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Monreale, aka Mon Reale, Sicily by Max Pollak

Monreale, aka Mon Reale, Sicily by Max Pollak

Monreale, aka Mon Reale, Sicily

Max Pollak

Title

Monreale, aka Mon Reale, Sicily

 
Artist

Max Pollak

  1886 - 1970 (biography)
Year
c. 1932  
Technique
color softground and etching 
Image Size
12 7/8 x 13 3/8" platemark 
Signature
pencil, lower right 
Edition Size
23 of 150  
Annotations
pencil titled, in lower left; also in lower left corner of the paper inscribed "printed a 8"; bears the red FPC collector's stamp in the lower left; from the collection of Friedl Pollak 
Reference
No. 68 on the checklist of titles included in Pollak's exhibition at the University of California, April 3 - May 15, 1949 
Paper
ivory simile vellum 
State
published 
Publisher
artist 
Inventory ID
22551 
Price
SOLD
Description

Max Pollak was born in Czechoslovakia and raised in Vienna, Austria. A printmaker with a long and productive career, his intaglio subjects included genre, land and cityscapes, and portraits from throughout Europe, the Holy Land, the United States, and Latin America.

Monreale is a hill town just outside of Palermo in Sicily in southern Italy, and is famous for mosaics in the Norman cathedral built between 1170 and 1189. Pollak was not interested in replicating the town in etching. This image is so successful because of the gestural strokes of color rendered in softground. It appears as if he was motivated by the pulse and vibrancy of this hill town where colorful buildings appear to be stacked atop others as they ascend the hillside.