printing quality and options: all prints are produced on epson 9880 giclée printers using archival inks guaranteed to last up to 75 years. our printers create museum quality prints at a printing resolution of 1440 x 720 dpi. during checkout customers are able to select from a variety of premium papers and canvas.
shop with confidence: our return policy is very simple: if you're not happy with a purchase that you made on fine art america, for any reason, you can return it to us within 30 days of the order date. as soon as it arrives, we'll issue a full refund for the entire purchase price, including the outgoing shipping charge.
delivery: all orders ship with 2 - 3 business days from our production facility that is closest to you.
fine art america has the largest print-on-demand fulfillment network in the world. we have 16 manufacturing centers located in 5 countries. each manufacturing center can ship products to any destination in the world. when you place an order, we'll automatically route your order to the nearest manufacturing center in order to minimize shipping costs and speed up delivery times.
canvas prints from original paintings
prints from original paintings and photography
prints on canvas, metal, acrylic, archival paper, wood, framed ect.
born 1955 | aachen | germany
autodidact, painting
private collections:
canada | usa | germany | china
corporate collections:
ceasars palace, las vegas, usa | westin toronto, canada | westin san diego, california | newport beach, california | senior visionary services inc, danville, california | pacific union real estate, san francisco, california | sunset magazine casa verde project, san francisco, california | triton mortgage, san francisco, california | shanghai, china
representation:
swenson fine art, international contemporary art consulting, swensonfineart.com | art matters, corporate art consulting 6112 oberlin ave glen echo, maryland, usa | eaton fine art, corporate art consulting, 900 w. north loop blvd. austin, texas | kcc modern living, 805 university ave, berkeley, california | dac art consulting, atlanta, georgia
selected solo exhibitions:
2007 dezart one gallery, palm springs california | 2003 artbeat gallery, berkeley california
selected group exhibitions:
2012 "summer tribute" sopa fine arts, kelowna british columbia canada | 2011 swenson fine art, laguna beach, california | 2008 dezart one gallery, palm springs, california | 2007 "new discoveries" butters gallery, portland, oregon | 2006 "selected work" union square gallery, san francisco, california
2008 artwork featured in motion picture "adopt a sailor"
"see the beauty in the pure abstraction of paintings by el cerrito artist harry gruenert" martha ross, diablo magazine, walnut creek, california 2006
harry gruenert's passion for surface and color appeals to many enthusiasts of contemporary art. his large and challenging paintings convey his rich sense of the mystery of abstract art and the importance of texture, authenticity and concreteness. his arresting work is gaining attention from both collectors and art connoisseurs.
harry gruenert came to painting in mid-life, he was born in germany and came to the us in 1983. gruenert paints primarily on wood panels, which he builds himself. age and authenticity is central to gruenert's artistic conception. the surface of many of his paintings seem supernaturally old, the result of a process of painting that draws on his patience and persistence.
"harry gruenert's paintings are both delicate and intelligent, in striking this balance between mind and matter, gruenert recalls rothkos grand artistic search" downs, the proprietor of the dezart one art gallery in palm springs, california.
"harry's abstract work on panel conveys a vigorous physicality of movement and space under a surface worked to a smooth sophistication" meredith pelino, owner of artscape gallery in walnut creek, california.
current representation: berkeley, california | atlanta, ga | glen echo, maryland | austin, texas .
art that does not depict recognizable scenes or objects, but instead is made up of forms and colours that exist for their own expressive sake. much decorative art can thus be described as abstract, but in normal usage the term refers to modern painting and sculpture that abandon the traditional european conception of art as the imitation of nature. abstract art in this sense was born and achieved its distinctive identity in the decade 1910–20 and is now regarded as the most characteristic form of 20th century art. it has developed into many different movements and ‘isms’, but two or three basic tendencies are recognizable.
