Jul

10

Weekend, July10-11, 2021 – A WPA ARTIST WHOSE JOYFUL ART IS MEMORABLE

By admin

JULY 10-11, 2021

OUR 412TH EDITION


JOSEPHINE JOY

ARTIST

  • Josephine Joy, Irish Cottage, ca. 1935-1938, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the Newark Museum, 1966.31.8
  • This quaint Irish cottage was probably inspired by romantic illustrations of Ireland that appeared in American travel brochures and books. The lady playing a harp, however, is based on the symbol of the Society of United Irishmen, an organization formed in 1791 to rebel against British control. Their badge combined a harp (Ireland’s national icon), with the motto: ​“It is new strung and shall be heard.”

Josephine Hiett Joy was born near Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, in 1869 and soon thereafter her family moved to Peoria, Illinois. After an early marriage that ended in divorce, she went to Chicago and subsequently married Frank Joy. She became interested in painting after they moved to San Diego. A prolific worker, she became a WPA artist in the late 1930s, which led to her first solo exhibition at the Galerie St. Etienne in New York City in 1943. Joy died in Peoria in 1948.

Josephine Joy was born Sally Hiett, but changed her name when she was sixteen years old. As a young woman, she lived in Chicago and Denver before settling in San Diego, California, with her husband. It was there that she began to paint, creating images of flowers and landscapes, and she particularly enjoyed sketching animals at the San Diego Zoo. During the Great Depression, Joy worked with the California Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which helped bring national attention to her work. In the spring of 1943, she held her first one-woman show at the Galerie St. Etienne in New York, which received considerable praise from critics.

Josephine Joy, Magnolia Blossoms, ca. 1935-1941, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from General Services Administration, 1971.447.44

Josephine Joy grew up on an Illinois farm, where she loved to sketch birds, trees, and flowers. Circumstances prevented her from following her artistic calling until 1927, after her children were grown and her husband had died. Joy lived in California then, and the WPA’s California Art Project afforded her the opportunity to work gainfully as an artist. In the 1930s, ​“non-academic” painters were increasingly celebrated alongside their professional peers. By the early 1940s, Joy was a nationally acclaimed painter whose work had been featured in a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

  • Josephine Joy, San Diego Mission, ca. 1935-1939, oil on fiberboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from General Services Administration, 1971.447.45
  • Josephine Joy’s paintings combine direct observation and imaginative design. This is especially evident in this painting of the Mission San Diego de Alcala, the first of California’s twenty-one missions. Founded in 1769, the building underwent renovations in 1931. Certain features of San Diego Mission are drawn from the renovation, while others appear much older. The newly built bell tower contrasts with the cracked and exposed brick and the aged building to the right. Joy painted San Diego Mission while working with the WPA’s Southern California Art Project in Los Angeles from 1936 to 1939.

“I love to paint in the open, sitting in some beautiful garden, hillside or remote place or in Balboa Park [in San Diego], where I had sketched many pictures … I paint from nature but occasionally I find myself designing.” The artist, quoted in Cat and a Ball on a Waterfall: 200 Years of California Folk Painting and Sculpture, 1986

  • Josephine Joy, Trysting at Evening, ca. 1935-1939, oil on fiberboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from General Services Administration, 1971.447.39
  • This painting may have been inspired by a sketch Josephine Joy made on one of her trips to the San Diego Zoo. The bench and railing in the image imply that this scene is a part of some man-made environment. The two peacocks in the foreground spread their trains to the fullest, displaying the bright colors of their plumage, and lift their chins in an attempt to attract a mate. The three birds perched on the railing and in the tree, however, ignore this elaborate show. In nature, the male peacocks are more brightly colored than female peahens, but here the artist shows them all to be more similarly colored.

Josephine Joy, Waterbirds Nesting, ca. 1935-1939, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from General Services Administration, 1971.447.42

Josephine Joy, Moufflon–Bobtailed Sheep, ca. 1935-1939, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from General Services Administration, 1971.447.40

Josephine Joy, Prisoner’s Plea, ca. 1935-1937, oil on fiberboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from General Services Administration, 1971.447.38

Josephine Joy, CCC Camp Balboa Park, ca. 1933-1937, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from General Services Administration, 1971.447.41

WEEKEND PHOTO OF THE DAY
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FRIDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY

STARRETT – LEHIGH BUILDING

The Starrett–Lehigh Building at 601 West 26th Street, between Eleventh and Twelfth Avenues and between 26th and 27th Streets in Chelsea, Manhattan, New York City, is a full-block freight terminal, warehouse and office building. It was built in 1930–31 as a joint venture of the Starrett Corporation and the Lehigh Valley Railroad on a lot where the railroad had its previous freight terminal, and was designed by the firm of (Russell G.) Cory & (Walter M.) Cory, with Yasuo Matsui the associate architect and the firm of Purdy & Henderson the consulting, structural engineers. When William A. Starrett died in 1932, the Lehigh Valley Railroad bought the building outright, but by 1933 it was a losing proposition, with a net loss that year of $300,000. The Starrett–Lehigh Building was named a New York City landmark in 1986,[1] and is part of the West Chelsea Historic District, designated in 2008

NINA LUBLIN, ROBIN LYNN, ARON EISENPREISS, ANDY SPARBERG,
ED LITCHER (WHO SENT THE HISTORY),

Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by  Deborah Dorff

Roosevelt Island Historical Society

All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated

SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM

FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD

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Jul

9

Friday, July 9, 2021 – ALWAYS BUSTLING GATEWAY TO THE CITY AND THE WORLD

By admin

FRIDAY, JULY 9, 2021

The

411th Edition

New York’s

Working Waterfront

Kenneth R. Cobb

NYC DEPARTMENT OF RECORDS & INFORMATION SERVICES

The Department of Docks photograph collection includes numerous large-format glass-plate negatives that depict the intense commercial activity along both the East and North (Hudson) River waterfronts. West Street, ca. 1922. Department of Docks Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

New York’s Working Waterfront

Kenneth R. Cobb

New York City is an archipelago of islands.  Of the five Boroughs, only the Bronx is connected by land to the continental United States. When temperatures rise many New Yorkers naturally gravitate to the 520 miles of shoreline along the rivers, bays and ocean that surround the city.  Or would, if they could. 

