Skip to main content
Video Loading
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 9

Seymour Fogel
WPA Mural Study American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern Workers

c. 1930s/40s

$35,000
£25,971.36
€30,253.07
CA$48,720.25
A$54,254.40
CHF 28,236.42
MX$668,950.17
NOK 359,612.35
SEK 338,000.75
DKK 225,725.46
Shipping
Retrieving quote...
The 1stDibs Promise:
Authenticity Guarantee,
Money-Back Guarantee,
24-Hour Cancellation

About the Item

WPA Mural Study American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern Workers Seymour Fogel (1911-1984) Mural Study, untitled 11 x 49 1/4 inches (sight) Tempera on board Provenance: Graham Modern label verso Framed 25 x 62 inches BIO Seymour Fogel was born in New York City on August 24, 1911. He studied at the Art Students League and at the National Academy of Design under George Bridgeman and Leon Kroll. When his formal studies were concluded in the early 1930s he served as an assistant to Diego Rivera who was then at work on his controversial Rockefeller Center mural. It was from Rivera that he learned the art of mural painting. Fogel was awarded several mural commissions during the 1930s by both the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, among them his earliest murals at the Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, New York in 1936, a mural in the WPA Building at the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair, a highly controversial mural at the U.S. Post Office in Safford, Arizona (due to his focus on Apache culture) in 1941 and two murals in what was then the Social Security Building in Washington, D.C., also in 1941. Fogel's artistic circle at this time included Phillip Guston, Ben Shahn, Franz Kline, Rockwell Kent and Willem de Kooning. In 1946 Fogel accepted a teaching position at the University of Texas at Austin and became one of the founding artists of the Texas Modernist Movement. At this time he began to devote himself solely to abstract, non-representational art and executed what many consider to be the very first abstract mural in the State of Texas at the American National Bank in Austin in 1953. He pioneered the use of Ethyl Silicate as a mural medium. Other murals and public works of art done during this time (the late 1940s and 1950s) include the Baptist Student Center at the University of Texas (1949), the Petroleum Club in Houston (1951) and the First Christian Church, also in Houston (1956), whose innovative use of stained glass panels incorporated into the mural won Fogel a Silver Medal from the Architectural League of New York in 1958. Fogel relocated to the Connecticut-New York area in 1959. He continued the Abstract Expressionism he had begun exploring in Texas, and began experimenting with various texturing media for his paintings, the most enduring of which was sand. In 1966 he was awarded a mural at the U.S. Federal Building in Fort Worth, Texas. The work, entitled "The Challenge of Space", was a milestone in his artistic career and ushered in what has been termed the Transcendental/Atavistic period of his art, a style he pursued up to his death in 1984. Painted and raw wood sculpture was also reflective of this style. Another mural done during this period was the U.S. Customs Building at Foley Square in New York City that was entirely executed in mosaic tiles, a mural medium he preferred in the last decades of his career. Fogel's work is well represented in the collections of major museums, among them the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, the Dallas Museum of Fine Art in Texas, the National Portrait Gallery and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., The State Museum of Louisiana in New Orleans, and the Telfair Museum in Savannah, Georgia. During his life Fogel authored numerous articles on the interrelationship of art and architecture, served as a Vice President of the Architectural League of New York (1960) and has had his work imaged and/or discussed in some thirty books, including Nathanial Pousette-Dart's seminal work "American Painting Today" (1956) where Fogel was included along with the likes of Milton Avery, Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, Edward Hopper, Yasuo Kuniyoshi and Stuart Davis as important American artists.
  • Creator:
    Seymour Fogel (1911-1984, American)
  • Creation Year:
    c. 1930s/40s
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 25 in (63.5 cm)Width: 62 in (157.48 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    New York, NY
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU1156215036892

More From This Seller

View All
WPA Mural Study 1940 American Scene Modern Social Realism Figurative Mid Century
By Michael Loew
Located in New York, NY
WPA Mural Study 1940 American Scene Modern Social Realism Figurative Mid Century Michael Loew (1907-1985) Detail for Mural (Social Security Building Washington D.C.) 24 x 24 inches ...
Category

1940s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

WPA Mural Study Mid-Century Modern American Scene Social Realism Workers
By Anton Refregier
Located in New York, NY
WPA Mural Study Mid-Century Modern American Scene Social Realism Workers Anton Refregier (1905-1979) Mural Study, Untitled 7 ¾ x 22 inches (sight) Gouache, pencil, and charcoal on board, c. 1940s Unsigned Provenance: Estate of Seymour Fogel, noted verso Thomas McCormick Gallery...
Category

