Description:

COLLECTION OF ERNEST TINO TROVA EPHEMERA
Large collection including 'punch-out' Falling Man airplane, several Gallery Opening Invitations including glossy tuxedo form for Philip Samuels in University City, a 3-D folding cube form invitation for Philip Samuels Fine Art, several "Yellow Man" opening invitation at Lococo of St. Louis, Bruno David invitation, a 1963 poster for Pace Gallery of New York. A thick blue card stock 'punch-out' Falling Man three-part airplane with directions and another of the same Falling Man airplane on blank beige card stock and a Trova signed holiday card with layered bust profile of Falling Man.
Together with a "Personae" invitation with hardbound book titled "Ernest Trova" by Lococo Fine Art, copyright 2001, text copyright 2000 Ivan Karp.

Ernest Tino Trova lived his entire life in St. Louis, Missouri although his reputation is nationwide. He did not think it necessary to study art because he believed in his own instincts, although he drew from a variety of sources including figurative painters such as Francis Bacon, Jean Dubuffet, and Willem DeKooning. The Falling Man series resulted from a unique offer from the Famous-Barr Department Store in St. Louis, where he had worked as a window decorator in his twenties. In exchange for creating a series of works to exhibit at the city's 1964 Bicentennial celebration, he was given unlimited access to the store's materials and workers. It was here he developed his interest in Pop Art. The result was a series of Falling Man figures including paintings, assemblages, collages, and movable sculpture, both electronic and hand driven. After the Bicentennial, many of his pieces were shipped to the Pace Gallery in New York City where they received critical acclaim. Ernest Tino Trova died at his home in Richmond Heights, near St. Louis, Missouri on March 8, 2009 at the age of 82.

  • Dimensions: Poster: 30 x 22 in. (76.2 x 55.9 cm.)
  • Condition: 1963 Pace Gallery Poster is folded then addressed and sent as dated U.S. Mail. The 3-D cube form invitation is 'punched' our of its sheet but still has NOT been folded into a cube and lays flat with no creases in its original folder.

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March 21, 2026 10:00 AM CDT
St. Louis, MO, US

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