In recent years, sections of the waterfront have been reclaimed for housing and recreation; Brooklyn Bridge Park and Hudson River Park are two notable examples.  But from the days of the first Dutch colonial settlement in the 1600s, until the 1960s, most of the waterfront had been virtually inaccessible except to those involved in the commercial maritime activities that had been the basis of the city’s economy.   And if not consumed by docks, piers, factories and other structures, transportation arteries – railways, parkways, and highways – girded many more miles of the waterfront, further impeding access.    

The Municipal Archives collections includes extensive documentation of the City’s investment in its waterfront.  The records date from the earliest years of the Department of Docks (1870– 1897); Docks and Ferries (1898 -1918); Department of Docks (1919-1942); Marine and Aviation (1942-1977); Ports and Terminals (1978-1985), through its final iteration, the Department of Ports and Trade (1986-1991).  These series offer hundreds of cubic feet of maps, surveys, official correspondence and photographs.

Here are some of the more evocative images of New York’s working waterfront in its glory days.

Teams waiting at East 35th Street for the ferry to Brooklyn, November 1910. Department of Docks Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Dozens of steamship lines brought hundreds of thousands of immigrants to the United States via New York City. Italian Line, West 34th Street, 1903. Department of Docks Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Not every inch of the waterfront was devoted to commercial activities. In 1897, the Department of Docks built the first Recreation Pier at Corlear’s Hook in Manhattan; others were added on the East River at 112th Street, and the Hudson River at Christopher Street and 50th Street. Designed in the French Renaissance style they featured seating for 500 on the second floor and typically offered musical entertainments and food concessions. Recreation Pier Rendering, undated. Department of Docks Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Recreation Pier. The sign over the entry doors reads: “Dancing on this Pier for Children from 3 to 5 p.m. Daily Except Sunday.” Recreation Pier, undated. Department of Docks Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

The Cty began building the East River Drive in 1929 and the West Side Highway in 1931. By the time master builder Robert Moses finished construction in the 1950s, multi-lane arterial highways would line the waterfronts of four of the five Boroughs. Elevated Public Highway, looking south from Duane Street, June 23, 1937. Borough President Manhattan Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Completed in 1910, the Chelsea Piers along the Hudson River between Little West 12th Street and West 23rd Street were built to accommodate the new Titanic-class of ocean liners coming from Europe. Warren & Wetmore, architects of Grand Central Terminal, designed the pier sheds. Pier 56, Chelsea Piers Elevation, Department of Ports and Trade Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

In the 1930s, W.P.A. Federal Writers’ Project staff photographed dockworkers loading and unloading cargo on piers throughout the city. By the 1960s, containerization would eliminate thousands of these jobs. Unloading coffee from Brazil at the Gowanus Bay Pier, Brooklyn, ca. 1937. WPA-Federal Writers’ Project Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

The fishing industry persevered in lower Manhattan until 2005 when it relocated to the Hunts Point Market in The Bronx. Fulton Fish Market, April 14, 1952. Department of Marine and Aviation Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

By the mid-20th century, New York was one of the worlds’ greatest port cities. At its peak this vast infrastructure extended well beyond lower Manhattan and included miles of Brooklyn’s waterfront. Aerial view of the Brooklyn waterfront near Atlantic Avenue, September 19, 1956. Department of Marine and Aviation Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

The Department of Marine and Aviation collection includes large format color transparencies. Aerial view, East River, Manhattan, November 5, 1953. Department of Marine and Aviation Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Until the advent of jet air service in the 1960s, luxury ocean liners dominated the trans-Atlantic market. The S.S. United States and the S.S. America, New York harbor, April 7, 1963. Department of Marine and Aviation Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

In the 1960s the commercial cargo industry defected to the Port of Newark in New Jersey which had space to accommodate the mechanized equipment needed to load and unload the containerized shipments. Many of the City’s plans to improve its waterfront infrastructure during that time period went no further than the drawing board. East River, Manhattan, Pier Improvements, Rendering. Department of Marine and Aviation Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Perhaps Department of Marine and Aviation Commissioner Edward F. Cavanagh was mourning the end of an era as he watched the arrival of the Queen Mary in New York harbor on February 6, 1953. (Negative damaged.) Department of Marine and Aviation Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

FRIDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY

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TO ROOSEVELTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM

THURSDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
SEATNG AREA NOW OPEN AND WAITING FOR YOU TO VISIT OUR NOW FULLY OPENED NYPL BRANCH

ALEXIS VILLEFANE, NINA LUBLIN, JAY JACOBSON,
GLORIA HERMAN, MITCH ELINSON,
ALL GOT IT!!!

Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter  and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c)

UNTAPPED NEW YORK

FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD

Copyright © 2021 Roosevelt Island Historical Society, All rights reserved.Our mailing address is:
rooseveltislandhistory@gmail.com

Jul

8

Thursday, July 8, 2021 – FIND OUT WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE EAST RIVER

By admin

THURSDAY, JULY 8, 2021

THE  410th  EDITION

FROM OUR ARCHIVES

East River Esplanade

Extension

UPDATE

DIRECTLY ACROSS FROM CORNELL TECH A NEW WATERFRONT WALKWAY/PROMENADE IS TAKING SHAPE. ENJOY WATCHING THE GIANT CRANES AND BARGES WORKING IN THE RIVER.

YOU CAN WATCH PROGRESS AS NEW SECTIONS ARE FLOATED INTO PLACE EVERY WEEKEND.

A rendering of the East Midtown Greenway, as it will appear looking north near East 54th Street. (New York City Economic Development Corporation)

The creation of the East Midtown Greenway (EMG), a 1.5-acre public space stretching from East 53rd to 61st Streets along the waterfront, got underway Friday. The project, to be completed by 2022, is part of the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway initiative to wrap the entire perimeter of Manhattan with accessible public spaces and safe bicycle paths. The midtown space will close one of the largest remaining gaps in the $250 million city initiative, announced by Mayor de Blasio in 2018, to connect 32 miles of Manhattan waterfront esplanade.

The Manhattan Waterfront Greenaway project will close gaps in Inwood, Harlem, and East Harlem, as well as the East Midtown space. The goal is to connect neighborhoods to their waterfronts and add about 15 acres of open space. The planned esplanade will connect the bike paths that line the city’s perimeter so that cyclists can safely circle Manhattan without veering off into city streets.

After a six-month delay during the pandemic, construction has resumed on the long-awaited project adding a new eight-block stretch to the East River Esplanade.

