2 rare 1971 John DeKay prints, Birds of Paradise retailer and Pink Flamingos, Printed by Arthur A Kaplan Co NY. distributed by TruArt 11x11 square

John DeKay was quite the painter, He was born in 1932 and passed away in 1987, and while he traveled the world for his art he was always a New Yorker, and spent most of his time in his New York studio or in area art shows and galleries.

He was well know in the 1960s in the New York art scene for his landscapes, and known nationally for his portraits of President Johnson's inauguration, President Eisenhower, and Pope John Paul. In 1966 he traveled to Vietnam in a highly publicized effort to "paint the war".

John mostly worked in oil on canvas. Very few of John's works were ever made into prints, however after suffering a break-in to his studio and theft of much of his equipment and a number of unfinished paintings he was persuaded to allow a few retailer prints to be made of his work. The proceeds from these few prints greatly helped his financial recovery from this unfortunate loss.

These prints were copyrighted and produced by DeKay through the Arthur A Kaplan printing company in New York. The were distributed by Truart, one of many companies that sold generic wall art at that time.

Because John did not often have prints made of his originals, finding any of his art, prints or original for sale is fairly rare.

Listing is for both prints as a set