December 10, 1934
Two thousand works of art by New York High School students exhibit a great variety of technical processes and an even greater variety of subject in the current showing at the Brooklyn Museum. The exhibition will remain on until January tenth, but some of the exhibits will be changed on December 20th. Both fine arts and decorative arts are included.
The Work represents the elective art classes in the high schools and the industrial art classes in Straubenmuller Textile, Girls Commercial and Washington Irving High School. The work of these three schools is of especial interest on account of the character of the classes which offer vocational training and on account of the larger space devoted to these schools in the exhibition and therefore more representative showing of their work.
Forty High Schools in all are represented. The fact that all this work comes from elective courses, not required courses indicates that these students look upon the various arts as a really serious interest, possibly a future vocation. Many of them will enter professional art schools after leaving high school. The required art classes, not represented in this exhibition, are intended to develop cultural interest in the arts, The elective classes are in intention vocational and professional, and the general competence of the work goes far toward justifying this intention.
Among media used for work in the fine arts are charcoal, pen and pencil, gouache, tempera, water color and oil though a small proportion of the work is in oil; it restriction probably due to the expense of that medium. Unusual media are also employed. There are modernist constructions in worsted buttons, silver paper, colored paper cut outs, cut metal etc. One design for mosaic work is shown.
The graphic arts are completely represented with wood block prints, lithographs, linoleum cuts, sgrafitto, aquatints, etchings, book illustrations, advertising and other typographical layouts, book and booklet cover designs, posters, wall paper and wrapping papers, book bindings including the use of marbled and other fancy papers.
Textile design is represented by weavings, batiks block prints, screen prints, embroideries, linoleum block printed cotton wall hangings; designs for all these kinds of textiles and also designs for costumes.
The work in the plastic arts includes life masks and decorative masks, pottery, vases animal sculpture and modelings . wood carvings, tiles, plaster casts in bas relief and in the round, marionettes, small portrait and figure sculpture, soap sculpture, designs for alarm clocks, models for stage design and interior decoration, novel ideas for advertising displays one model for a suspension bridge, a few architectural plans and renderings.
Craft work in addition to textile design covers repoussee and cu t metal work, jewelry, basket weavings; leather work, and designs for fancy packages.
The favorite subjects of painting in the elective art classes are still life, figure studies and compositions, portrait heads, poster designs, fashion designs, flower paintings, street scenes and designs for mural paintings.
Among individual items exhibited which are conspicuous for technical excellence and the evident of individual creative talent are the following.
Water colors of a fruit market by Walter Ryba, a street corner by Walter Neely and old shacks by Jack Zingali for MANUAL TRAINING HIGH SCHOOL. Novel poster constructions of worsted and other materials from WALDEIGH HIGH SCHOOL designs for the mural “Man and the Machine” from DE WITT CLINTON HIGH SCHOOL a water color of buildings by Morris Koften and one of a window by A. Glaser from THOMAS JEFFERESON HIGH SCHOOL, animal figure and portrait sculpture and modelings and vases by W. Artis, D. Focci, J. Colorbo, S. Anargeros, G. Gouvernale, M. Hebald, D. Sage, etc. from HAAREN HIGH SCHOOL.
A water color of Washington Square by C. Hulemann from GROVER CLEVELAND HIGH SCHOOL portraits by Jerome Burns and Sidney Wexler from SAMUEL J. TILDEN HIGH SCHOOL textile designs by Stella Wasylavich and Bernice Kalish from EASTERN DIVISION HIGH SCHOOL the magazine design for Cargoes (unsigned) and monotypes by John Gerasimchik and Angelo Spandano from ABRAHAM LINCOLN HIGH SCHOOL flower studies by Annette Reingold and George Licitra from NEW UTRECHT HIGH SCHOOL a textile design M. Ferri and the charcoal drawing “Forece” by W. Klein from FAR ROCKAWAY HIGH SCHOOL still life by M. Voori pottery and metal work from WALTON HIGH SCHOOL a line drawing by Maurice Braustein and a still life by G. Manfred from JAMES MADISON HIGH SCHOOL.
Work in water color, pastel, gouache, monochrome and block print by H. Dort, E. Barratt, H. Nahnken, E. Ryan, D. Newton, F. Sternberg, D. Eighmey, L. Bock, F. Stein, E. Baker, W. Zucker, P. Auglera, D. Mireider, R. Ransbury, B. Hugh, H. Phillips, E. Fischer, B. Doris from JAMAICA HIGH SCHOOL from which the exhibit though small is of strikingly even excellence.
A design in charcoal by Morris Hnefler and a wash drawing by Annette Margulies from EVANDER CHILDS HIGH SCHOOL; stage designs by Standird Sonrenk, and Eugene Stricjman and a charcoal of three men, unsigned, from JAMES MONROE HIGH SCHOOL; a still life by John Melnik from SEWARD PARK HIGH SCHOOL; a street scene by J. Beonda from BUSHWICK HIGH SCHOOL; designs from clocks, a pen and ink portrait by Holod and a charcoal portrait by Lipsky from the HIGH SCHOOL OF COMMERCE; unsigned oil paintings of still life, back yards and a street in rain from ALEXANDER HAMILTON HIGH SCHOOL.
