Nura Ulreich

'Greta & Grace', Leapfrog, Modernism, Woman Artist, Art Deco, Smithsonian, Paris

1943

Nora Woodson Ulreich was born in 1899 in Kansas City, Missouri, and was known professionally as “Nura.” She was a painter, printmaker, author, and illustrator, particularly of children’s books. Ulreich studied at the Kansas City Art Institute, the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, and the Art Students League in New York. She also studied in Paris where she met her Hungarian-born husband, fellow artist Eduard Buk Ulreich, and first exhibited at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in 1926. Her style was a studied but naïve form of modernism and she often portrayed seemingly innocent views of children and their pets. Nura was a strong believer in Christian Science and sometimes included spiritual motifs in her whimsical pieces with an Art Deco-inspired palette. Nura frequently collaborated with Edward and their combined works often use the moniker “Bukannura.” In 1927, their work was exhibited at the Dudensing Gallery on 57th Street in New York. Eduard was also a muralist who completed commissions for the Treasury Department’s Section of Fine Arts between 1937 and 1940. Both Nura and Eduard are listed in Who Was Who in American Art and all other standard references.