WILD WEST - The Art of Mort Kunstler - Card #20 - FALL OF THE ALAMO - 1996 for Sale

On eBay Now...

WILD WEST - The Art of Mort Kunstler - Card #20 - FALL OF THE ALAMO - 1996 For Sale

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

WILD WEST - The Art of Mort Kunstler - Card #20 - FALL OF THE ALAMO - 1996:
$5.11

THE WILD WEST: THE ART OF MORT KUNSTLER - Individual VINTAGE Trading Card from the Set Issued by Keepsake in 1996.

MortKünstler (born August 28, 1927) is an American artistknown for his illustrative paintings of historical events, especiallyof the American Civil War. He was a child prodigy, who, withencouragement from his parents, became a skilled artist by the timehe was twelve. Today he is considered the \"best-known and mostrespected historical artist in the country.\"

Künstlerbegan his career in the 1950s as a freelance artist, illustratingpaperback book covers and men\'s adventure magazines. In 1965 he wascommissioned by National Geographic to create what became hisfirst historic painting. He also created posters for movies such asThe Poseidon Adventure and The Taking of Pelham One TwoThree. And by the 1970s he was painting covers for Newsweek,Reader\'s Digest, and other magazines, with the bulk of hiswork during that period in advertising art.

Whilemany of his early magazine illustrations were for publicentertainment, Künstler eventually began creating military art. In1977, his first major gallery exhibition brought new attention to histalents as a historical artist. By the 1980s he was acclaimed asAmerica\'s foremost Civil War artist, and would eventually create over350 Civil War paintings alone. Some of his paintings have changedopinions about the accuracy of early famous paintings by others, suchas Emmanuel Leutze\'s famous Washington Crossing the Delaware.Besides his Civil War paintings, he created historical art of theAmerican Revolution through the Korean and Vietnam wars, along withpaintings of World War II. He painted historical events such as theOklahoma Land Rush and new immigrants on Ellis Island.

Collectionsof Künstler\'s work are published as limited-edition prints, and hisartistic output places him at the forefront of contemporaryhistorical realism. NASA made him their official artist for the SpaceShuttle Columbia. In 1982, CBS-TV had him do a painting forthe 3-part mini-series The Blue and the Gray, and in 1993 aone-hour television special, Images of the Civil War - ThePaintings of Mort Künstler, was shown on the A&E TV network.He has received numerous honors and awards, and at least nine booksare dedicated to featuring his artwork. Some experts see him as thenext Norman Rockwell.

Earlyyears and education

Künstlerwas born in Brooklyn, New York in 1927 and raised there during theGreat Depression. His parents had Polish and Austrian roots and wereof Jewish heritage. Their name derived from the German word\"künstler,\" which means \"artist.\" Hisgreat-grandfather was given that name by the Tsar of Russia as thanksafter he created a carving of him when he ruled Germany.

Hisfather was an amateur artist, and both his parents saw his artistictalent at the age of two and a half. His father encouraged his son,who was often home sick, by setting up still life subjects for him todraw. His mother also encouraged his budding talent by enrolling himin Saturday classes at the Brooklyn Museum. He said \"My motherwas a schoolteacher, and she would take me to the museums by subwayevery Saturday morning.\"

Bythe time he was in kindergarten he could already \"draw verywell,\" he says. And when he was twelve, he adds, \"I coulddraw almost as well as I can today.\" His talent in art wasfurther supported when he was at Abraham Lincoln High School inBrooklyn. There, he along with a number of classmates, were inspiredby their art teacher, Leon Friend, who had also written a book ongraphic design.

Aftergraduating high school he enrolled at Brooklyn College to study art,although his main focus changed away from art and instead towardathletics. He was diver on the swimming team and a hurdler on thetrack team, and sports now dominated his life. He earned awards forbasketball, diving, football and track, and ultimate honors in theBrooklyn College Sports Hall of Fame. He then received a basketballscholarship from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA),where he continued to focus on sports.

