" x 18½". Printed by the Penmaen Press, Boston. Titled and signed in pencil by the artist in the lower margin. Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Fine.
$250
Factory Entrance
Etching and aquatint, 1948; artist's proof - edition not stated. Image size 10-7/8" x 8-3/8"; sheet size 17" x 11-7/8". Titled, annotated, and signed in pencil by the artist in the lower margin. This is the only print of this early work known to exist. Very good overall condition.
$750
The Nun
Color etching, 1950; of the prospective edition of 15, only eight prints are known. Image size 10-7/8" x 17-7/8"; sheet size 22¼" x 30". Titled, annotated, and signed in pencil by the artist in the lower margin. Widely exhibited; in the collection of the Free Library of Philadelphia. Fine.
SOLD
Self-portrait with Parents
Color etching, 1949; unique proof in green and black. Image size 13¼" x 15-3/16"; sheet size 22" x 30". Titled, annotated, and signed by the artist in the lower margin. Fine.
$1,200
$1,350 in archival mount and matte black wooden gallery frame.
The Family
Etching and soft ground, ca. 1955; edition unknown. Image size 7-7/8" x 9-7/8"; sheet size 12-7/8" x 18-1/8". Titled, annotated, and signed by the artist in the lower margin. The subjects are Berta and Yehuda Golahny and their daughter Amy. Fine.
$500
Man
Color etching, 1967; edition of 20, but no more than three known to have been printed. Image size 6-3/4" x 10"; sheet size 10-3/8" x 13-7/8". Titled, numbered, and signed in pencil by the artist in the lower margin. Fine.
$500
Auschwitz
Etching and soft ground, ca. 1960; edition of 35. Image size 17-5/8" x 23-3/8"; sheet size 22-1/8" x 29-3/4". Printed by Lockwood Studios, Boston. Titled, numbered 21/35, and signed in pencil by the artist in the lower margin. Printer's blind stamps lower left margin. Widely exhibited. The plate may have remained at the printer's office and has never been found. Fine.
$1,800
Landscape of Man
Etching and soft ground, 1968; edition of 20; image size 17-3/4" x 27"; sheet size 22-7/8" x 33¼". Titled, numbered 9/24, annotated State XX, and signed in pencil by the artist in the lower margin. The image is comprised of two separate plates. A most powerful survey of the human condition, exhibited at the Boston Printmakers exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Fine.
$1,800
The Woman
Etching and soft ground in sepia ink, 1968; Artist's proof - edition not stated, but only two prints known. Image size 17¾" x 23-7/8"; sheet size 22½" x 30". Titled, annotated, and signed in pencil by the artist in the lower margin. Fine.
$1,200
Why Violence?
Monoprint color etching, ca. 1970. Image size 17¾" x 12-1/8"; sheet size 23-7/8" x 20-3/8". Titled and signed in pencil by the artist in the lower margin. fine
$750
Yad Vashem
Etching with soft ground, ca. 1968; Artist's proof - edition not stated; image size 11-3/4" x 35-5/8"; sheet size 23¼" x 41-5/8". The image is comprised of three separate plates. Exhibited by Ainsworth Gallery, Boston; Ohio State University; and Boston Printmakers. Fine.
$2,100
Landscape of Man in the Nuclear Age
Etching, 1983; edition of 24. Image size 17¾" x 27"; sheet size 22-7/8" x 33¼". Titled, numbered 9/24, and signed by the artist in the lower margin. the artist re-worked this plate many times; this is its twentieth and final state. Exhibited at Langdell Gallery, Harvard Law School; Boston Visual Arts Union; University Place Gallery, Cambridge.. Collection of the Fogg Museum, Harvard University. Fine.
$1,500
Soliloquy
Monoprint etching in purple tones, ca. 1975. Image size 11-7/8" x 17-11/16"; sheet size 20" x 25-1/8". Titled and signed in pencil by the artist in the lower margin. Fine.
$900