anne-kesler-shields-nc-1932-2012-i-the-old-well-i-and-i-the-arch-i-two-works
Lot 1104
Anne Kesler Shields (NC, 1932-2012), The Old Well and The Arch (Two Works)
Lot Details & Additional Photographs
Woodblock prints, each pencil signed, titled, and numbered lower margin, presented in uniform framing.

Frame dimensions 14 3/4 x 11 1/2 in.

Anne Kessler Shields studied art in the 1950s at Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia. She continued her studies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, with Hans Hofmann in Princetown, Massachusetts. In 1959 she received her MFA from the University of North Carolina: Greensboro.

Her artist's statement describes her evolution as an artist:
I observed directions in the art world, from the abstract expressionists onward, and played with many of those ideas. In the '60s I studied the interaction of color and patterns. The '70s brought minimalism to my printmaking and dozens of studies for a large mural commission. In the '80s I returned to painterly realism.

In about 1993, I became fascinated with photographs and ads in popular magazines such as Interview, W, Vanity Fair, and Harper's Bazaar. Contemporary advertising speaks volumes about our society. I use appropriated images and modern reproduction technology to exaggerate the silliness, humor, pathos, and/or irony of these images. To make sense of the visual clutter with which the world bombards us, I often combine these with images from art history. In the process, I discover that human nature changes little over the ages.


Shields' work is in the permanent collections of the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, the Mint Museum of Charlotte, the Cameron Museum of Art in Wilmington and other prominent collections. In 2012, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem presented a retrospective exhibition of her work.

Toning; not examined out of frames.