Two
monumental whales are depicted in a graceful love dance set in an
idyllic blue-green water. The work is as abstract as it is
representational. In person, the colors are seductive and mesmerizing,
and the works look stunning.
This artwork appeared on page 33 of the
November 1956 issue of Playboy Magazine, illustrating the fiction story
by Adrian Conan Doyle titled "The Lover of the Coral Glades."
Framed under glass to Framed: 29.5 x 25.5 inches x 2

Zeke Ziner has exhibited in the The Whitney Museum, The Brooklyn
Museum and the MoMA. Recent Drawings U.S.A., Apr 25–Aug 5, 1956... among
others. He was a frequent contributor to Newstand magazines for
editorial and advertising work

"Zeke Ziner , Born, 1919 Bronx, NY – Died, 2006, Branford,
Connecticut, 86 years. Perhaps best known for his stainless steel
sculpture, Zeke Ziner’s drawing and printmaking played a large role in a
long career of fine arts. He exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, The
Whitney Museum, The Library of Congress, The Hudson River Museum, The
Arts Club of Chicago, The American Institute of Graphic Arts, The Los
Angeles County Fair and the University of Connecticut.Mr. Ziner taught
at The Institute of Design, City University of N.Y., College of New
Rochelle, S.U.N.Y., Purchase, The Hudson River Museum School and The
Paier School of Art in Hamden, CT.His work is represented in the
permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, Yale University
and innumerable private collections. In his lifetime, Mr. Ziner
estimated that he produced over 5,000 works of art.Mr. Ziner was a
modern artist and designer with a love for traditional technique. He was
also a innovative sculptor and printmaker whose contributions have
added much to contemporary art. He was a productive artist for over
sixty years.In 1938, he shared an early predilection for graphic work
with high school(DeWitt Clinton, Bronx, NY) classmates Bob Blackburn and
Ted Shearer. He went on to study at the Art Student’s League with Yasuo
Kuniyoshi and others. He traveled to Mexico for a year on an arts
scholarship where he met Orozco. He designed textiles for the André
Proteau Co. before getting drafted in 1941. He married Florence Katz. He
served with the U.S. Army Core of Engineers in Alaska and then two
years in Europe.At the end of the war, safe and sound, Zeke and Feenie
moved to Chicago. Zeke taught drawing at the Illinois Institute of
Design, painted, was friends to sculptors Marion Perkins, Si Gordon and
Boris Gilbertson. He painted his house and filled it with his pictures.
He worked with Goldsholl and Associates, through the 1950’s, helping to
transform the look of print and packaging to the modern age, designing
among others, the enduring Motorola logo.Mr. Ziner exhibited at The Art
Institute of Chicago in group and solo exhibits. Much of his fine art
drawings, prints, sculpture and paintings of that time were sold
privately, in a social context and became part of the culture of
mid-century Chicago. A brush drawing, Mother and Child was included in
the exhibit, Recent Drawings USA. sponsored by The Museum of Modern Art
in 1956. Also notably included in that exhibit were drawings by Josef
Albers, Leonard Baskin, Misch Kohn, Leo Leonni, Rico Lebrun, oh and Andy
Worhol!He moved the family to Dobbs Ferry, NY in 1958, working as an
art director for print and film into the 1960’s. Becoming increasingly
interested in making sculpture, by the early 1970’s he had trained in
welding and equipped his shop, adopting stainless steel as a preferred
medium. The ink drawings played an important role in the process,
allowing a give and take in finding solutions for such a resistant
material. With relentless but cheerful filing, mostly, he would shape
and blend his welds, “one piece”, he’d say. After polishing, the steel
becomes the brightest thing in the room, picking up all available light.
There is a futuristic quality to them which is further amplified when
the possible longevity is considered. Truly they were made with a
distant future in mind.In 1984 Zeke had moved to Branford, CT and
renovated an elementary school with studios for graphics and separate
studio for metalwork where he was happily productive for over twenty
years. Zeke Ziner worked with stainless steel until his 85th year.About
thirty of his sculptures and nearly 1000 works on paper comprise the
Ziner Art Collection. "