in cubism and abstract art (1936), alfred h. barr, ‘at the risk of grave oversimplification’, divided abstraction into two main currents: the first (represented by malevich) he described as ‘intellectual, structural, architectonic, geometrical, rectilinear and classical in its austerity and dependence upon logic and calculation’; the second (exemplified by kandinsky) he described as ‘intuitional and emotional rather than intellectual; organic or biomorphic rather than geometrical in its forms; curvilinear rather than rectilinear, decorative rather than structural, and romantic rather than classical in its exaltation of the mystical, the spontaneous and the irrational’. looking at the subject in a slightly different way (and from a later viewpoint than barr's), it is possible to see three main strands in abstract art:
1. the reduction of natural appearances to radically simplified forms, exemplified in the sculpture of brancusi (one meaning of the verb ‘abstract’ is to summarize or concentrate); 2. the construction of works of art from non-representational basic forms (often simple geometric shapes), as in ben nicholson's reliefs; 3. spontaneous, ‘free’ expression, as in the action painting of jackson pollock. many exponents of such art dislike the word ‘abstract’ (arp, for example, hated it, insisting on the word ‘concrete’), but the alternatives they prefer, although perhaps more precise, are usually cumbersome, notably non-figurative, non-representational, and non-objective.
the basic aesthetic premiss of abstract art—that formal qualities can be thought of as existing independently of subject matter—existed long before the 20th century. ultimately the idea can be traced back to plato, who in his dialogue philebus (c.350 bc) puts the following words into socrates' mouth: ‘i do not mean by beauty of form such beauty as that of animals and pictures…but understand me to mean straight lines and circles, and the plane or solid figures which are formed out of them by turning-lathes and rulers and measures of angles; for these i affirm to be not only relatively beautiful, like other things, but eternally and absolutely beautiful.’ more explicitly, in his tenth discourse (1780) to the students of the royal academy, sir joshua reynolds advised that ‘we are sure from experience that the beauty of form alone, without the assistance of any other quality, makes of itself a great work, and justly claims our esteem and admiration’; and in discussing the belvedere torso he referred to ‘the perfection of this science of abstract form’. several notable critics followed this line in the 19th century.
in 1846, for example, charles baudelaire wrote that ‘painting is interesting only in virtue of line and colour’; in 1890 in a much quoted remark maurice denis said: ‘remember that a picture—before being a war horse or a nude woman or an anecdote is essentially a flat surface covered with colours assembled in a certain order’; and in 1896 george santayana, after noting that colour may produce unpleasant as well as pleasant effects, ‘almost like a musical discord’, proposed that ‘a more general development of this sensibility would make possible a new abstract art, an art that should deal with colours as music does with sound’ (the analogy with music was often pursued; whistler, for example, sometimes gave his paintings pseudo musical titles, as later did kandinsky, kupka, and other artists, including the lithuanian composer painter m. k. Čiurlionis (1875–1911)). many of the leading painters of the 1890s notably the symbolists stressed the expressive properties of colour, line, and shape rather than their representative function, and this process was taken further by the major avant garde movements of the first decade of the 20th century especially cubism, expressionism, and fauvism.
by 1910, then, the time was ripe for abstract art, and it developed more or less simultaneously in various countries. kandinsky is often cited as the first person to paint an abstract picture, but no artist can in fact be singled out for the distinction. (a work by kandinsky known as ‘first abstract watercolour’ (pompidou centre, paris) is signed and dated 1910, but some scholars believe that it is later and was inscribed by kandinsky several years after its execution. this kind of problem arises not only with kandinsky: several early abstract artists were keen to stress the primacy of their ideas and were not above backdating works.) among the other artists who produced abstract paintings at about the same early date as kandinsky were the american arthur dove and the swiss augusto giacometti, cousin of alberto giacometti.
the individual pioneers were soon followed by abstract groups and movements among the first were orphism and synchromism in france. there was a particularly rich crop in russia, with constructivism, rayonism, and suprematism all launched by 1915. with some artists, abstraction represented merely a brief phase in their careers (among them the british artists vanessa bell, duncan grant, and wyndham lewis), but with others it was a vocation or even a mission. the almost religious fervour with which some of the russian artists pursued their ideals was matched by the members of the de stijl group in holland, founded in 1917. to such artists, abstraction was not simply a matter of style, but a question of finding a visual idiom capable of expressing their most deeply felt ideas. mondrian, for example, believed that his art of clarity and balance would lead to a society in which life would be governed by a universal visual harmony.
