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Maurice Kish
Maurice Kish 20th century genre painting

20th Century

About the Item

Framed Maurice Kish (American, 1895-1987) Genre painting of a man carrying water buckets Signed lower left: Maurice Kish Framed dimensions: 12 1/8 x 9 1/8 in. Maurice Kish, painter and poet, was born in Dvinsk, Russia (also known as Denenburg while under Russian rule) which is now known as Daugavpils, Latvia. Dvinsk was one of the leading Jewish cities in Russia in the 19th century, and a center of Jewish culture and debate. It was also a poor city where an estimated 30% of the Jewish population applied for aid in 1898. (1) Maurice (Moishe) Kish was born February 19, 1895 (2). A census conducted 2 years earlier indicated 330 industrial establishments owned by Jews, and 99 owned by non Jews. The dominant trades were tailoring and shoemaking. (1) "Kish… immigrated to New York in his teens. He pursued studies in art at Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design, gaining a foundation solid enough to support himself as a painter and to place his work in exhibitions, by the late 1930's, at such prestigious venues as the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art." (3) Kish also exhibited at the New York World's Fair in 1939, and by 1945 had exhibited 13 times at the National Academy and won 30 art prizes. He was a member of numerous art associations, including the Educational Alliance, the American Veteran Society of Artists, and the Brooklyn Art Alliance. (4) During the Depression Kish often portrayed "factory and street scenes in New York with the tired faces of workers revealing the weight of wage-labor upon their lives." (5) Kish himself was no stranger to the proletarian life - he was a skilled craft worker for decades in a factory which made glass vases. He was short and sturdy, a former amateur boxer, and also served as a dance instructor in the Catskills. In the 1970's, at the age of 75, he was still playing handball in the famous Brighton courts. (6) By the last decade of his life, however, he had lost his eyesight and was infirm. Kish lived most of his adult life in Brooklyn, initially in Brownsville but mainly in Williamsburg, and then Brighton Beach where he became enchanted by Coney Island. He did multiple paintings of Coney Island, including at least three of the carousel horses in revolt (one held by the Butler Institute of American Art). "The Coney Island paintings are partly Kish's fantasy - but they bring out at the same time the constant fight against monotony which ordinary people wage in a variety of ways and on various terrains. To break up the monotony…portends a day of reckoning when we shall make a carnival of our revolutionary acts. He imagined the horses prancing from Danse Macabre, where the dead rise to frolic til the cock's crow pulls them back to their graves." (5) Kish was never able to depend on his art for a living despite his numerous achievements and the high quality of his work. He died in a Queens, New York nursing home on December 31, 1987.
  • Creator:
    Maurice Kish (1895-1987, American)
  • Creation Year:
    20th Century
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 9 in (22.86 cm)Width: 7 in (17.78 cm)Depth: 1 in (2.54 cm)
  • Medium:
    Oil,Board
  • Movement & Style:
    American Modern
  • Period:
    20th Century
  • Condition:
    Some separation in the frame.
  • Gallery Location:
    New York, NY
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: BM51stDibs: LU2211211410752

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