Boris Deutsch, 1947 Expressionist Oil Painting Flute Player Musician Boris Deutsch WPA Artist, 1947, Framed

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Boris Deutsch (American Lithuanian Russian, 1892-1978)
"The Flute Player," 1947
Oil paint on canvas,
Hand signed and dated upper left,
… Read more Boris Deutsch (American Lithuanian Russian, 1892-1978)
"The Flute Player," 1947
Oil paint on canvas,
Hand signed and dated upper left,
Provenance: gallery label (Pasadena Art Museum) verso, (deaccessioned)
Dimensions overall (with frame): 36"h x 31"w (canvas is about 24 X 20)
Expressionist portrait painting of flute player.


Boris Deutsch was a modernist figurative painter important in Southern California during the 1930s and 1940s. Before immigrating from Russia, he studied briefly in Riga, Lithuania at the art academy and with a commercial artist, and in 1912 he attended the Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin. After coming to the United States he spent three years in Seattle before settling in Los Angeles. He began exhibiting in 1922 and was one of the four organizers of the Group of Independent Artists exhibition in 1923 at the MacDowell Women’s Club in Los Angeles, the West Coast equivalent of the Armory Show. Deutsch was given his first solo exhibition in 1926 by the Los Angeles Museum and thereafter had numerous exhibitions in other cities, including a solo exhibition in New York in 1933. At times he supported himself by working as a commercial artist and set designer for motion pictures. He received numerous mural commissions sponsored by the New Deal projects, winning in 1941 the large competition to decorate the Terminal Annex Post Office in Los Angeles.
Boris Deutsch was born in Krasnogorsk Lithuania june 4 1892 died in Los Angeles, California 1978. His work marries the social protest of Pablo Picasso to the humanism of Georges Rouault. Deutch entered the polytechnic school in Riga, Latvia in 1905. School of applied arts Berlin, Germany in 1912. Settled in L.A. 1919 married Riva Segal 1924. Solo show U.C.L.A. 1926. Exhibited palace of the legion of honor San Francisco 1930. Works for the resettlement administration (WPA) 1936. Oakland art gallery annual exhibition guest of honor 1937. Exhibition at U.S.C. 1939. Post office murals for the treasury dept and downtown main post office major murals 1941-1944. Teaches at Otis art institute L.A. 1944-1950. First price in Pepsi Cola competition for his painting "What atomic war will do to you" 1946 collection of the Whitney museum N.Y. Exhibited westside jewish community center L.A. 1966. Chagall calls him the greatest jewish artist of our time 1955. The legacy of Boris Deutsch a centennial exhibition by the Judah l. Magnes museum berkeley ca. May 24 -sept.20 1992. This is the most important jewish subject painting by this great artist painted in 1947 it resembles a William Gropper, Marc Chagall or Issachar Ber Ryback work of art very art deco in style. He painted scenes from depression era California and from the Jewish shtetl of his youth in particular Klezmer musicians. A painting of his wife Riva sold at butterfields auction for 17000 dollars a painting of three girls sold at sotheby's in 1982 for 32.000.
He has been exhibited with Judaica artists from around the world. Ephraim Moshe Lilien in Vienna, Joseph Budko, Hermann Struck and Jakob Steinhardt in Berlin and Marc Chagall in Paris, Jankel Adler, Benn, Boris Deutsch, Todros Geller, Henryk Glicenstein, Chaim Goldberg, Chaim Gross, Arthur Kolnik, Ilya Schor, Jacques Zucker and Frank Meisler. In Russia Deutsch had studied for the rabbinate, and his Jewish heritage furnished him with subject matter and endowed his art with an emotional intensity. His first major series, on contemporary Jewish life, revealed a brooding, contemplative aspect and reflected his Talmudic studies. In the 1930s he began painting portraits of his wife, exploring the emotional power of form and color. In 1946 he won the third annual Pepsi-Cola Art Competition with his What Atomic War Will Do to You, 1946 (Magnes Museum, Berkeley). Late in life he turned to printmaking and experimented with monotypes. See less