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Alicia Wiencek FieneJewish Student1938
1938
About the Item
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 and perhaps other North Carolina towns are of the same design.
Mooresville’s Post Office was dedicated by the postmaster general himself, James A. Farley, on April 26, 1938. This was one of the few times that a high-ranking Washington official had ever come to Mooresville and the schools were let out so that students might attend the ceremony.
Since 1986 the old post office building has housed the office of the Mooresville Graded School District.
There is no record of when Alicia’s mural was installed, although it may have been completed by June 1938. We also do not know if she actually came to Mooresville and if so, how long she was here.
Alicia Wiencek Feine died in New York City at the age of 42. She was survived by her husband, a 14-year-old son named Paul Rene and a 6-year-old daughter, Maria Louise.
At the time of her passing other examples of her work could also be viewed at the New York Naval Shipyard in Brooklyn and two murals she did with Ernest at the High School of Fashion Industries in Manhattan.
Alicia also illustrated the book, “Clown: My Life in Tatters and Smiles,” by Emmett and Beverly Kelly (1954).
Alicia Weincek aka Alicia Fiene
Mooresville, North Carolina, North Carolina Cotton Industry, 1938
mentioned in Mooresville's article 5/8 by B7
[126] per her signature, the spelling of her surname is WIENCEK
[127] born April 23, 1918 in Chicopee, Massachusetts. She studied at the Art Students League of New York with Ernest Fiene and served as an assistant to two paintings with Fiene: Paul Revere – 1801 at the post office in Canton, Massachusetts and Winter Roundup at the Department of the Interior Building in Washington, D.C. Fiene divorced his first wife and he and Wiencek married in Connecticut on August 13, 1945. She died at the age of 42 on February 17, 1961 in New York City.
She also assisted Fiene in the painting of murals on the walls of the the auditorium of the Central High School of Needle Trades for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.
Exhibited and worked after her marriage as Alicia Fiene.
- Creator:Alicia Wiencek Fiene (1918 - 1961, American)
- Creation Year:1938
- Dimensions:Height: 19 in (48.26 cm)Width: 14.75 in (37.47 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:Measurements include frame, frame has wear, some acid damage on paper.
- Gallery Location:Surfside, FL
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU38211665112
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