Butafter his father suffered a heart attack, he returned to New York tohelp his family, and enrolled in the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Hestudied to become a fine art illustrator, and graduated after threeyears. During his senior year he met his wife-to-be, Deborah, who wasthen a freshman at the school. They married soon after he graduated.

Amongthe artists whose work he studied that would influence his latercareer were Norman Rockwell, Winslow Homer and Frederic Remington.

Aftergraduating from Pratt he worked as a freelance artist in New York,where he tried to get assignments from book and magazine publishers.That goal became difficult at the time, which led him to work insteadas an apprentice at a studio, where he ran errands, cleaned up andtouched up paintings by other artists. Künstler wanted to be aprofessional illustrator, but discovered that the early 1950s was abad time to enter the field, since photography and television werereplacing the need for artists. And the few magazines that stillrelied on artists were folding.

However,he did find a niche market as a freelancer for adventure magazines,which still appreciated his art: “Fortunately for me and otherartists, some of them, like the men’s adventure magazines, wouldstill prefer having paintings made for their covers and interiorillustrations.” He continued doing those throughout the 1950s andinto the 1960s. Although to make ends meet he had to live with hisparents who supported him during this early period: “I worked 12hour days, 15 hour days, sometimes seven days a week. Almost alwayssix days a week, from nine o’clock in the morning to ten or elevenat night.”

Eventuallyhe began to share a studio with another already established adventureartist, George Gross, whose family was friends with his. “I used tocall him Uncle George and I chose him as my mentor.” George, 22years his senior, had also attended Pratt Institute, and his fatherhad a successful art career. As a result, says Künstler, “I wasn’tjust a kid working out of his house anymore... George sort of took meunder his wing, and he taught me whatever he could. It was awonderful thing for me.”

1950s—1960s

Künstlerbegan working full-time as a freelance artist, illustrating magazinecovers and paperback fiction adventure books, typically orientedtoward men, such as Sports Afield, Outdoor Life, andStag. Künstler credits the experience gained fromillustrating men’s adventure magazines in the 1950s and 1960s withteaching him how to compose and tell a story, which he says preparedhim for his later work.

Hereceived his first assignment to do a historic painting from NationalGeographic magazine in 1965. He was to paint an illustration fora story about the history of St. Augustine, Florida. He traveled toFlorida, spent an afternoon with the two National Park Servicehistorians at the National Historic Site “Castillo de San Marcos”to learn whatever he could, before beginning. Künstler\'s laterhistorical paintings would also rely on collaboration with expertswho would guide and provide him with the historic facts he neededbefore beginning.

1970s

Inthe 1970s, Künstler painted covers for Newsweek, Reader\'sDigest and other magazines, although the bulk of his work duringthis period came from doing advertising art. He also did the boxcovers for Aurora models.

Heillustrated a number of movie posters for adventure films, such asThe Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Taking of Pelham OneTwo Three (1974). In 1975 Künstler created the illustration fora MAD Magazine back cover depicting women\'s liberation; severalissues later, he crafted a front cover which parodied the movie Jaws

Bythe early 1970s, his paintings were attracting the attention ofserious art collectors, which led him to begin retaining thereproduction rights to his original paintings. In 1975 he submitted anumber of paintings to galleries, all of which sold, to his surprise.In 1977 his military art drew attention from even more importantgalleries, which made him widely recognized as an accurate historicalartist.

Thefirst major gallery to give him a one-man show was the prestigiousHammer Galleries in New York City. He would have 13 additionalone-man shows at the gallery in subsequent years, while his work wasalso being exhibited in museums nationwide. Armand Hammer, founder ofHammer Galleries, supported, encouraged and promoted Künstler\'swork, helping him become recognized as one of America\'s leadinghistorical artists. Hammer said \"his paintings have continuallyconfirmed his talent, and the caliber of Künstler\'s overall artisticoutput has now placed him at the forefront of contemporary realism.\"

Asa result of major galleries and museums exhibiting his work, hiscareer soon took on new dimensions. From his early popularity as anillustrator for pulp and popular magazines, then to movie posters,National Geographic images, and now to fine art historicalpaintings and prints, along with books of images, he was acknowledgedas one of the few remaining artists of historical subjects.

