Bacia Gordon

Portrait of an Israeli Boy

1956

Maybe her name doesn’t ring a bell. Like everyone else who ever went into the old Mooresville Post Office at 305 N. Main St., across the street from the bank, I would look at the large mural over the door to the postmaster’s office — now the school district superintendent’s office — read the name of the artist, and wonder who she was. Alicia Wiencek (April 23, 1918- Feb. 17, 1961) has remained something of an enigma, at least locally. I set about finding more regarding the artist. The first clue I found about her came from a small, 1937 article in the old Mooresville Enterprise: “Miss Alicia Wiencek of New York City will paint the mural for the local [post office] building. She was in the city several days last week, looking over the various industries and talking with a number of ‘old–timers’ about Mooresville’s early history and present trend of development. She visited a number of places of business, the cotton gins and the mills, seeming to be impressed with the importance of the cotton industry, so that it is believed cotton will at least have its share of the subject matter of the decoration. “The mural will cover the space above the entrance to the postmaster’s office, a space of about 8 by 4 feet. It is not known whether Miss Wiencek will do the work here, or whether she will bring it with her completed, upon her return.” Fine, but what happened to her after she did the mural in Mooresville? What other works did she complete? Where might one go to view them? How long did Miss Wiencek stay in the Mooresville area, absorbing local color and sights? Alicia was born in Chicopee, Mass., and was apparently of Polish descent. She studied at the Art Students League in New York City. One of her instructors there was Ernest Feine (1894-1965), a naturalized citizen of German birth who was both a painter and a printmaker. He was also known for his fine murals and frescoes. Ernest, with Alicia as his assistant, worked on two murals, one for the post office in Canton, Mass., and one in Washington, D.C., in the Department of the Interior Building. The two must have worked well together, for Feine divorced his first wife and married Alicia on Aug. 13, 1945, in Connecticut. Of the two artists, Ernest is the more famous. But back to Mooresville. The official title of her oil-on-canvas work in Mooresville is “The Cotton Industry in North Carolina.” It is interesting to note that the post office building was completed and in use by August 1937, several months before Alicia received the government contract for the mural. Her work was part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal, a Works Progress Administration project to put artists and writers to work during the Great Depression. The old Mooresville Post Office Building is one of several in the same style in North Carolina built according to the town’s population. The old post offices in Beaufort, Laurinburg, Marion, Siler City, Wake Forest...

American artist Samuel Brecher (active NY, 1897-1982) Oil on Canvas, Signed lower right ‘S. Brecher’ Brecher was a very accomplished painter who won over forty prestigious prizes and awards during his career, and had numerous one-man exhibitions. Brecher’s works are included in many important private collections as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Walker Art Museum, the Smithsonian and the Newark Museum of Art. He is listed in Who’s Who in American Art and is a member of the Salmugundi Club* and the National Academy of Art Samuel Brecher was born in Boryslaw, Austria, a town near the Carpathian Mountains, now a part of Poland. His family came to New York in 1910, where Samuel graduated from Cooper Union* in 1921. He studied Art at the National Academy of Design* from 1921-1924, and continued studies under Charles W. Hawthorne in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Brecher was represented by several well known New York City galleries in the 1940’s and 1950’s including the Kraushaar Gallery, the ACA Gallery, the Hudson Walker Gallery and the Merrill Gallery. During his career he won over forty prestigious prizes and awards and had numerous one-man shows. Some of Brechers’s contemporary artist friends were Walt Kuhn, Reginald Marsh, Richard Haley...

From The British mandate Pre State of Israel Palestine Period. Eliahu Sigad (Eliyahu Sigard), painter, born 1901, Lithuania. Founder of Israeli Painters' Association. Educated in Europe. Prizes in Israel, Exhibitions in Israel and various countries of the world. Died 1975. Education Riga, architecture and drawing Colarossi Academy, Paris, France 1930 Grande Chaumiere, Paris, France Awards And Prizes 1938 Dizengoff Prize 1945-46, Dizengoff Prize 1945 Ramat Gan...

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This evocative portrait captures a young boy in school uniform, with a striking orange tie contrasting against his pale shirt and background. The loose, impressionistic brushwork cre...

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