Florence Kathryn Kawa Sold at Auction Prices

Florence Kawa (American/Florida, 1912-2008)

Florence Kawa (American/Florida, 1912-2008), "French Quarter, New Orleans", oil on canvas, signed lower right, pencil-titled, inscribed and "Nebraska Art Association's 62nd Annual Exhibition, University of Nebraska Art Galleries, Lincoln, Nebraska" label on stretcher, 24 in. x 30 in., framed. Note: Florence Kawa began her career in the 1930s by producing “The Workers,” a wall hanging that showcased a repetitive design of men and women turning cogs bordered by geometric industrial buildings. She created this work for the Milwaukee Handicraft Project, which was later presented to Eleanor Roosevelt as an example of the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project. In the 1940s and 1950s, Kawa developed a style influenced by Cubism and Surrealism that can be seen in the work offered here. She painted this French Quarter cityscape while teaching at Florida State University, and it was chosen for exhibition at the Nebraska Art Association’s 62nd Annual Exhibition in 1952. Though her style of painting differs from her earlier work with the WPA, Kawa retained a highly stylized repetitive motif that can be seen in the balconies, chimneys and shutters on the florid architecture of the French Quarter.