This motivating and luminous owl is being a great assistant. We hope this motivates you to lend a hand to someone who may need your assistance in shedding some light on a problem.
This image is from an exhibition catalog for Karl Priebe’s work shown at the Newman Brown Gallery in Chicago from October 17 - November 14, 1953. The title of the painting is Magic Practice with Owl. Sadly, the entire catalog is in black and white, so we are missing the often ethereal colors that Priebe used in many of his paintings.
The exhibition introduction was written by Wisconsin artist Frederick Muhs. In the introduction he says,
“The world of Karl Priebe, as resolved in his paintings, is spacious and vast. Against this backdrop appear the convincing characters of his imagination. Bright, luminous, and with unnatural grace, these figures arrange themselves in unison, and it is at the point of relationship where the profound aspect of his work can be found. Few contemporary painters evoke atmosphere so strongly in their work as does Karl Priebe.”
Muhs wrote a brief inscription and signed the catalog to Miss Partridge. You can see this Karl Priebe exhibition catalog and a few others in the Charlotte Russell Partridge and Miriam Frink Papers, 1862-1980 (Milw Mss 167, box 64, folder 5)