A FASCINATING GROUP OF NINE HAND CARVED AND PAINTED FOLK-ART FIGURES, WALTER KARL GINTHER (1894-

A FASCINATING GROUP OF NINE HAND CARVED AND PAINTED FOLK-ART FIGURES, WALTER KARL GINTHER (1894-1968), CIRCA 1935. Comprising a group of hand carved and painted figures of both well-known and some as yet unidentified characters from American culture circa 1930-35. Including an Olive Oyl and Popeye, an early Mickey Mouse, a Picaninny figure, a Jack Sprat or Simple Simon-type figure, a tall googly eyed female character, a tall plump boxer, an enthroned king (unpainted) and a painted giraffe. Each figure finely carved in full round with excellent attention to detail and retaining their original paint, and six mounted on slightly domed circular bases. The tallest of the pictured figures measures 11.2 inches in height, whereas the enthroned king measures 14.6 inches in height, a few with minor losses here and there.

Provenance:
Walter Karl Ginther (1894-1968) upon his death to his wife, Helga Olive Hillman Ginther (1904-1996) upon her death to her brother Christopher Hillman and upon his death in 2004 to his nephew, the consignor.

Ginther was born in Winona, Minnesota in 1894 and served in Europe during WWI at which time it is believed he may have taken some art studies. Upon his return to the U.S., he settled in Minneapolis and began studies at the MSA (Minneapolis School of Art). There he took instruction from Vaclav Vytlacil (1892-1984), Cameron Booth (1892-1980), and Richard Lahey (1893-1978). As early as 1923 he began exhibiting his paintings both at the MIA and the Minnesota State Fair where he received awards in 1923, 1924 and 1926. It is known that he was an active early participant in the Minnesota WPA and produced art in various mediums including, oil, watercolor, prints and wood carving. In an oral interview given in 1965 by artist Dewy Albison (1898-1971) who was a Projects Supervisor for the Minnesota WPA, Albison mentions Ginther as being talented and recollecting that he, “… even won a few prizes, let’s say, 1920-24 in there….” He goes on however to describe an incident in which after being assigned to a project that Ginther had no interest, he eventually quit. As described by Albison, “…after a few months on the project, right in a calm work hour, he rose up out of his chair screaming bloody murder and threw everything down…he left and went to Dakota and I never heard of him since.” Apparently unknown to Albison, Ginther stayed in the Twin Cities and eventually found work as a commercial artist producing cards at the well-known Buzza Greeting Card Company. Ginther is listed as a printmaker and painter in Robert L. Crump’s book, Minnesota Prints and Printmakers 1900-1945, Minnesota Historical Press, 2009, page 92, and in other directories as a commercial artist up until 1938. Eventually, Ginther left the world of commercial art and in 1939 took a job as a steel worker retiring after 20 years in 1959 after which time he and his wife moved to Upham, North Dakota in 1965 where he died three years later. Of all the carved figures only one is signed (Popeye) whose underside is inscribed in pencil “WALT GINTHER Pop Eye – 5724 22nd Ave. So.” As demonstrated in the offered lot Ginther was, without question, a talented artist. His carvings display a unique sensitivity not stereotypically associated with a rough steel worker, and reflect a keenly observant eye demonstrated in his ability to make static figures animated and yet while familiar, exhibit his own unique influence. According to the family, the offered wood carvings are believed to be the only known such carvings by Ginther to exist. Yet, one wonders, or perhaps hopes, if somewhere out there in a North Dakota or Minnesota attic, other works such as those offered by the steel worker/artist Walter Karl Ginther may await discovery.

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