The East Midtown Greenway will stretch between East 53rd and 61st streets, creating new waterfront access and public space and bringing the city closer to its long-held goal of creating a continuous, 32-mile loop around Manhattan.

The existing esplanade runs north above East 60th Street and into East Harlem. Construction started in November on the new $100 million greenway, which will be built directly above the East River, but came to a halt in the spring as the coronavirus took hold.

Now, even as the city faces a severe fiscal shortfall that has thrown a wrench into many capital projects, the greenway will be allowed to restart construction since work had already begun when the pandemic hit.

RENDERINGS  FOR THE PROJECT

(FINAL PLANS MAY HAVE CHANGED)

Portion will be over the water. Remember when there was a temporary roadway in this area when the FR Drive was being renovated?

THURSDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY

Can you identify this photo from today’s edition?
Send you submission to 
ROOSEVELTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM

TUESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
GLORIA HERMAN AND ED  LITCHER
GOT IT.
CON  ED HEADQUARTERS 14TH STREET AND IRVING PLACE

Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c)
Roosevelt Island Historical Society
unless otherwise indicated

UPPER EAST SIDE PATCH
NYC/EDC
6SQ FT

FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD

Copyright © 2021 Roosevelt Island Historical Society, All rights reserved.Our mailing address is:
rooseveltislandhistory@gmail.com

Jul

7

Wednesday, July 7, 2021 – THINK OF SUMMER IN NEW YORK ON TOP OF “TAR BEACH”

By admin

FROM THE ARCHIVES

WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2021


409th ISSUE

Artist

SAUL KOVNER

HARLEM RIVER FRONT

Saul Kovner

Russian-born Saul Kovner studied at the National Academy of Design in New York City with Charles Hawthorne and William Auerbach-Levy, considered one of America’s most renowned caricaturists. Kovner was employed as a painter and printmaker by the Federal Art Project, a branch of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) created during the Great Depression to give financial and moral support to America’s artists. He often dropped his surname when signing his prints, and is also known simply as ​“Saul.” After his training at the National Academy of Design, Kovner maintained a studio near Central Park, creating paintings and drawings of the city and its people. He later moved to California and exhibited widely on the West Coast.

Saul Kovner, Tompkins Park, N.Y. City, 1934, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum acquisition, 1980.48

Saul Kovner’s Tompkins Park, N.Y. City was painted in 1934, under the patronage of the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), a New Deal program created by the federal government to offer work and financial support to America’s artists during the Great Depression. The public park, situated in the Alphabet City section of Manhattan’s East Village, is named in honor of Daniel D. Tompkins (1774−1825), who served as governor of New York from 1807 to 1817 and as vice president of the United States under James Monroe from 1817 to 1825. The PWAP encouraged their commissioned artists to capture ​“the American Scene,” and in this painting Kovner conveys strong messages of community spirit and American values. Children and adults enjoy winter in the park, building snowmen and playing with sleds; the presence of the Stars and Stripes in the center of the work places this as a uniquely American scene.

Saul Kovner, Skating in Central Park, 1934, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the Newark Museum, 1966.31.10

Saul Kovner, Smoke and Steam, 1939, lithograph, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Audrey McMahon, 1968.98.16

Eastside Backyards, 1934

TENTING IN YOSEMITE
HOT SUMMER NIGHT
WATERFRONT, BALBOA
SNOW OVER CROTONA PARK

WEDNESDAY PHOTOS OF THE DAY

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ROOSEVELTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM

TUESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY

DETAIL OF VIGNOLI NYC SUBWAY MAP

LOTS OF INTERESTING ANSWERS FROM:
NINA LUBLIN, HARA REISER, LAURA HUSSEY,
MITCH HAMMER. ALEXIS VILLEFANE, 
M. FRANK, VICKI FEINMEL AND JAY JACOBSON

Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff

All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island
Historical Society unless otherwise indicated

SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM  
ART NET

(1) Frank Diaz Escalet, “Mask of Solitudes: A Portrait of Frank Diaz Escalet,” interview for La Plaza, PBS/WGBH Boston, Nov. 3, 1988.
(2) Interview with Derek Fowles, “Portrait of an artist’s life: Frank Diaz Escalet paints from experience,” University of Massachusetts Amherst Student Newsletter, Sept. 29-Oct. 20, 1994.
(3) Escalet, “Mask of Solitudes,” interview for La Plaza, 1988.
(4) Michael R. Vosburgh, “Latin artist portrays ‘life’ in his work,” The Daily Globe, Worthington, Minnesota, Oct. 1995.
(5) Jared Quinn, “MultiCultural Center Showcases African-American Exhibit Illustrating Cultural Influences,” UC Santa Barbara Daily Nexus, Santa Barbara, California, Oct. 8, 1999.
(6) Escalet, “Mask of Solitudes,” interview for La Plaza, 1988.
(7) Interview with Jenifer McKim, The Boston Globe, Nov. 10, 1996.

FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD

Copyright © 2021 Roosevelt Island Historical Society, All rights reserved.Our mailing address is:
rooseveltislandhistory@gmail.com

Jul

6

Tuesday, July 6, 2021 – ALWAYS LOOKING AT MAPS REMINDS ME OF BEING A DETECTIVE

By admin

TUESDAY, JULY 6, 2021

The

408th Edition

From  the Archives

NEW YORK REGION IN MAPS

Title:New York, 1695
Creator:Miller, John, 1666-1724
Date:[1860?–1869?]Format:
Maps/Atlases
Location:Boston Public Library

Title: Plan of New York Creator: Kirkham, Major Date: [1912?] Format: Maps/Atlases Location: Boston Public Library

Miller’s new map of the city of New-York Miller’s new map of the city of New York with a list of all the streets, with reference to the map, and views of some of the principal buildings

Title:Map of New-York
Creator:Geo. H. Walker & Co
Date:1898
Format:Maps/Atlases
Location:Boston Public Library
Norman B. Leventhal Map Center

Title: New York City : the business center of the borough of Manhattan Creator: Rummell, Richard, 1848-1924 Creator: King, Moses, 1853-1909 Creator: A.W. Elson & Co

TUESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY

SEND TO ROOSEVELTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM

MONDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
SAUL STEINBERF NEW YORKER COVER FROM
MARCH 29, 1976

CLARA BELLA, GUY LUDWIG,  ARON EISENPRIESS,
HARA REISER,
JAY JACOBON, ED LITCHER, LAURA HUSSEY
ALL KENEW THE ANSWER

Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter  and Deborah Dorff

Sources

BOSTON PUBLIC LIRARY

FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD

Copyright © 2021 Roosevelt Island Historical Society, All rights reserved.Our mailing address is:
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Jul

5

Monday, July 5, 2021 – DISCOVERING ANOTHER ARTIST THAT WAS WORKING FOR THE WPA

By admin

MONDAY, JULY 5,  2021

THE 


407th EDITION

FROM THE ARCHIVES

 

ELIZABETH OLDS

ARTIST

Elizabeth Olds, Dead End Beach, ca. 1940-1945, screenprint on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1984.31.43

Elizabeth Olds (December 10, 1896 – March 4, 1991) was an American artist known for her work in developing silkscreen as a fine arts medium. She was a painter and illustrator, but is primarily known as a printmaker, using silkscreen, woodcut, lithography processes. In 1926, she became the first female honored with the Guggenheim Fellowship. She studied under George Luks,[4] was a Social Realist, and worked for the Public Works of Art Project and Federal Art Project during the Great Depression. In her later career, Olds wrote and illustrated six children’s books.

Elizabeth Olds, The Middle Class, ca. 1939, lithograph on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1984.31.7

Early life and education

Olds was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota to a middle-class family.[4] Olds’s mother was an art historian, and her mother exposed Olds and her sister, Eleanor, to art through visits to the Walker Art Center and Minneapolis Institute of Arts.[Olds’s art was first documented in her high school yearbook, featuring a cartoon sketch of a goose at tea.[ She studied Home Economics and Architectural Drawing at the University of Minnesota from 1916-1918, and received a scholarship to study at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design from 1918-1921. In 1921, Olds received another scholarship to study at the Art Students League of New York where she studied under George Luks.

Career

Early works
The early style of Olds reflects Luks’s influence on her art. The pair experimented with the style and themes of the Ashcan school, visiting the Lower East Side of New York to observe the exotic urban immigrant. During the summers from 1923-1925, Olds was invited to the circles of The Roots and their friends and the Percy Saunders of Clinton, New York.[4] In 1925, with the help of Elihu Root and some bankers, Olds was funded to travel to France.[4] While in France, she observed and sketched the famous circus family, the Fratellini family, and their show, “Cirque d’Hiver.”Olds later joined the troupe as a trick bareback rider.In 1926, Olds became the first woman awarded with the Guggenheim Fellowship, and was granted further travel in Europe.

Elizabeth Olds, Harlem River Bridges, ca. 1935-1940, lithograph on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1984.31.37

Elizabeth Olds, Harlem River Bridges, 1940, screenprint on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1984.31.32

Great Depression

For those visiting the Hunters Point area of Queens this summer, MoMA’s PS1 outdoor courtyard will feature an experiment in creative ecologies. As a leading space within the neighborhood’s community, the new installation will reimagine the use and access of the PS1 courtyard. It will feature Rashid Johnson’s Stage, a participatory installation and sound work, which draws on the history of the microphone as a tool of protest and public oratory. It will feature a yellow powder-coated stage, with Johnson’s signature markings engraved onto it, and five SM58 microphones of varying heights. Stage’s design echoes that of other unofficial sites of public intellectual and cultural life like Harlem’s 135th Street and Lenox Avenue. Visitors will have the opportunity to speak to the public on the stage, with their words being recorded and broadcasted in the courtyard. In addition, the stage will feature a number of performances from artists, activists, poets, and musicians.

Two Boys, a painting by Elizabeth Olds for the United States Works Progress Administration
Olds was fairly sheltered from the Great Depression when she returned to the U.S. in 1929. In 1932, Olds viewed José Clemente Orozco’s nearly finished murals at Dartmouth College, and was inspired by his expressive use of form and political themes.The same year, she moved to Omaha, Nebraska to paint portraits of the family of Samuel Rees, a local industrialist.[6] Olds completed the project, but she became frustrated with the monotony of painting portraits. At the same time Olds was studying the basics of lithography at Rees’s printing business.

From 1933-1934, Olds was invited to join the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) in Omaha. Under the PWAP, Olds created a series of lithographs featuring the bread lines, shelters, and clinics of the Great Depression.[ Olds’s break from portraiture was fruitful as she developed her style and content, which like Orozco’s murals, used broad, expressive lines and portrayed political themes. Later, Olds studied at a meat packing plant, which inspired her ‘’Stockyard Series’’. “Sheep Skinners,” one of the ten black-and-white lithographs, was exhibited in 1935 in the Weyhe Gallery in New York as one of the “Fifty Best Prints of the Year.”

From 1935 until the early 1940s, Olds was a nonrelief employee for the Works Progress Administration-Federal Art Project (WPA-FAP) in the Graphic Arts Division in New York,[9] where she helped younger artists in the silkscreen unit.[10] She also joined the American Artists’ Congress, Artists Union, and other groups with similar interests. Olds became friends with Harry Gottlieb, another nonrelief artist who also focused on industrialism.[7] Together, they observed the mining and steel industries of New York, and their research lead to Olds’s creation of her award-winning print, “Miner Joe.”[ Olds used both silkscreen and lithography for the prints for ‘‘Miner Joe,’’ but it was her lithograph that won first place for the Philadelphia Print Club competition in 1938.

Olds and Gottlieb experimented with silkscreen printing as a fine arts medium. They accomplished this with a few other artists in the silkscreen unit of the Graphic Arts Division of the WPA-FAP in New York. From 1939 until 1941, Olds and Gottlieb opened and ran the independent Silk Screen School for students interested in learning the newest printmaking technologies.Her work was included in the 1940 MoMA show American Color Prints Under $10. The show was organized as a vehicle for bringing affordable fine art prints to the general public.

Olds submitted and reproduced 10 prints in The New Masses in 1936 and 1937, a leftist magazine at the time. In the United American Artists under the Public Use of Art Committee, Olds and other artists worked to produce murals along New York City Subway walls, but the murals were never installed.] Olds’s art reflected her leftist political views, but also her social and political awareness at the time. As a WPA-FAP employee, Olds’s prints were intended to go to the government for their purposes, but she selectively sent her leftist prints to George C. Miller, an independent lithographer.