1980to present

In1982, after getting a commission from CBS-TV to do a painting for the3-part mini-series, The Blue and the Gray (televised November1982,) Künstler\'s interest turned towards the Civil War. By 1988 hewas concentrating almost entirely on Civil War subjects, whicheventually made him the “most collected Civil War artist inAmerica.”

Hisfocus on that war led to him having the first one-man Civil Warexhibitions at venues such as the Gettysburg National Battlefield,New York\'s Nassau County Museum of Art in 1998, the North CarolinaMuseum of History, Richmond\'s Museum of the Confederacy and othercenters of art and history. They included images of Abraham Lincolnat Gettysburg,

MortKünstler is the foremost Civil War artist of our time -- if not ofall time. To study his paintings is to simply see history alive.

JamesI. Robertson, Jr., Civil War scholar

Hisexhibition at the Nassau County Museum, which lasted seven weeks,attracted more than 30,000 visitors, surpassing the previousattendance record set by a Picasso exhibit. The success of thatexhibit led the museum to hold a second one-man exhibit of his workin 2006.

Tocreate his paintings, he undertook careful and painstaking researchinto the settings and events he would paint. It meant he needed toconsult with expert historians and walk the actual battlefieldsbefore drawing them, always looking for landmarks to incorporate intothe artwork. This obsession to detail, he says, came from hisexperience illustrating men\'s magazines and his work for NationalGeographic.

Inpreparation for his 1992 painting, “The Gunner and the Colonel,”for instance, he researched the exact uniforms the soldier\'s wore andeven the weather on that day, to learn which way the wind was blowingso the flags were unfurled in the right direction. With each newpainting, Künstler says he takes on the role of a historian:

Ifeel like I\'m opening a window on a little part of history. What Itry to do is create an image that will make you feel like you werethere. I try to make it as accurate and as dramatic as possible.

Hisbattle of Gettysburg painting, titled “High Water Mark,” wasunveiled at the Gettysburg Battlefield Museum on the 125thanniversary of that climactic confrontation. The original wasreproduced with 750,000 limited-edition prints, all of which sold outafter two months. But Künstler also painted individual soldiers inperiods of personal crisis, as he did of Stonewall Jackson afterJackson learned that a close friend\'s 5-year-old daughter had died.

Withcollections of his work published as limited edition prints and soldnationwide. Historians including James M. McPherson would state:

Ofall the artists working in the Civil War field, none captures thehuman element, the aura of leadership, the sense of being there andsharing in the drama, quite like Mort Künstler.

Künstlertakes a month or two to complete a painting, with many selling forover $100,000. Limited edition prints often sell out quickly. TheAmerican Print Gallery\'s limited edition of 4,150 of Moonlight andMagnolias was sold out in three weeks after publication. By 2015,Künstler had painted more than 350 Civil War subjects. He paintedhis final Civil War painting in 2015, depicting the end of the war,titled \"LaGrange vs. LaGrange.\"

Washington Crossing

Someof his paintings have revised opinions of many about the accuracy ofearlier paintings by others. One of Kunstler\'s more recent paintingshas, according to recent historians, corrected some obviousinaccuracies of one America\'s most famous, the 1851 painting byEmmanuel Leutze, Washington Crossing the Delaware, depictingWashington\'s 1776 surprise attack on the 30,000 German soldiers whowere fighting for the British.

Künstlerdevoted two months of research with the aid of military experts andhistorians, besides visiting the location himself, before completingthe painting in 2011, titled “Washington\'s Crossing.” Among theinaccuracies Künstler corrected was the fact that Washington wouldnot have been able to stand in a rowboat in daylight during asnowstorm, since it would have capsized. Nor would there be smallicebergs in the water or the flag shown in the painting to have beenused, since it was not adopted until the following year.

