William Meyerowitz, Post Impressionist Oil Painting Still Life With Fruit William Meyerowitz Wpa Art

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William Meyerowitz (1887 - 1981)
Oil painting on canvas
Depicting a still life scene with fruit bowl, bananas, flowers and … Read more William Meyerowitz (1887 - 1981)
Oil painting on canvas
Depicting a still life scene with fruit bowl, bananas, flowers and quilt. Post Impressionist oil painting.
Hand signed lower right. Bears signature but no date.
Dimensions: 24" height x 28" width. Measures approx. 28 1/2" height x 32 3/8" width framed.

William Meyerowitz (Russian-American, 1887 - 1981) was born in Russia and along with his father, immigrated to this country in 1908; the rest of the family followed shortly thereafter. By the time he arrived in New York, young Meyerowitz was already involved in the two activities which would be at the center of this life for the next 70 years: music and art. Between 1912 and 1916, William Meyerowitz studied at the National Academy of Design (he was awarded the Eliot Medal and the 1st honorable mention of the Prix de Rome), focusing on the art of etching. During this time, he supported himself by singing in the Metropolitan Opera choir and by doing architectural drawings. After completing his studies, Meyerowitz, working with fellow artists George Bellows and Robert Henri, helped organize the People's Art Guild. The organization was intended to help introduce art to the common man by providing alternative exhibition spaces including areas set aside in East Side tenement houses. He had his first one-man exhibition in 1919. In 1923 he was given a solo-exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution's U.S. National Museum. Meyerowitz was elected to membership in the National Academy of Design, N.Y., in 1943. During the Great Depression, Meyerowitz painted murals in Connecticut post offices as a part of the WPA Federal Arts Program and he was active in politics, economics and religious issues throughout his life. From 1940-1945 he taught painting and etching at the Modern School of Self-Expression in the Bronx. He had exhibitions at institutions including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the New-York Historical Society. Although Meyerowitz achieved recognition for his paintings, he is best known for the development of an original technique for producing etchings in color. He demonstrated this process in an educational film, entitled “Magic Needle,” made by the Fox Film Corp. in 1926. The artist was fully involved in the New York art scene from the 1920’s. He was an invited member of the Whitney Studio Club and the Society of Independent Artists. Among his friends or students were such artists as Reginald Marsh, Gaston Lachaise, Joseph Stella, Childe Hassam, Stuart Davis, Joan Sloan, Marcel Duchamp, Edward Hopper, John Marin, William Zorach, Mark Rothko, and Louise Nevelson. It was through this work that Meyerowitz met artist Theresa Bernstein. The two were married in 1919 and spent the next 60 years working side by side in New York City (Raphael Soyer lived at this apartment) and on Cape Ann, first in Folly Cove and then on Mt. Pleasant Avenue in East Gloucester. He was awarded many medals including Layton Prize, Audubon Society of Artists; Speyer Prize (NAD); Library of Congress Prize; Grumbacher Purchase Prize, Audubon Soc. of Artists; Gold Medals at the Rockport AA (1970, 1978), Gold Medal at the Italian Academy of Art, Parma (1980), the title of Academico D'Europa at the International Exhibition at the Palazzo, Parma, Italy (1983); Gold Medal, Academy of Rome. He painted and etched portraits of Justices Holmes, Brandeis, Cardozo, Black, Stone, Roberts, Frankfurter, Douglas, Chief Justice Hughes, Professor Albert Einstein, and painted Senator Jacob Javits and others. Meyerowitz loved music and went to Harlem jazz clubs with Stuart Davis and hung with Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O'Keeffe, Charles Demuth, Jan Matulka, Marsden Hartley, Oscar Bluemner and William Glackens. His work is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Baltimore Museum; Dayton Art Institute; Corcoran Gallery of Art; Carnegie Institute; National Academy of Arts & Letters; Detroit Institute; National Academy of Design; Harvard University, Library of Congress, Speed Memorial Museum, Jewish Museum (NY), Albany Institute, Bibliotheque Nationale, and more. He died in New York City in May, 1981. Jewish American artist. See less