in the period between the two world wars, the severely geometrical style of de stijl and the technologically orientated constructivism were the most influential currents in abstraction (they came together in the bauhaus). paris was the main centre of abstract art at this time, partly because it attracted so many refugee artists from germany and russia, where abstract art was banned in the 1930s under hitler and stalin. there was also a strong abstract element in surrealism, which was born in paris. the first exhibition devoted solely to abstract art was held there by the cercle et carré group in 1930, and its successor, the abstraction-création association, founded in 1931, brought together a large number of abstract artists of various types and provided a focus for their activities. however, in general figurative art was dominant in the inter-war period and abstract art won little public acceptance. it was very much a minority taste in britain and the usa, for example, in spite of such outstanding individual contributions as the sculptures of hepworth and calder and the efforts of groups such as unit one (founded in 1933) and american abstract artists (founded in 1936).
the second heroic period of abstract art came after the second world war, when the enormous success of abstract expressionism in the usa and its european equivalent art informel made abstraction for a time virtually the dominant orthodoxy in western art. abstract art no longer seemed to need philosophical justification of the kind given by kandinsky and mondrian (although several of the abstract expressionists were equally high-minded in approach); however, abstraction was sometimes invested with a moral dimension as an embodiment of western freedom of thought, as opposed to the totalitarianism that had banned avant garde art in nazi germany and soviet russia (see degenerate art and socialist realism). in this respect it is significant that many of the abstract expressionists were influenced by european surrealists who had fled to new york during the second world war to escape the fear of such repression. thus, in the usa particularly, support for abstract art could be regarded almost as a form of patriotism. abstract expressionism represented a great watershed in art and many later developments were either evolutions from it or reactions against it. these included a revival of figuration, in the form particularly of pop art, but also new styles of abstraction, including post painterly abstraction, op art, and minimal art, all of which flourished in the 1960s.
i recently purchased two pieces of work by harry gruenert for my home in palm springs, ca. and i can honestly say that i believe that he is one of the most promising and up- and-coming abstract artists in california.the breadth and depth of his work is amazing and the textual, tonal and very painterly qualities he employs are quite something to observe. the multiple overlay of colors and very deliberate brush stroke clearly identifes his work. he is clearly influenced by rothko and other abstractionists of the mid to late 20th century.
06/26/2007 bruce purdy
“see the beauty in the pure abstraction of paintings by el cerrito artist harry gruenert”
martha ross, diablo magazine,2006
harry gruenert's paintings are both delicate and thought provoking. in this balance he has found the clearest expression from one translucent plane to another. this recalls rothko's search for a sense of status in painting which gruenert has accomplished.
downs dezart one gallery palm springs, ca
"harry's abstract work on panel conveys a vigorous physicality of movement and space under a surface worked to a smooth sophistication".
merridith pelino, owner artscape gallery, walnut creek, ca
harry gruenert’s paintings echo crumbling plaster, multiple layers suggest years of seasoning; yet this refined approach combined with subtle coloring, and large scale paneling, give harry’s work a more modern, minimalist appearance.
sopa fine arts gallery, bc canada
i agree so deeply with what was written, i love your work more than any living artist in your genre that i have seen, and feel you have an amazing and unique sensibility and talent, and an expansive future in terms of growing appreciation and recognition. and, i suspect that like most serious artists, what is most meaningful to you is your own work, not how it is received. the appreciation is good to hear, though. thank you again. i hope i am on the mailing list for your upcoming shows. i'd love to meet you and see your work in person. best wishes and warmest regards,
diana leonard
i like your post modern color field art a lot. You have that weird touch for that sort of art which i never really liked until i finally saw a rothko that impressed me for some subconscious reason. you look to have a similar talent. most guys cannot do that sort of art ever.
john c dvorak
american columnist and broadcaster in the areas of technology and computing.
kcc modern living
contemporary funiture and art gallery, 805 university ave, berkeley, california, usa
harry gruenert original abstract art paintings and giclée prints available
visual jill
interior decorating, 1240 dwight way, berkeley, california, usa
dac
art consultants, 1616 huber st, atlanta, georgia, usa
swenson fine art
i do not have my gallery for now, but continue to be available for clients. i love hearing from all of you, whether it be for that perfect work of art that you are looking for, or the projects you are creating, or just to say hello.
abstract artist gallery
abstract artist gallery.org was created in a collaborative effort in order to present a vast online collection of the very best abstract artists of our day. simplicity is the key to presenting such a collection to the world, where the main page is an updated gallery index of all our juried artists. we do not sell original artwork of our artists, but rather serve as a central hub that channels artist with audience by promoting members artwork through organic search results and social media. we introduced the abstract artist gallery in early 2011 and are already becoming a wonderful and diverse resource for artists, art collectors, and students.