Historianand author David Hackett Fischer said that the painting by Künstlerwas “quite accurate...He got more right abut the crossing than anyother image,” which included more than 200 previous paintingsdepicting that event. Although the new image is about 4 feet wide and3 feet high, compared to Leutze\'s, which is about 21 feet wide and 12feet high, Künstler says it is “the most important painting I\'veever done.\" Civil War historian Harold Holzer, formerly with theMetropolitan Museum of Art, which owns the original Leutze painting,called Künstler \"the best-known and most respected historicalartist in this country.\"

Other works

Hislater work covered a wider range of subject, including all the warsfrom the American Revolution through the Korean and Vietnam wars,with many paintings of World War II. He painted historical eventssuch as the Oklahoma Land Rush and he tried to humanize emotionalsettings by paintings of new immigrants at Ellis Island or TeddyRoosevelt celebrating the 4th of July. Some experts feel that it wasKünstler\'s ability to humanize such moments which distinguished hisworks from most other historical artists.

Healso painted subjects which illustrated American technologicaladvances, such as dramatic illustrations of the Space ShuttleColumbia, for which NASA made him their official artist. Hispaintings recorded its manufacture, launching and landing.

In1998, his paintings were exhibited at The North Carolina Museum ofArt and at other U.S. museums, including the National Civil WarMuseum in Harrisburg, the North Carolina Museum of History inRaleigh, and the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond.

Amongthe eight books featuring his work, is the 1986 coffee-table book TheAmerican Spirit: The Paintings of Mort Künstler, which containsnearly 200 images and commentary written by historian Henry SteeleCommager. An updated edition of The American Spirit waspublished in 1994.

Awards and honors

1992. Painted a United States postage stamp depicting the Buffalo Soldiers.
1993. a one-hour television special with Stacy Keach entitled Images of the Civil War: The Paintings of Mort Künstler, was shown on the A&E network. (DVD released in 2014)
1999. Virginia officially declared a “Mort Künstler Day.”
2000. Virginia Governor James Gilmore officially opened an exhibition at Richmond\'s Museum of the Confederacy. The exhibit, titled, The Confederate Spirit: The Paintings of Mort Künstler, was the first one-man exhibition that the museum had ever held.
2001. Made official artist for the motion picture Gods and Generals.
2001. He received the Henry Timrod Southern Culture Award.
2002. Künstler became the first artist to be honored by a six-month, one-man exhibition at the new National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
2003. He received the Jefferson Davis Southern Heritage Award, both by the Military Order of the Stars and Bars.
2003. A residence hall at Timber Ridge School - a residency academy for special students in Winchester, Virginia, was named Mort Künstler Hall in his honor, because of his art assistance.
2004. Named an official artist for the H. L. Hunley, a submarine of the Confederate States of America, at which time he unveiled a new painting of the vessel during ceremonies in Charleston, South Carolina.
2004. Commissioned to furnish all the artwork for the Middletown, Ohio, Veterans Memorial, which was unveiled on July 4, 2004.
2011. His depiction of George Washington crossing the Delaware River was unveiled at the New York Historical Society on December 26, 2011, the 235th anniversary of the actual event, to great style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 150%\">Images of the Civil War: the Paintings of Mort Künstler (1992), ISBN978-0-517-07356-8
Gettysburg: The Paintings of Mort Künstler (Text by James M. McPherson) (1993), ISBN1-878685-79-1
The American Spirit: The Paintings of Mort Kunstler (1994) ISBN1558533095
Jackson & Lee: Legends in Gray (1995), ISBN978-1-55853-333-2
Mort Künstler\'s Old West. Cowboys. (1998), ISBN978-1-55853-588-6
Mort Künstler\'s Old West. Indians. (1998), ISBN978-1-55853-589-3
Gods and Generals: the Paintings of Mort Künstler (2002), ISBN978-0-86713-084-3
The Civil War Paintings of Mort Künstler (2006), ISBN978-1-58182-556-5
For Us the Living: The Civil War in Paintings and Eyewitness Accounts (2010), ISBN978-1-4027-7034-0