Elizabeth Olds, Me and Her, ca. 1940-1970, screenprint on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1984.31.31

Elizabeth Olds, Harlem Musicians, ca. 1937, screenprint on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the Archives of American ArElizabeth Olds,

Two Terns Parading, 1955, color woodcut on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1984.31.t, Smithsonian Institution, 1984.31.2

Elizabeth Olds, Burlesque, ca. 1935-1945, lithograph on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1984.31.40

Elizabeth Olds, Birds in a Hurry, 1954, color woodcut and screenprint on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1984.31.46

Later works

After the war, Olds redirected her skills and began experimenting with watercolor, collage, and woodblock prints] Her silk screen, “Three Alarm Fire” (1945), prompted Roberta Fansler to suggest that Olds should illustrate children’s books.] From 1945-1963, Olds wrote and illustrated six children’s books. In three of her books, Olds wrote about firefighters, trains, and oil, educating her readers about industrialism.

In the early 1950s, Olds was hired as an illustrator-reporter for The New Republic and Fortune (magazine).[18] In the summers of the 1950s and 1960s, Olds was awarded artist-in-residence positions at the artists’ colonies of Yaddo near Saratoga Springs in New York and McDowell in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Her papers are held at the University of Texas.

MONDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY

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WEEKEND PHOTO

THE ORIGINAL WALDORF ASTORIA HOTEL AT
350 FIFTH AVENUE
ANDY SPARBERG AND LAURA HUSSEY GOT IT RIGHT

Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c)

SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM
WIKIPEDIA

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Jul

3

Weekend, July 3-4, 2021 – REMEMBER WHEN NEON WAS KING BEFORE L.E.D. LIGHTS

By admin

Celebrating

our 4th of July

Weekend

JULY 3-4, 2021

OUR 406 TH EDITION

CELEBRATING

NEW YORK’S 

CLASSIC NEON SIGNS

Our favorite spot after a long “F” train ride to Coney Island

The deli is closed, but the sign will hopefully be preserved at 34th and Second.

A quick hot dog and orange drink!  A fast feast!

Always it opposite Macy’s on Seventh!

Times Square, the place NYC residents avoid

Just out my window!

OKAY!! It is in Jersey City

IT WAS REMOVED A FEW YEARS AGO, ALONG THE HIGHWAY IN BROOKLYN

Remember Bernadette Castro opening the bed?

Corned beef on rye.  Send a salami to a soldier overseas!

WEEKEND PHOTO OF THE DAY
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FRIDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY

GROUP OF FOUR TREES

BY JEAN DU BUFFET

LAURA HUSSEY, LINDA BECKER & ED LITCHER 
GOT IT RIGHT

In 1969, David Rockefeller commissioned Jean Dubuffet to create a sculpture to be placed in front of the Chase Manhattan Building . The sculpture, Group of Four Trees, towers above the visitor in varying heights, in Dubuffet’s signature loopy, childlike style. It feels as if you are almost walking into a children’s coloring book, with uncolored trees leaping from the pages and growing above you. A fantasy contrast before entering a staunch financial institution! This coloring book effect is seemingly what Dubuffet intended, calling them not sculptures but drawings, which extend and expand into space.

Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by  Deborah Dorff

Roosevelt Island Historical Society

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Jul

2

Friday, July 2, 2021 – ENJOY THE SUMMER WITH FUN ART

By admin

FRIDAY, JULY 2, 2021

The

405th Edition

WONDERFUL

OUTDOOR ART

THIS SUMMER

FROM: UNTAPPED NEW YORK

Invasives by Jean Shin, Courtesy of BravinLee programs . Through September 13, 2021

Karin Bravin‘s public art exhibition, Re: Growth, A Celebration of Art, Riverside Park and the New York Spirit, will be on display in Riverside Park, spanning from 64th Street to 151st Street. It was created in celebration of Riverside Park Conservancy‘s 35th Anniversary and as a testament to the City and Park’s resilience this past year. The exhibition includes 16 site-specific installations and ten flag and banner projects — centered around the theme of regrowth in the literal, metaphorical, poetic, and philosophical sense. Some of the featured artists in the exhibition include Jean Shin, Vanessa Albury, Weenie Huang, Mary Mattingly, David Shaw Jean Shin, Woolpunk, and many others, some of whom’s work will be discussed later.

In honor of Pride month, Chilean-born street artist Dasic Fernández painted the historic Doyers Street in Chinatown in a range of beautiful colors from all across the rainbow. In the past, Doyers Street was once known as “the Bloody Angle,” for the amount of gang violence that took place in the early 20th century. The breathtaking mural that now covers the street spans 4,851 square feet in length and includes 44 unique colors, painted across a period of just three-and-a-half days. Fernández received information for the mural’s design from rice cultivation terraces—a common landscape seen throughout China. Using the Anamorphism technique, the mural appears 3D at certain points, most notably from the corner of Pell or Bowery streets, perfectly integrating the mural into its surrounding environment.

Doyers Street’s vibrant makeover is part of New York City’s Asphalt Art Activation series, which involves the partnership between NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) and artists to paint large scale-murals onto repurposed asphalt that are pedestrianized public spaces. Typical sites the program has transformed include curb extensions, slip lane closures, bike share lanes, and temporary plazas, with sizes ranging anywhere from 1,000 to 8,000 square feet. In addition, as part of the city’s Open Streets program, Doyers is fully closed to all vehicular traffic from Bowery to Pell streets daily from noon to 11:00 p.m. Given this, Doyers Street serves as the perfect venue for visitors to walk through and enjoy Fernández’s mural. The mural will be on display for the following 11 months, weather permitting.

Four Currents by Wendy Letven, Courtesy of Wendy Letven

This summer, New Jersey-based multi-disciplinary artist Wendy Letven will have two sculpture works on display in Riverside Park as part of Karin Bravin’s Re:Growth public art exhibition. The first, There Are Holes In My Perception Of The Forest, located at 125th and Riverside Drive, features an aluminum-cut structure painted in various shades of blue, brown, green, and yellow. The structure’s holes allow in the careful flow of light work to evoke the sensation of dappled light and the swirling effect of wind on trees. In addition, the artwork intentionally uses negative space to connote gaps in Letven’s perception of the world around her and the presence of the unseen forces of nature at work.

