"Nocturne II" by Letterio Calapai, (1902 - 1992), color woodcut, excellent condition, archivally matted and framed, (13.25in H x 10.25in W image, 22 1/4in H x 18 5/8in W framed) 10 of 30.  

Letterio Calapai was a painter and printmaker who took part in the Federal Arts Project organized by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930's.  

He  was born in Boston, Massachusetts to poor Sicilian immigrants who brought him upwith educational trips to nearby galleries.  He attended the Massachusetts Normal Art School and the School of Fine Arts and Crafts in Boston.

Calaprai moved to New York City where he was influenced by the work of British artist Stanley William Hayter and his Atelier 17 studio.  From 1928 to 1935 he worked at a litographic office and studied at the Art Students League and the Beaux Arts Institute of Design.  In 1934 his work was featured in a solo exhibition at the Montros Gallery.  

From 1949 to 1955 Calapai chaired the Graphic Arts Department of the Albright Art School in Buffalo, NY.  He taught at the New School for Social Research from 1955 to 1965 and at the Intaglio Workshop for Advanced Printmaking in New Your from 1962 to 1965.  Calapai left New York to teach at the University of Illinois.  

Calapai took an interest in engraving and engravers including William Hogarth.  Calapai's work can be found in the collections of hte Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Biblioteque National de France.  His work is also displayed in the Fogg Art Museum in Cambridge, Mass. and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.  This is apt as these are two of the institutions to which Calapai's parents took him when he was a boy.