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Charles Turzak'Dancers' — 1930s American Modernism1939
1939
About the Item
Charles Turzak, 'Dancers', 1939, wood engraving, edition 100. Signed, titled, and numbered 72/100 in pencil. A fine, richly-inked impression, on off-white Japan paper, with full margins (5/8 to 1 1/8 inch), in excellent condition. Matted to museum standards, unframed.
Image size 10 3/16 x 6 13/16 inches (259 x 173 mm); sheet size 12 x 8 3/4 inches (305 x 222 mm).
Impressions of this work are represented in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Norton Museum of Art.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Charles Turzak, born in Streator, Illinois, was the third child and only son of Czechoslovakian immigrant parents. His coal miner father toiled long hours, leaving the boy with numerous household chores. Yet, amidst these responsibilities, Turzak found creative expression in the meticulous carving of miniature animals from peach seeds, a craft he would later sell for pennies.
Turzak learned woodworking from a neighbor, an English cabinet maker, and soon apprenticed for violin making. He drew cartoons for his school's yearbook and designed sale bills for local merchants. In 1920, he won a cartoon contest sponsored by the Purina Company in St. Louis, Missouri, which helped provide his tuition for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He excelled in drawing and woodcarving and gained membership in Delta Phi Delta, an honorary art fraternity. He supported himself through freelance advertising, selling insurance, and teaching woodcut and wood engraving classes at the Academy of Fine Arts.
By the late 1920s, Turzak had gained recognition through the exhibition and sale of his prints of Northwestern University and the iconic Chicago landmarks such as the Chicago Water Tower, Tribune Tower, and Buckingham Fountain, as well as his watercolors of steel mills, boats, harbors, skylines, woodlands, parks, and still life subjects. In 1929, he traveled to Europe to study the works of the masters firsthand, visiting England, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria, and France. His return to the United States coincided with the onset of the Great Depression, a period that would test his resilience and ingenuity.
Turzak was one of the early artists to participate in the Works Progress Administration (WPA) depression-era public art projects designed to employ out-of-work artists. Turzak painted murals for the Old Chicago Main Post Office and the post office in Lemont, Illinois. He produced a WPA-sponsored portfolio, History of Illinois in Woodcuts, in 1935—the acclaimed series of 10 prints helped establish him in an advertising career. During this period, Turzak also created woodcut biographies of notable Americans—his first edition on Abraham Lincoln sold so well at the Century of Progress International Exhibition (Chicago World’s Fair, 1933-34) that it supported him throughout the Depression. He followed it with 'Benjamin Franklin: A Biography in Woodcuts', accompanied by text written by his wife, Florence Turzak.
In 1942, Turzak became the art director of Today's Health Magazine while continuing to create his art. He moved to Orlando, Florida, in 1958, where he continued painting and experimenting with modernist genres and abstraction.
The Figge Art Museum mounted an exhibition of Turzak’s WPA-era graphics, ‘Beyond the Surface: WPA Works of Charles Turzak’, November 11, 2011- March 10, 2012.
Turzak’s graphic works are represented in numerous museum collections, including the Ackland Art Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Cleveland Museum of Art, Columbus Museum of Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, Figge Art Museum, Library of Congress, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Spencer Museum of Art, Western Illinois University Art Gallery, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
- Creator:Charles Turzak (1899 - 1986, American)
- Creation Year:1939
- Dimensions:Height: 10.2 in (25.91 cm)Width: 6.8 in (17.28 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Myrtle Beach, SC
- Reference Number:Seller: 1015471stDibs: LU53232140513
Charles Turzak
Charles Turzak was born in Streator, Illinois. He was a printmaker, a painter, a muralist, a teacher and a graphic artist. Turzak received his art education at the Art Institute of Chicago and continued his studies abroad. He won wide recognition as an artist/author and illustrator through his woodcut biographies of Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin as well as other American Statesmen. Charles Turzak's work has been exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Missouri, Library of Congress and the University of Illinois to mention a few. He is listed in the Who's Who in 20th Century American Artists. Over the years his designs and illustrations for national publishers have brought Turzak many honors for his originality and creativity.
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