Letven’s second piece, Four Currents, is located at 83rd Street on the waterfront. It was conceived to represent the convergence of energies surrounding Riverside Park — the flow of the Hudson River, the park’s urban surroundings, the energy of the sun, and the area’s powerful wind forces. Both sculptures will be on display through September 13, 2021.

Seascape With The Fabulous Plant Of Rejuvenation In The Abzu, © Ivan Forde, 2021

The Fabulous Plant of Rejuvenation is a 90-foot-tall mural by Baxter St alum Ivan Forde, located on the façade of the newly built Rockaway Hotel in Rockaway Beach, Queens. The mural was curated by Michi Jigarjian, Managing Partner, Creative/Social Impact Officer, with support from 7G Foundation and Facebook Open Arts. Inaugurated on June 18th, 2021, the artwork draws inspiration from the legacy of Rockaway‘s’ Indigenous Lenape people and Forde’s own ancestry — including conversations with his father on the healing powers of water and vegetation. Included in the mural is a depiction of an underwater seascape of poetic sea characters alongside local fish and birds. Its centerpiece is the mythical plant from the ancient Mesopotamian poem The Epic of Gilgamesh. In addition, the mural features a series of healing plants, connected to Forde’s birthplace of Guyana, the Rockaways, and other cultures across the globe.

“My project takes cues from the structures of epic poetry, conversations with ecologists and botanists, and folk traditions our grandmothers and great-grandmothers knew,” Forde said. “These knowledge systems are paramount to the discussions the mural aims to hold space for and align with a symbiotic relationship to nature essential for healing both the human species undergoing a global pandemic and the planet itself.”

La Femme et L’oiseau fontaine and The Stories of the Past Rejoice through Children’s Skies, Photo by Marissa Alper, Courtesy of MoMA PS1.

Besides Stage, the PS1 outdoor courtyard will also host a series of Thought Collectives that test out new and creative propositions for the future usage of public spaces. One of these collectives will be Niki de Saint Phalle‘s 1967 sculpture La Femme et L’oiseau fontaine, part of a survey of Saint Phalle’s work Structures for Life on display through September 6th, 2021. The sculpture serves as a perfect example of the artist’s early Nana sculptures, which served as monuments of female empowerment and symbols of the growing movement to move the display of artwork outside the confines of indoor art gallery’s. Finally, along the wall surrounding Saint Phalle’s sculpture will be Raul de Nieves’ 2021 installation, The Stories of the Past Rejoice through Children’s Skies. The installation was influenced by Mexican craft traditions, with its structure resembling that of stained glass windows — forcing its viewers into a church-like space of reflection.

Planeta Abuelx, Disease Throwers, Guadalupe Maravilla, Socrates Sculpture Park and PPOW Gallery. Image by Sara Morgan.

Through Planeta Abuelx, on display at Socrates Sculpture Park, artist Guadalupe Maravilla expands on their interest in Indigenous holistic healing practices through sculpture. The piece was created in response to a curatorial invitation to use the park’s five-acre landscape as a sanctuary for recuperation. Made on site, Maravilla’s work focuses on physical and emotional health through mutual and holistic care works in harmony with the park’s sheltered green space.

Over the course of the Planeta Abuelx exhibition, Maravilla will activate the projects on view through a series of public programs including community workshops and therapeutic sound baths. The exhibition will be on view through Sept. 5.

FRIDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY

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THURSDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY

THEATRE IN HAVANA CUBA

M. FRANK, JOAN BROOKS, HARA REISER, LAURA HUSSEY, MITCH ELINSON,

ALL  SAID HAVANA!!  MUY BUENO

Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter  and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c)

UNTAPPED NEW YORK

FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD

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Jul

1

Thursday, July 1, 2021 – CHARMING, SUAVE AND A MAN WHO SLIPPED THRU THE CRACKS

By admin

FROM THE ARCHIVES


THE 404TH ISSUE


THURSDAY, JULY 1, 2021


LUCKY LUCIANO

PortableNYC – New York history, architecture and secrets

Romanticized by Hollywood as a fearless and dashing mob boss, Lucky Luciano was one of the biggest criminal minds of the 20th century. Should he have lived in a different era and applied himself to a legitimate business venture, he could have climbed to the very top of the corporate ladder. He is considered the father of modern organized crime, since he was the one who redesigned the structure of mafia essentially molding it into “organized” crime. He replaced traditional rule by the “Boss of all Bosses” in favor of a ruling committee – the commission – the governing body of the American Mafia.
 

Salvatore Lucania, born in 1897 in Sicily, arrived in New York with his family at the tender age of 9, settling on the Lower East Side and quickly becoming a crime prodigy. Earning a meager, honest living through diligent, hard work didn’t appeal to him. By the age of 10, he was already involved in mugging, shoplifting, gambling, and extortion. Sometime later he was jailed for selling heroin, which served as an opportunity to complete his criminal education.
 

By 1916 he was a leading member of the Five Points Gang but, most importantly, befriended Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel, young Jewish gangsters who became his companions in crime for life.

On January 17, 1920, the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, otherwise known as Prohibition, took effect, opening a world of possibilities to the young criminal minds. At the time Lower Manhattan was run by two competing mafia bosses: Joe Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano. Acting as a hired gun for Masseria, Luciano earned his first serious gangster stripes. In the early 1920s, Luciano and his associates offered their services to Arnold Rothstein, known as The Brain or The Man Uptown. Mr. Rothstein was the person who first realized that the Prohibition was a business opportunity and a means to enormous wealth. According to crime writer Leo Katcher, Rothstein “transformed organized crime from a thuggish activity by hoodlums into a big business, run like a corporation, with himself at the top.” Seeing talent and ambition in Lucky, Rothstein groomed him and taught him how to run bootleg alcohol as a business, as well as how to dress, appreciate finer things in life and move in high society, transforming a street rat into a polished, well dressed, respectable mobster. Rothstein met his end in 1928 when he was assassinated for failing to pay a gambling debt.
 

In contrast with poor mannered, crude, traditional mafia bosses, Lucky Luciano was a progressive mobster with “equal opportunity” employment policies – he was willing to work not only with Italians but also Jewish and Irish gangsters, as long as there was money to be made.
 

In 1929, Luciano was forced into a limousine at gunpoint, beaten, stabbed, and left for dead on Staten Island. He somehow survived the ordeal but was forever marked with a scar and droopy eye. The incident most likely earned him the moniker “Lucky.”
 

