Jolan Gross-Bettelheim

Jólan Gross-Bettelheim (1900–1972) was a Hungarian artist who lived and worked in the United States in the 1930s-1950s. She worked in the graphics art division of the Works Progress Administration before returning to Hungary in the late 1950s.

Biography

Jólan Gross-Bettelheim (1900–1972) was born in Hungary, but lived in the United States from 1925-1956.[1] She studied painting at the Budapest School of Fine Art in 1919, followed by studies at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna and the Akademie der Bildenden Künst in Berlin.[1] Gross-Bettelheim then studied in Paris at the Académie de Grande Chaumière between 1922-24.[1] She married a Hungarian-born radiologist,[2] Frigyes Bettelheim, and settled in Cleveland by 1925.[1] Her studies in Ohio commenced at the Cleveland School of Art with modernist painter Henry Keller.[3] She and her husband relocated to New York City in 1938.[1] As a Communist, Gross-Bettelheim was a member of the John Reed Club, as well as the American Artists’ Congress.[1][4] She contributed to leftist publications such as New Masses and the Daily Worker.[1] Her work was exhibited in Chicago, New York, Ohio, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Washington D.C. throughout the 1930s and 40s.[1] She returned to Hungary after 1956 and died in Budapest in 1972.[1]

Cleveland and the WPA

Gross-Bettelheim worked in Cleveland at a time when printmaking was flourishing.[5] It was a time when lithography was seen as a viable art form, rather than being limited to commercial use.[5] Interest in printmaking was bolstered by art organizations that were founded in the 1920s.[5] And the Cleveland Print Makers (CPM) was formed in 1930 by artist and teacher Kálmán Kubinyi.[6] It engaged in numerous activities to expand exposure for Cleveland printmakers, with the goal of increasing the sales of their works.[6] Its most ambitious activity was the Print Mart or Market during which artists opened a gallery to sell works to the general public.[6] The Print Market featured America Today in November 1936, an exhibition that was held in thirty U.S. cities simultaneously.[7] The show included 100 prints created by artists from the American Artists’ Congress, including Gross-Bettelheim.[7] Gross-Bettelheim also was commissioned to create a print for the CPM’s Print-a-Month series, a subscription for one print per month by Cleveland and some nonresident artists.[8]

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Art Project (FAP) had a graphic arts division of which printmaking was a part. A graphic arts workshop was set up in Cleveland as a part of the WPA, operating officially as Graphic Arts Project No. 8048 from December 1935 – 1943, being most productive in 1936-37.[9] Gross-Bettelheim produced prints for the WPA graphics workshop, as well.[10] The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) sponsored a traveling exhibition, Fifty Prints of the Year, which included work by Gross-Bettelheim.[11]

Themes

Gross-Bettelheim’s prints explores the darkness of the Depression, employing a cubist style that heightens the drama of cityscapes and the industrial landscape.[11][12] Sabine Kretzschmar describes Gross-Bettelheim as “the purest modernist” amongst Cleveland printmakers, reflecting the influence of German expressionism, constructivism, and cubism.[13]

Her work explored social and political issues.[14] The plight of unemployment is addressed in her print, In the Employment Office (ca. 1936, lithograph) and racism in Workers Meeting (Scottsboro Boys) (ca. 1935, drypoint).[15]

The stark black and white images convey a sense of humanity being oppressed by the scale of industry. For example, Gross-Bettelheim’s ca. 1940 lithograph Assembly Line portrays a claustrophobic space filled with workers and a haunting image of lines of gas masks on a factory assembly line. Her 1936 lithograph Civilization at the Crossroads (Fascism II) depicts the rising threat of Fascism in Europe.

Works

Exhibitions

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Cleveland Museum of Art (1996). Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America. Cleveland, OH: Distributed by Ohio University Press. p. 230.
  2. ↑ Williams, Dave; Williams, Reba (September 1990). "Jolan Gross-Bettelheim: A Hidden Life". Print Quarterly 7: Williams & Williams refer to him as a psychiatrist in their article, 307.
  3. 1 2 Stamey, Emily (2001). Jolán Gross-Bettelheim: the American Prints. Grinnell, IA: Faulconer Gallery,. p. 3.
  4. ↑ Kretzschmar, Sabine (1996). "Art for Everyone: Cleveland Print Makers and the WPA". Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America. Cleveland, OH: Distributed by Ohio University Press. pp. 188, 189.
  5. 1 2 3 Kretzschmar,, Sabine (1996). "Art for Everyone: Cleveland Print Makers and the WPA". Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America. Cleveland, OH: Distributed by Ohio University Press. p. 177.
  6. 1 2 3 Kretzschmar, Sabine (1996). "Art for Everyone: Cleveland Print Makers and the WPA". Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America. Cleveland, OH: Distributed by Ohio University Press. p. 178.
  7. 1 2 Kretzschmar, Sabine (1996). "Art for Everyone: Cleveland Print Makers and the WPA". Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America. Cleveland, OH: Distributed by Ohio University Press. p. 180.
  8. ↑ Kretzschmar,, Sabine (1996). "Art for Everyone: Cleveland Print Makers and the WPA". Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America. Cleveland, OH: Distributed by Ohio University Press. pp. 180–181.
  9. ↑ Kretzschmar, Sabine (1996). "Art for Everyone: Cleveland Print Makers and the WPA". Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America. Cleveland, OH: Distributed by Ohio University Press. p. 183.
  10. ↑ Kretzschmar, Sabine (1996). "Art for Everyone: Cleveland Print Makers and the WPA". Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America. Cleveland, OH: Distributed by Ohio University Press. p. 185.
  11. 1 2 Kainen, Jacob (1972). "The Graphic Arts Division of the WPA Federal Art Project". In O’Connor, Francis. The New Deal Art Projects. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. p. 156.
  12. ↑ Cleveland Artists Foundation (2006). Covering History: Revisiting Federal Art in Cleveland 1933-1943. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Artists Foundation. p. 31.
  13. ↑ Kretzschmar, Sabine (1996). "Art for Everyone: Cleveland Print Makers and the WPA". Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America. Cleveland, OH: Distributed by Ohio University Press. p. 187.
  14. ↑ Kretzschmar, Sabine (1996). "Art for Everyone: Cleveland Print Makers and the WPA". Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America. Cleveland, OH: Distributed by Ohio University Press. p. 188.
  15. ↑ Kretzschmar, Sabine (1996). "Art for Everyone: Cleveland Print Makers and the WPA". Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America. Cleveland, OH: Distributed by Ohio University Press. p. 190.
  16. ↑ Williams, Dave; Williams, Reba (September 1990). "Jolan Gross-Bettelheim: A Hidden Life". Print Quarterly 7: 303.
  17. 1 2 3 Stamey, Emily (2001). Jolán Gross-Bettelheim: the American Prints. Grinnell, IA: Faulconer Gallery. p. 6.
  18. ↑ Taylor, Francis Henrty (1942). Artists for Victory: an Exhibition of Contemporary American Art: Paintings, Sculpture, Prints/sponsored by Artists for Victory, Inc. New York, NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 34.
  19. ↑ Williams, Dave; Williams, Reba (September 1990). "Jolan Gross-Bettelheim: A Hidden Life". Print Quarterly 7: 304.

Bibliography

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