Bookjackets by Benjamin and Stoloff and an unsigned textile design of large flower from GIRLS COMMERCIAL HIGH SCHOOL; sgraffito illustrations, small textile designs, several masks and metal novelties all unsigned from WASHINGTON IRVING HIGH SCHOOL; screen printed textiles by S. Saulpaugh, an unsigned decorative fabric showing oriental influences, a batik by P. Boothman from STRAUBMULLER TEXTILES HIGH SCHOOL.
Weavings and leather work and pottery from WALTON HIGH SCHOOL; block prints and posters from STUYVESTANT HIGH SCHOOL; abstractions such as Carol Braumann’s Design I and Mildered Priven’s Representation from CURTIS HIGH SCHOOL; a flower study by Sylvia Kaplan and a water color of a plant by Anna Zipper from THEODORE ROOSEVELT HIGH SCHOOL; May Margiotta’s poster for the Chimes of Normandy and Lydia M. Cutler’s Tropical Rhapsody, a finger painting, from GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL.
Masks by Harry Perkins, a design from stained glass by A. Rauchwerger and submarine cloth designs by Alexander Ross and Edward Parkus from BOYS HIGH SCHOOL; Perry by D. McIntosh and Portrait by C. Nichols from ERASMUS HALL; on illustration for “Clipper” by Stanley Kalinowski and a pastel portrait of a little girl by Plavio Cabral from JOHN ADAMS HIGH SCHOOL; a tapestry design in crayon by H. Pavlovich from TOTENVILLE HIGH SCHOOL.
A block print by Anderson, illumination by Hutchinson, advertising layout by Johnson, Figure study by Fredrickson, portrait head by G. Linden, and design by Cohn from BAY RIDGE HIGH SCHOOL; a cover design “Romance” by Harry Moriter and landscape by Leo Lewis and John Trick from FRANKLING K. LAND HIGH SCHOOL; water color landscapes by Muriel Adams, Florence Spencer, Frances Bush, and Janet La Forge from PORT RICHMOND HIGH SCHOOL.
Block printed textiles by John Kubrick Raymond Callpar, George Bozza, etc. and a charcoal boat race by Dorothy Leavoy from FLUSHING HIGH SCHOOL; a design by Morie Beach and a still life by Nancy Hyer from RICHMOND HILL HIGH SCHOOL; a scene on a battleship by Morris Rubenstain and a water color still life by Beatrice Lee from BRYANT HIGH SCHOOL; fashion posters by Felicia Giradi, Angelina Fina, Isabel Ross and Viola Smith from NEWTON HIGH SCHOOL; a street market unsigned and decorative paintings by Martin and Wilson from JULIA RICHMAN HIGH SCHOOL; a block printed textile of a wan and trees by Katherine Bailey, “Strange Wild Creatures” by Sarah Rothman, a water color of a vase of flowers by Arline Livingston a water color of the circus by Douglass Longwell, from GEORGE WASHINGTON HIGH SCHOOL.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1931 - 1936. 1934, 061-5. View Original
December 5, 1934
The work of elective art classes in the high schools of greater New York City and of the industrial art classes in Straubenmuller Textile. Girls Commercial and Washington Irving High Schools will be exhibited in the west galleries of the Fifth Floor, Brooklyn Museum, beginning December 6th. The exhibition will continue into January.
The space afforded by the west galleries is not sufficient to en able some of the schools to do full justice to their achievements. It has therefore been planned to change some of the exhibits on December 20th thus affording those who are interested in the work that is being done by the talented boy and girl in New York City an additional opportunity to get a complete picture of the best work done in every school.
The present exhibit will be arranged according to schools. Each of the forty high schools exhibiting is responsible for showing its best work along any line it may select. Previous exhibits have shown the work of the high schools arranged according to subject: Posters Water Color, Design, Etching, etc.
A most interesting feature of the present exhibit will be the display in the large square gallery of work done in the Industrial Art Classes of the Girls Commercial, Straubenmuller Textile, and Washington Irving High Schools. Students who attend these schools are usually young people who have ability for work in the arts and intend to use it in earning a living. The courses require much more of the school time and there¬fore allow a more intensive training in the fundamentals and more advanced work in the special subjects which characterize the work of these great schools.
“The art of the high schools is divided into two parts,” Dr. Forest Grant, Director of Art explained in a statement to representatives of the press, "Required art consists of a course in Art Appreciation aimed to give the masses a foundation for developing good, taste or art judgment. The methods used in this work were shown in a most comprehensive exhibit made in the West Galleries of the Brooklyn Museum in 1932.
"Art is elected as a major subject in the high schools by those who are interested in making it a part of their equipment for life. Many of these boys and girls whose work is being shown in the present exhibit will go on to the art schools to develop further their ideas and abilities.
"The work in weaving, modeling, pottery and other forms of craft, which will be displayed to fine advantage in the large cases, deserves special attention. Some of our very gifted boys and girls are finding in these media a means of expressing themselves most delightfully.”
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1931 - 1936. 1934, 059-60. View Original
