8 Drawings

New York: Hugo Gellert Anniversary Committee, [1952]. First Edition.

Silk-screened card portfolio containing 8 lithographs, each measuring 17 x 11 inches (420 x 280 mm).

A rare portfolio of eight lithographs by left-wing artist Hugo Gellert (1892-1985), depicting work from his career. Gellert has signed three of the lithographs in pencil as well as on the cover of the portfolio. Four of the lithos are portraits: Walt Whitman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ludwig Van Beethoven, and Paul Robeson, all signed in the plate. The other lithos depict themes for which he was famous; Jobs, Peace and Democracy (signed in the plate) and the three that he has signed in pencil: In Unity There Is Strength, The Arsonist, and In the Labor Market.

The portfolio is undated, but the Hugo Gellert Anniversary Committee issued it on the occasion of Gellert's 60th birthday in 1952. Laid in are reprints about Gellert from The Daily World, a publication of the Communist Party USA.

OCLC shows only four institutional holdings: NYU, Syracuse, North Carolina, and Ohio State. (OCLC accession number 25352330). None in commerce.

A rare portfolio depicting illustrations by Hugo Gellert, one of the great left-wing artists of the 20th century.

CONDITION: Several lithographs show a bit of foxing. The portfolio also has some foxing as well as toning and soiling to the covers and old adhesive marks to the rear cover. Overall, Very Good or better.