Young Luciano was not only fearless but also smart and calculating which insured his survival in the brutal world run by mafia cut-throats. Collaborating with brainy, cool-headed Meyer Lansky, he figured out a way to play Masseria and Maranzano against each other, eventually assassinating them both.

With Maranzano and Masseria out of the way, Luciano climbed to the top of the ladder, controlling illegal gambling, extortion, bookmaking, loansharking, drug trafficking, garbage hauling, construction, Garment District businesses, and trucking. Instead of going the traditional route and crowning himself as “capo di tutti capi” – Boss of all Bosses, he created the Commission to serve as the governing body for organized crime. The Commission was originally composed of representatives of the Five Families of New York City, the Buffalo crime family, and the Chicago Outfit of Al Capone. In theory, all the decision-making was done democratically by majority vote, but in reality, was controlled by Luciano.
 

By the 1930s Luciano was presiding over bootlegging, narcotics, loansharking, labor union rackets and prostitution. He was swimming in money and power, he dressed like a dandy and kept a very expensive suite in Waldorf Astoria. It all came crashing down in 1936 when Lucky ran out of luck and was arrested by special prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey on charges of facilitating prostitution. Luciano was convicted and sentenced to 30 to 50 years.

But this is not how the story ends. With connections and money, Lucky ran the prison as well as the Commission from the inside, but, alas, could not buy himself an appeal. His lucky break came during WWII. The US government was paranoid about German war vessels entering NY Harbor. Since the Mafia controlled the waterfront, a deal was struck in which the mafia would cooperate with the US Navy in providing intelligence, assuring lack of sabotage, and tightening waterfront security in exchange for a commutation of Luciano’s sentence. He was released from prison in 1946 and immediately deported to Italy.

The criminal mastermind did not enjoy his forced retirement, especially when he knew there was so much money to be made in heroin. Since running the operation from overseas was not very convenient, Luciano secretly moved to Havana, Cuba. His objective was to be closer to the US so that he could resume control over American Mafia operations and eventually return home. At the time, Lansky was already established as a major investor in Cuban gambling and hotel projects. In 1946, Lansky called a meeting of the heads of the major crime families in Havana, dubbed the Havana Conference. The Conference, which took place at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, was organized to address the following important topics: the heroin trade, Cuban gambling, and what to do about Bugsy Siegel and his floundering Flamingo Hotel project in Las Vegas.

After Luciano was deported from Cuba, he was shipped back to Italy where despite the fact that he was under close Italian police scrutiny, he continued to direct the drug traffic into the US. Lucky Luciano died of a heart attack in 1962 at the Naples airport, where he had gone to meet with a movie producer considering making a film based on his biography. With the permission of the US government, Luciano’s relatives took his body back to New York for burial. He was laid to rest in St. John’s Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens.

THURSDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
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WEDNESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY

BEMELMAN’S BAR AT THE CARLYLE
LAURA HUSSEY AND ARLENE BESSENOFF
GOT IT RIGHT

Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter  and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c)

Sources

PortableNYC – New York history, architecture and secrets

FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD

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Jun

30

Wednesday, June 30, 2021 – WONDERFUL WORKS OF ART FROM AN ARTIST WITH A TOUGH START

By admin

FROM THE ARCHIVES

WEDNESDAY, JUNE  30, 2021


403 rd ISSUE

Artist

Frank Diaz Escalet

(1930-2012)

from Meredith Ward Fine Art

Meredith Ward Fine Art is pleased to present Frank Diaz Escalet (1930-2012), an exhibition of 18 paintings and inlaid cut leather works and on view from May 14 through June 25, 2021. This will be the first exhibition of Escalet’s work since the artist’s death. Almost entirely self-taught, Puerto Rican-born Escalet was a painter and master leathercrafter, and developed his own technique for creating images out of cut leather that vividly capture the dynamics of a scene.

V.E. DAY 1976

FROM THE CATALOG:

Frank Diaz Escalet (1930-2012) was filled with a desire to make things from a young age. Almost entirely self-taught, Escalet picked up what he knew about creating art wherever he could. His story is one of invention, adversity, and resilience, but perhaps more than anything else, curiosity was the true wellspring of his work. Escalet was born on March 16, 1930, in Ponce, Puerto Rico. At the age of four, he moved with his family to New York City, where he was raised in Greenwich Village and Spanish Harlem. Growing up in a poor, immigrant family, Escalet drew his own comic books. When he discovered that the model airplanes he designed on brown paper shopping bags could actually fly, he sold them to his friends. At the age of 13, Escalet started working to help support his family. He delivered blocks of ice, firewood, and cans of kerosene around the neighborhood before and after school and on the weekends, and would be lucky to get a nickel tip. After eighth grade, Escalet dropped out of school to work full-time factory jobs and always felt the lack of formal education. Yet, he took full advantage of whatever opportunities he had, and through perseverance, achieved success and recognition. “The more of a challenge something is,” he once said, “the more fanatical I become. There’s a tremendous drive within myself that I will not stop. I will not let it beat me.”

Escalet enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1947. After serving for three years, mostly in Texas, he briefly went to school under the GI Bill for automotive mechanics. However, when the Korean War broke out in June of 1950, he reenlisted hoping to travel. Stationed in Liverpool, England for three years where he was in charge of unloading American ships, Escalet noted, “I identified with the Irish laborers in the Liverpool docks. We would party and everything else, and I really got to know those people. I have a deep love for them.” In 1953, Escalet married his first wife. They had two daughters, but marriage was short lived and they divorced in 1955.

After the war, Escalet returned to New York. While working in a garage changing tires and pumping gas, he took the opportunity to apprentice in coppersmithing after meeting a customer who made copper tables and lamps. Escalet then began silversmithing and opened his own jewelry shop in 1956 called, “The Talent Shop.” Soon after, he moved into the more profitable leather goods and, with just $80 in his pocket, opened a leathercraft shop in 1958 in Greenwich Village, The House of Escalet.

Escalet spent 17 years as a master leathercrafter. By the early 1960s, he had developed a celebrity clientele, designing and creating leather garments for Sly and the Family Stone, The Rolling Stones, Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, and Aretha Franklin. At one point, his shop was so successful that he had five salesmen working for him. The House of Escalet undertook high-profile commissions from Pablo Casals to make a leather cello case, and from the Museum of Modern Art to design and create leather cushions for the stone slab seats in the museum’s sculpture garden.

