Whimsical Modernist Beat Era Painting on Silver Leaf By Iris Brody, C. 1950s

A whimsical painting on silverleaf by the tragically short lived Beat Generation artist Iris Brody (1927-1961). She was a fixture of the Greenwich Village bohemian arts scene during the 1950s and a close friend of William Burroughs, who owned several of her works. The poet Allen Ginsberg was reportedly effusive about the delicate beauty of her ship paintings, inspired by the sailboats in Provincetown harbor where she summered with Shane O’Neill, son of the playwright Eugene.