1940s American Modern Mixed Media

Materials

Charcoal, Gouache, Board, Pencil

Post Office WPA Mural Study American Scene Social Realism Modern 20th Century
By Carlos Lopez
Located in New York, NY
Post Office WPA Mural Study American Scene Social Realism Modern 20th Century Carlos Lopez (1910-1953) "Bounty" WPA Mural Study for Michigan Post Office 19 ½ x 22 ½ inches Oil on B...
Category

1940s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

St, Louis River Mural Study American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century WPA
By Jo Cain
Located in New York, NY
St, Louis River Mural Study American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century WPA Jo Cain (1904-2003) The Drama of the St. Louis Great River 23 1/4 x 25 ½ inches Gouache on board c. 19...
Category

1930s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board

"Good Health Week" WPA American Scene Mid 20th Century Modern Social Realism
By Jo Cain
Located in New York, NY
"Good Health Week" WPA American Scene Mid 20th Century Modern Social Realism Jo Cain (1904 – 2003) Good Health Week 10 ½ x 15 1/2 inches Oil on pape...
Category

1940s American Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Oil

WPA Post Office Mural Study American Scene Regionalism Social Realism
By Louise Ronnebeck
Located in New York, NY
WPA Post Office Mural Study American Scene Regionalism Social Realism Louise Emerson Ronnebeck (1901 - 1980) Oil Riggers, Mural Study Image: 6 1/2 x 37 inches Watercolor and egg tem...
Category

1930s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Cardboard

You May Also Like

WPA "New Americana" Exceptional Antique 1941 WPA Exhibited Carnegie Painting
Located in Exton, PA
Monumental, important WPA painting by Percy Albee. The painting is oil canvas measuring 36" x 48". Titled verso "New Americans", this WPA painting was exhibited at the Carnegie Insti...
Category

1940s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Samuel Greenburg, Rural Scene Mural Study
Located in New York, NY
This Rural Scene Mural Study by Samuel Greenburg is scored in a manner indicating transfer to a larger format. However as yet no related image or mural is...
Category

Mid-20th Century Other Art Style Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Tempera, Pencil

Gatherers of Dry Wood - Oil Painting Cubism - French
By Valentine Prax
Located in London, GB
VALENTINE ZADKINE PRAX 1897-1981 (French) Title: Gatherers of Dry Wood / Ramasseuses de Bois Mort, circa 1925 Technique: Original Signed Oil Painting on canvas size: 116.2 x 100.3 cm / 45.75 x 39.5 in Additional Information: This original oil painting by Valentine Prax-Zadkine is hand signed by the artist at the lower left part. It was painted in circa 1925. Provenance: Collection Pierre Alexandre Regnauld (1868-1954), Amsterdam. Anonymous sale; Collection de Tableaux Modernes de feu P.A. Regnault, Paul Brandt...
Category

1920s Cubist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Modernist Style Painting by American Artist Raymond O'Neill, 1930's-1940's
Located in San Francisco, CA
Art Deco / Modernist style painting titled "Figures in Meditation" by American artist Raymond O'Neill (b.1893 - d.1962.) Oil on board in painted wood ...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Paintings

Materials

Paint

1970s Abstract Figurative Oil Painting – Modernist City Scene With Couple
Located in Denver, CO
Artist: George Cecil Carter (1908–1993) Medium: Oil on board Size: Image: 16 ⅞ x 9 ⅞ in Framed: 20 ⅝ x 13 ½ x 1 ⅞ in Style: Mid-Century Modern, Abstract Figurative This striking 1950s oil painting by celebrated Colorado abstract expressionist George Cecil Carter presents a modernist portrayal of a couple, believed to depict Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O’Keeffe. Rendered in bold brushstrokes and a rich color palette, the piece showcases Carter’s unique ability to merge abstraction with figurative expression, creating a sense of movement and emotion. Housed in a custom frame, this original mid-century artwork is a must-have for collectors of modernist and abstract figurative art. Provenance: From a private collection in Denver, Colorado. About the Artist – George Cecil Carter Born in Oklahoma in 1908, Carter became a leading figure in Colorado’s abstract expressionist movement, working alongside artists like Al Wynne, Mary Chenoweth...
Category

1950s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

The Family, circa 1930's
By Bela Kadar
Located in London, GB
BELA KADAR 1877-1956 Budapest 1877-1956 (Hungarian) Title: The Family, circa 1930's Technique: Original Signed Tempera on paper Image size: 90 x 71.5 cm / 35.4 x 28.2 in Additional Information: The work is hand signed "Kadar Bela...
Category

1930s Expressionist Figurative Prints

Materials

Tempera