Lot Essay
A somewhat mysterious and paradoxical figure, John Graham encorporated the ideas of Jung, Oriental majic and astrology into much of his work. Constantly evaluating and re-evaluating himself and the world around him, Graham assumed different personae, one of the greatest being "Ioannus Magus" ("John the Great".)
Dated circa, 1941-42, Self-Portrait as a Soldier was given as a gift to Hedda Sterne, a fellow artist and friend of Graham's. Sterne's fame is known primarily as the single woman artist in the famous 1951 Life magazine photograph of the fifteen "Irascibles," who included Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning, among others.
Dated circa, 1941-42, Self-Portrait as a Soldier was given as a gift to Hedda Sterne, a fellow artist and friend of Graham's. Sterne's fame is known primarily as the single woman artist in the famous 1951 Life magazine photograph of the fifteen "Irascibles," who included Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning, among others.