Author: (de Mena, Margarita; Wyckoff, Alma). Kurakin, Eugene (1918-1975).
Title: Museu de L'Emporda. (an Original Exhibition Catalog Together with an Original Invitation to the Opening of the Exhibition of Works by Eugene Kurakin). [Together with]: A Flyer for a Memorial Exhibition of the Artist Alma Wyckoff, Signed by Kurakin Who Attended and the Cuban Artist Margarita de Mena, Whose Gallery Sponsored the Exhibition.
Description: Figueras, [Spain]: Museu de l'Emporda, 1975. 1975. - Small quarto, 8 inches high by 7-7/8 inches wide. Softcover, bound in stapled yellow wraps titled in black on the front cover. The catalog is housed in the original printed white envelope. The envelope is slightly soiled and stained along the edges. [24] unnumbered pages, with text by Raul del Pozo, M. Rodriguez Cruells, and Josep Valles Rovira, illustrated with a portrait and 5 full-page black & white plates. Also housed in the envelope is the original invitation to the opening of the exhibition printed in black on a 4-1/2 inch high by 6-1/2 inch wide yellow card, with text reading "Museu de L'Emporda se complace en invitarle el miercoles dia 10 a las 19'30 horas a la inauguracion de la exposicion de Eugene Kurakin / Figuras, Setiembre 1975". Fine in a very good envelope.

Most importantly, the catalog is accompanied by a 7-1/2 inch high by 9-1/4 inch wide pictorial flyer for the "Memorial Exhibit" of paintings and sculptures by the late American artist ALMA WYCKOFF held from November 30 through December 7, 1973 at the "de Mena Gallery" in New York City. The flyer is illustrated with 3 photographs of the Cuban artist and gallery owner Margarita de Mena, who sponsored the exhibition. Eugene Kurakin is also depicted in the photo at left of the flyer. The flyer is SIGNED in ink by both KURAKIN and MARGARITA DE MENA above their images. Folded in half vertically, else fine.

Eugenio de Bernard Kurakin (1918-1975) was born in Paris, France in 1918. His mother was a Basque of Carlist descent and his father was a Russian belonging to the Tsarist nobility. He resisted his parent's desire that he pursue a career in engineering and sometime around 1938 he emigrated to Cuba. Eventually he settled in the United States and became a student at the Art Students League of New York in 1947-48. He was active in the New Mexico art scene from 1949 to 1953. At the end of the 1950s he settled in Barcelona. There he met the painter Julián Pacheco (1937-2000) and for a few months shared his studio. Kurakin had studied action painting in the United States and his work inspired Pacheco. Pacheco was fascinated by Kurakin's works, large canvases 6 to 9 feet high featuring the expressive freedom of drippings and color stains. Kurakin died in 1975 and that same year the Museu de l'Emporda de Figueras sponsored a retrospective exhibition of his work.

Alma Wyckoff was an American abstract expressionist artist active in the 1940's. Her painting, "Adrift", was exhibited by the Provincetown Art Association in 1961. Fine .

Keywords: ART; MUSEU DE L'EMPORTA; EXHIBITION CATALOG; EUGENE DE BERNARD KURAKIN; MARGARITA DE MENA; ALMA WYCKOFF; FIGUERAS, SPAIN; NEW YORK; ILLUSTRATED; ILLUSTRATIONS; MEMORIAL EXHIBIT; DE MENA GALLERY; SIGNED; SIGNATURES; AUTOGRAPHS; CUBAN ARTIST; AMERICAN A

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