Artist: Sid Maurer
Title: Grace Kelly (Princess Grace of Monaco), (from the Portraits of Luminaries Collection)
Year created: 2010
Medium: Original Mixed Media Artwork on Wood Board
Edition: Original Unique Artwork, Hand-Signed by the Artist
Height (inches): 24
Width (inches): 20
Signed twice by the artist
Signed Area: front & back
Also Titled and Dated on back
This piece is unframed.
Description of piece:
Sid Maurer’s mastery as a fine artist is evident in his strikingly accurate, personal and intuitive portraits of luminaries.
Imbued with warmth and vibrancy, Maurer’s portraits capture the essence of his subjects, and synthesize Maurer’s artistic vision with his technical and compositional roots in graphic design. Bold, visible paint texturing and layering bring added light, depth and dimensionality to the artwork.
An original mixed media painting on wood board, Maurer’s self-titled Grace Kelly measures 24” in height x 20” width, and depicts silver-screen actress Grace Kelly, who famously became Princess Grace of Monaco, through one of the greatest love stories of the twentieth century.
The artwork is signed twice by the artist: first, on the front of the artwork, lower right, in a significantly large signature, in black; and on the reverse, where Maurer has also titled and dated the work.
Grace Kelly (Princess Grace of Monaco) is accompanied by its original Certificate of Authenticity from Allan Rich, Sid Maurer’s gallerist and lifelong personal friend. In addition to representing artists with Hollywood ties, Allan Rich was himself a well-known character actor, author and acting coach. The COA includes a photograph of the artwork; a photograph of, and personal statement by, the artist; and is signed and dated by Allan Rich.
GRACE KELLY, PRINCESS GRACE OF MONACO (1929– 1982) was an American film actress who, after starring in several significant films in the early to mid-1950s, became Princess of Monaco by marrying Prince Rainier III.
After graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1949, Grace Kelly began appearing in New York City theatrical productions and over 40 live drama productions broadcast in early 1950s Golden Age of Television. Kelly gained stardom from her performance in John Ford's adventure-romance Mogambo (1953), starring Clark Gable and Ava Gardner, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the drama The Country Girl (1954) with Bing Crosby. Other notable works include the western High Noon (1952) with Gary Cooper, the romance-comedy High Society (1956) with Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra, and three consecutive Alfred Hitchcock suspense thrillers: Dial M for Murder (1954) with Ray Milland, Rear Window (1954) with James Stewart, and To Catch a Thief (1955) with Cary Grant.
Kelly retired from acting at age 26 to marry Rainier, and she began her duties as Princess of Monaco. Hitchcock hoped that she would appear in more of his films which required an "icy blonde" lead actress, but he was unable to coax her out of retirement.
The Prince and Princess had three children: Princess Caroline, Prince Albert, and Princess Stéphanie. Princess Grace retained her link to America through her dual U.S. and Monégasque citizenship. Her charity work focused on young children and the arts, establishing the Princess Grace Foundation to support local artisans in 1964. Her organization for children's rights, AMADE Mondiale, gained consultive status within UNICEF and UNESCO. Grace Kelly is listed 13th among the American Film Institute's 25 Greatest Female Stars of Classical Hollywood Cinema. In honor of his mother, Prince Albert helped establish the Princess Grace Awards, which recognizes emerging performers in film, theatre, and dance.
Artist bio:
Sid Maurer's (1926-2017) long career spanned decades in the world of Art and Music, beginning at age seventeen when he was hired as Assistant Art Director at Columbia Records in New York City. When the music industry exploded, Maurer designed album covers and promotional material for popular artists, alongside Columbia Records colleague Andy Warhol. Maurer expanded his commercial art studio to tackle a wide range of projects for the music and film industries, while his striking artistic style developed, influenced by artists he met including Pollack and Rauschenberg.
Maurer left the empire of music and art that he had helped to build to focus on his passion: painting. In the last decade, his work has been shown in a wide variety of venues, including the Georgia Capitol, the Carnegie Museum and U.C.L.A. His commissioned artwork includes work for ESPN, MotorSport America Magazine, David Bowie, Boy George, and Donovan.
As a painter, Maurer created large mixed media pieces that were very much a product of his varied training and experience. His style combined bold, dynamic colors and strokes with painstaking layouts and typographical elements. The result is the unique blend of a painter's passion tempered with the calculating compositional eye of a graphic designer, exploring his themes through the use of bold subject matter, symbols and graphics.