In 1964, Escalet married his second wife, Marjorie, a painter who worked in oils and had some training. They moved into a large loft in the Bowery, in which Escalet built rooms so that they had living space in the center and each had a studio on either end. Marjorie recalled that Escalet would frequent jazz clubs to unwind after work. In February 1968, their son Frank Danny Escalet (Danny) was born. Concerned about raising a child in New York City, in 1971 the Escalets moved to Eastport, Maine, in Washington County, where they lived for the next 11 years.

Speaking about Washington County, Escalet remarked, “I got taken in by the beauty, I mean, it was nature in the raw, it was really fantastically beautiful up there.” (3) Despite the beauty of their new surroundings, these were tough years for the Escalets. They opened a shop called Pandora’s Box and, for extra income, Escalet taught leathercraft to the native Passamaquoddy people through a government program. However, the social acceptance and business success they had enjoyed in New York City did not transfer to the remotest reaches of downeast Maine. There was no way for them to earn a living and they struggled to make ends meet.

Perhaps it was in response to these hardships that Escalet began making his inlaid leather compositions in 1974. Drawing on memories and personal experiences, he created bold and innovative works that speak to the joys and hardships of ordinary people. Conceived with what he called a “birds-eye-view of the world,” his compositions chronicle the dignity and determination of laborers, iron workers, lobstermen, and railroad workers. Images emerged from his childhood in Puerto Rico, his time in Texas and England, and from hanging out in New York City jazz clubs. They tell the stories of his life and the lives of those around him, and reflect the experiences of immigrants, Latin Americans, and people of color. “I always portray life, the story-telling of people,” he said. “Today my work tells of Latin Americans, their struggles, hopes, dreams, and sorrows.”

The social atmosphere of Washington County was starkly different from bohemian lower Manhattan. Whereas they felt part of the cultural fabric in New York, the Escalets were outcasts in Washington County and their son, Danny, was brutally bullied in school. When he was forced to stand on a fractured leg, the Escalets sued the town and settled out of court. Shortly after, they moved to Kennebunkport, where Escalet reestablished The House of Escalet as a gallery and studio. In 1986, Danny, who was severely depressed and had become a heavy drug user, committed suicide at the age of 18. Escalet attributed this act to the psychological damage his son had suffered from being bullied in school.

Heartbroken, Escalet threw himself into his work. At the age of 55, he began painting more consistently, first with his wife’s oil paints and then with acrylics, which better suited his quick painting style. Instead of using an easel, he preferred to paint on his leather workbench. Escalet noted, “I paint people. I paint life. Disaster or happiness. Nothing is planned. That’s how I capture things—in the spur of the moment.” (5) In the late 1980s, he also began working in sculpture using found metal pieces scavenged from building sites. Speaking on the diversity of his art practice, Escalet remarked, “as a rule, it happens by being dictated by what materials are available, what’s on hand.” (6)

Within a decade, Escalet was featured on three different television programs, including a 1988 episode of La Plaza, a Public Broadcasting program targeted at Latin Americans. In the 1990s, Escalet began exhibiting widely. In 1991, 135 of his works were selected to travel abroad in a five-year World Peace Art Tour through 7 countries and 15 museums behind the Iron Curtain. Escalet had multiple one-person shows at higher education institutions, including Rutgers University, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Pennsylvania State University. He was also included in group exhibitions at the Housatonic Museum, Bridgeport, Connecticut and the New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut.

Always mindful of the value of the education that he had missed, Escalet donated hundreds of lithographs of his work to public schools in Massachusetts, New York, and Texas in the mid-1990s. He enjoyed exhibiting at colleges and universities, and used those exhibitions as opportunities to share his story. In 1996, Escalet stated:

I have quite a track record as far as achieving things, although it wasn’t quite mapped out for me. The road wasn’t even paved. I want to give kids some inspiration, to bring out their talents. … I always worked with my hands. I grabbed everything that was anything, and was able to turn it into things. … I know there are kids going through the same things. This is to wake up a sleeping giant. The one thing about art is there is no end to it. … You reach your goal and you are beat and exhausted, but if you just look into the horizon, there is never enough time in the day to continue. (7)

The Escalets lived in Kennebunkport for the rest of their lives. Escalet continued to exhibit locally late into his life and died February 12, 2012, a little over six months after Marjorie passed away. He is buried in the Southern Maine Veterans Cemetery.

GREENWICH VILLAGE, 1920’S    1980

MONK 1988

IRON FOUNDRY   1980

PAINTED DESERT 1982

PREZ ‘N BLUE 1980

WEDNESDAY PHOTOS OF THE DAY

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TUESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY

NEW YORK LIFE BUILDING AT MADISON SQUARE

LAURA HUSSEY
MITCH ELINSON
GLORIA HERMAN
ALEXIS VILLEFANE
NINA  LUBLIN
JAY JACOBSON
ALL WOKE UP EARLY TO IDENTIFY THE PHOTO!!!

Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff

All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island
Historical Society unless otherwise indicated

SOURCES

MEREDITH WARD FINE ART

(1) Frank Diaz Escalet, “Mask of Solitudes: A Portrait of Frank Diaz Escalet,” interview for La Plaza, PBS/WGBH Boston, Nov. 3, 1988.
(2) Interview with Derek Fowles, “Portrait of an artist’s life: Frank Diaz Escalet paints from experience,” University of Massachusetts Amherst Student Newsletter, Sept. 29-Oct. 20, 1994.
(3) Escalet, “Mask of Solitudes,” interview for La Plaza, 1988.
(4) Michael R. Vosburgh, “Latin artist portrays ‘life’ in his work,” The Daily Globe, Worthington, Minnesota, Oct. 1995.
(5) Jared Quinn, “MultiCultural Center Showcases African-American Exhibit Illustrating Cultural Influences,” UC Santa Barbara Daily Nexus, Santa Barbara, California, Oct. 8, 1999.
(6) Escalet, “Mask of Solitudes,” interview for La Plaza, 1988.
(7) Interview with Jenifer McKim, The Boston Globe, Nov. 10, 1996.

FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD

Copyright © 2021 Roosevelt Island Historical Society, All rights reserved.Our mailing address is:
rooseveltislandhistory@gmail.com