Although surviving examples of the artwork of the German/American artist and celebrated Hollywood set designer Richard Kollorsz are rare, they display a surprising range of style, media and subject matter.  While his early figural works reflect the hyperbolic realism of the German master Otto Dix (1891-1969), his later output included landscapes, cityscapes, beach scenes and other subject matter more typical of the American Scene painters of his era.

       Kollorsz exhibited rarely, but did receive national recognition when a photograph of one of his earlier figural works, Four of a Kind, a lively depiction of four boys playing cards, was reproduced in The Art Digest (June 1, 1935) after garnering second prize at the 16th annual Painters and Sculptors exhibition at the Los Angeles Museum of Art.  He also exhibited at such venues as the Art Institute of Chicago and The Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.  

     Crossroads, executed in watercolor, is an early reflection of the artist’s later style, relating closely to works in the same medium by Regionalist painters of the so-called “California Style” including Paul Sample, Millard Sheets, Phil Paradise and Barse Miller, all of whom were active in that state during the same period.  The work was probably executed in Los Angeles, possibly in the neighborhood known as Mount Washington or on the north side of the Hollywood Hills. 

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