Mirage - Venice

Paula Canale Wolfson

"Mirage - Venice" is a relief print, an abstract color woodcut by Italian-born American printmaker Paula Canale Wolfson (1908-2002), done around 1955. The image measures 18-1/2 x 13-3/8 inches. This impression is pencil signed, titled, and editioned "artist's proof" by the artist in the lower margin and was hand printed by the artist on a thin ivory wove Japanese paper that measures 19-3/4 x 14-3/4 inches. Our inventory number for this AbEx color woodcut is 18095.

This scarce color AbEx woodcut by Italian-born American printmaker Paula Canale Wolfson (1902-2002) is available for sale and can be purchased by clicking on the image or the highlighted links.

Contact the gallery with any condition or other questions. Shipping costs will be discussed. California residents will have sales tax added. Out-of-state residents may be responsible for use tax, depending on state law.

Check out our virtual booth at the Satellite Print Fair's on-line exhibition: https://onpaper.art/the-annex-galleries and our on-going website exhibition: 'Women Artists: Known and Once Known.'

Using warm, neutral tones and heavy shapes with soft edges, Paula Canale Wolfson captures a vision of a bridge over a Venetian canal, its form appearing to float weightlessly as the water flows beneath it. Little is known about Wolfson early years, she was born in Italy and immigrated to the U.S., but this composition suggests an artist who has had training in the arts and has a keen understanding of color and form, yet is uninterested in sticking to a representational narrative, preferring instead to explore dreamscapes whose elements retain an intriguing familiarity.

Painter, printmaker and sculptor, Paula Canale Wolfson, neé Paola Canale, was born in Milan, Italy on 13 May 1908. Nothing is known about her early life in Italy, other than she studied at the Brera Academy in Milan. She married Maximilien John Oscar Wolfson (Wolffsohn) on 2 May 1932 in Genova, Italy and they applied for U.S. citizenship on 23 October 1939. According to the 1940 US census, they were living in Houston, Texas.

At some point Wolfson moved to the Washington, D.C. area where she studied at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design with painter and printmaker Eugene Weisz and sculptor Heinz Warneke. She later taught at the Corcoran School. Wolfson eventually moved to Pelham, New York where she was a member of the Pelham Art Center. Her work was included in their 50th Anniversary Exhibition in 2020. Her work is represented in the Pratt Institute Library Archive, Brooklyn, New York. According to an article in the Scarsdale Inquirer, the Scarsdale Woman's Club Italian Group was to present Paula Canale Wolfson demonstrating how to print a woodcut on Tuesday, February 23, 1971. This article also mentions that Wolfson exhibited in many cities in the United States, Peru and Italy and that she had many solo exhibitions in New York and abroad. It also informs us that the artist worked for the Lykes Brothers Steamship Company and decorated six ships with her graphics and paintings.

Paula Canale Wolfson died in Pelham, New York on 31 March 2002.