MARVIN CHERNEY American, 1925 - 1967 Nude Mixed media (oil) on paper. Pencil signed at base (and dedicated to the art critic Bennett Schiff). Framed. Not examined out of frame. Artwork (excluding frame): 20.5 x 14.5 inches $120-150
ARTIST PROFILE: Marvin Cherney (1925–1967) was a distinctive American figurative painter and portraitist whose work is often associated with the school of "Mystic Realism." Born in Baltimore and educated at the Maryland Institute of Art and the School for Art Studies in New York, Cherney dedicated his brief but prolific career to capturing the quiet, somber dignity of the human condition. His paintings and charcoal drawings are characterized by a muted palette of greys and earth tones, often depicting isolated figures, rabbis, and laborers with a psychological depth that emphasizes their inner life and spiritual solitude. Despite his promising trajectory and recognition with two Tiffany Awards and a Brooklyn Museum Prize, his life was cut tragically short at the age of 41. Today, Cherney’s soulful, unsettling works are held in prestigious permanent collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Philadelphia Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
