Waldo Glover Kaufer (1906 - 1972)

Below the Polar Star, c. mid to late 1930s, oil on canvas, identified by label verso, titled and location (Rhode Island) annotated verso, 12 x 16 inches, presented in its original frame

$4000

Below the Polar Star is a prime example of American Surrealism during the interwar period and is typical of Waldo Kaufer's work from that time. It evinces what one critic called Kaufer's "exquisite draftsmanship and perfection of texture." The canvas combines an odd assortment of identifiable objects which appear to represent a make-shift scientific array sitting in a carefully constructed faux landscape created from folded cloth. The Polar Star is a fixed point in the sky which represents constancy and can be used as a navigational aid or as part of celestial observation. The precarious arrangement of the manmade objects seems to contrast sharply with the permanence of the Polar Star which sits invisibly above the composition.

Waldo Grover Kaufer was a well-regarded American Surrealist painter and printmaker who worked principally in Rhode Island and New York. He trained at the Rhode Island School of Design and studied with J. R. Frazier, Charles Hawthorne, and Stuart Davis. Kaufer was a member of the Providence Art Club, which hosted a solo exhibition in 1936, and a participant in the Public Works Projects during the Great Depression. Kaufer exhibited at the the seminal Museum of Modern Art exhibition, Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism, as well as at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Salons of America, Newport Art Association, Springfield Museum of Fine Arts, and Worcester Art Museum, among many others. He was selected to represent Rhode Island at the National Exhibition of American Art in New York in 1936 and 1937, where his work was noted to be among the most interesting entries from New England. One of his paintings, Tentative Preface to Extinction, traveled the country between 1937 and 1939 as part of a Federal Art Project exhibition featuring Surrealism. Two other Kaufer paintings were included in a FAP exhibition of New England artists. He was included in a four artist exhibition in Boston's Federal Art Project Gallery, together with Yvonne Twining, Albert Gold, and Francis Colburn. Kaufer served on Rhode Island's selection jury for the 1939 New York World's Fair and his self portrait was selected for the American Art Today exhibition. He served in the US Army during World War II and painted a well publicized mural at the Fort Wood ERTC Recreation Hall. After the war, Kaufer was a founding member of the Rhode Island Contemporary Artists. His work is in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is listed in Who Was Who in American Art and other standard references.