ART & ART BOOKS

Alan Wofsy Fine Arts began business in 1969 as a print publisher and dealer in antiquarian books and art. Publishing began in 1975 with a succession of catalogues raisonnés, bibliographies, artist books and art reference works.

The firm publishes authoritative oeuvre catalogues on most of the Impressionists. Recent works include revised editions of catalogues raisonnés on Manet, Pissarro, Degas, Renoir, Delacroix, Schuffenecker and Redon and illustrated indexes to several print collector periodicals. Since 1995, we have published the most comprehensive series of catalogues on the oeuvre of Picasso: The Picasso Project. After 26 years and 28 volumes, the project was completed in 2016: www.picassoproject.com.

Old Master projects include Lehrs’s catalogue of Schongauer’s engravings; the first English language edition of Hermann Voss’s seminal works on the late Renaissance and Baroque in Italy; Piranesi’s Complete Etchings; revisions of the standard oeuvre catalogues on Callot, Ostade, Bruegel, Bosch, Schongauer and Goya.

Recent catalogues raisonnés of American artists include John Sloan, Thomas Hart Benton, Peggy Bacon, Isabel Bishop, William Gropper and Rockwell Kent.

Recent publications on 19th Century graphic artists include Géricault's graphic work, a catalogue raisonné of Daumier’s early political lithographs; and a revision with English text of the catalogue raisonné of Daumier’s contemporary, Gavarni.

Recent bibliographical publications include complete indexes to The Print Collector's Quarterly and The Print Connoisseur, and a complete illustrated catalogue of Fine Prints of the Year, with nearly 1700 reproductions of artists of the 1920s and 1930s.

We also distribute important art reference works for other publishers, including the complete works of Monet,  Piet Mondrian, René Magritte and Max Ernst and the illustrated books and graphics of Picasso, Chagall and Miró.

The gallery deals in Old Master and modern prints and unique works. Old Master artists include Piranesi, Bosch, Bruegel, Le Sueur, John Skippe, The Master of the Die, Veneziano, Ostade and Goya. Nineteenth century artists include Steinlen, Forain, Daumier, Gavarni, Renoir, Pissarro, Legrand and Fantin-Latour. Early twentieth century European artists include Denis, Kollwitz, Rouault, Grosz, Picasso, Miró and Matisse. American artists include Pennell, Whistler, Surendorf, Ludwig, Sheets and Dine.

We acquired the graphics editions and portfolios published by Kennedy Galleries of Baskin, Shahn, Rattner, Levine, Lipschitz, Gwathemy, Minaux, Buffet, Hockney and others, which we now distribute. The gallery also deals in subject matter, such as architectural art (including original works by Millard Sheets), nature, art deco, design, maps, photography, Asian art and books, gastronomy and ephemera.

Wittenborn Art Books was founded in 1941 by George Wittenborn (1905-1974). The company was renowned as a publisher of important art books, notably The Documents of Modern Art, originally directed by Robert Motherwell, and as the preeminent art book store in America. In 1996, the Federal Court in New York designated Alan Wofsy Fine Arts as successor in interest to Wittenborn’s intellectual property.

Wittenborn buys, sells and exchanges art reference books, deluxe editions and graphics. Wittenborn also publishes and distributes works with original graphics. Distributed art reference publications are diverse and include the Harvard bibliographies of illustrated books of the Renaissance in France and Italy; the corpus of European Stained Glass in America; and a wide range of catalogues raisonnés and other art reference works. Wittenborn maintains an inventory of titles and licenses reprints and extracts from The Documents of Modern Art to major academic publishers such as Harvard, Chicago and Blackwell. We have also published new editions with color plates ( for the first time) of Kahnweiler's The Rise of Cubism and Mondrian's Plastic Art and Pure Plastic Art and the 2 volumes of Paul Klee's Notebooks on  CDs.

Collegium Graphicum publishes facsimiles of Renaissance art books in a series entitled Printed Sources of Western Art. Each volume has a short introduction by Theodore Besterman, the late renowned bibliographer. Alan Wofsy Fine Arts acquired Collegium Graphicum and the series in the 1970s.

Dow & Frosini is a long-established Berkeley and San Francisco art dealer, whose specialty is original posters. Dow & Frosini merged with Alan Wofsy Fine Arts and offers an extensive array of posters: a large collection by the contemporary Americans, David Lance Goines and Lance Hidy; American movie posters and stills from the 1920s to the 1950s; Mexican movie posters from the 1940s to the 1980s; Art Exhibition posters by major and minor European and American artists; travel posters; 19th Century real estate posters; and political posters.

Association of American Publishers certificate.
35 Year Achievement Award.
The Picasso Project.

CREATIVE RENTAL SPACES

Our affiliated Real Estate firms offer commercial, residential and live-work spaces in Northern California. Our specialty is historic properties for creative people. There are generally rental opportunities in San Francisco, Berkeley, Vallejo, Santa Rosa and Woodland (near Davis/Sacramento).