August Mosca

August Mosca Artist Statement for AD2021

View artworks by August Mosca here.

This is a new artist listing for us: a modernist painter August Mosca. For the first time From Russia With Art Gallery is proud to feature this talented modernist painter at the upcoming shows:

Capital Art Fair, Washington DC, March 25-26th ( Holiday Inn Rosslyn, Booth #20)

10 th Annual AD20/21 & Boston Print Fair at Cyclorama, April 6-9th, 2017 (Booth # 13S.)

               American Modernist August Mosca (1909-2002): Original works on paper

          August Mosca is an important American modernist who was born in Italy in 1909 and moved with his family to the United States as a child.

The original works on paper form a small portion of a lifework by a modernist August Mosca. He worked in many media (oil, pastel, ink, crayon, water color, silver point and gold point) and was especially noticed for his felicity and ease of line, vibrant palette, innovation and variety of study. Mosca was said (notably) to have reintroduced silver and gold point into the U.S. His several areas of focus included landscape, portrait (including several stunning self-portraits); and notably, topical urban features reflecting his close friendship and association with Joseph Stella, in New York City, and the circle of New York City Modernists.


Mosca’s works can be found in the collections of the Library of Congress, the Grey Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Butler Institute of American Art, Library of Congress, U.S. State Department, New York Public Library, Roy Neuberger Museum, and the Shelter Island Historical Society.

Further, he added to these the study of the female human form; perhaps over 2,000 studies of the female, especially in an extraordinary variety of pose. Each, is marked by an originality of design and his notably direct yet non-obtrusive gaze. The study of the non-verbalized action of the body (body language) seemed to be respondent to a kind of unspoken invitation – that he attempts such translation to paper.

This presentation is part of an ongoing project to re-introduce August Mosca to the general fine art audience of today as an artist of much merit, nearly forgotten and whose work had been admired by other artists in his own day. In 2017 in cooperation with From Russia With Art Gallery in Cambridge, MA original drawings, paintings and pastels on paper by the artist will be shown for the first time at the Capital Art Fair in Washington DC (http://www.capitalartprintfair.com/from-russia-with-art,) from March 26-27th, and at the AD20/21 Art & Design of 20&21st Centuries & Boston Print Fair at Cyclorama (http://www.ad2021.com/exhibitors,) from April 6-9th.

As such, it is an effort at custodianship, as much as possible, in hopes that this portion of the lifework that is, these works on paper, can find a suitable, long-term institutional conservancy. It is our hope, ideally to place these works as an archive for the appreciation of August Mosca talents in respect of his own time, and also for students and artists of today.       By Nicholas Herman and Jerry Koenig, in   association with From Russia With Art Gallery.