Wuxtry! [Extra?!]

Albert Abramovitz (1879-1963), Wuxtry! [Extra?!], linocut in colors, c. 1936, signed in pencil lower right and titled lower center [also initialed in the plate]. In very good condition, with full margins, 14 1/2 x 10, the sheet 18 x 13 inches. On Japan paper.

A fine fresh impression of this exceedingly rare print.

Albert Abramovitz was born in Riga, Latvia, on January 24, 1879. He studied art at the Imperial Art School in Odessa and at the Grande Chaumière in Paris. In Paris, he became a member of the Salon in 1911. In 1913 he became a member of its jury. He also became a member or of the Salon d’Automne. While in Europe he received a medal at Clichy and an award in Paris, as well as the Grand Prize at the Universal Exhibition in Rome and Turin, Italy in 1911.

In 1916, Abramovitz came to America. In 1921, he had a first solo show at the Civic Club in Manhattan. During the 1940’s and 50’s, he lived in Brooklyn.In the 1940’s he had a one-man show at the Bonestall Gallery (1940). He also exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago (1938, 1940), Union of American Artists (1940), American Artists Congresses exhibition (1941 “In Defense of Culture”), American Art, ACA Gallery (1942 – “Artists in the War”), New-Age Gallery (1943, 1946), National Academy of Design (1946), American Association of University Women (1946), and the American Artists Congress.

His works are in the collections of the: British Museum, Library of Congress, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Public Library, Victoria and Albert Museum.

Abramovitz’s wood engravings are often socially and politically oriented. He made 18 prints for the Federal Arts Projects in New York between 1935 and 1939. The titles reflect a wide variety of subject matter: Accident, Civil War, Dispensary, Gone, Dangerous Crossing, Music of the Blind, The Master, Rickets, Unseaworthy, Suicide, Drought, Flood.

[Source for background data on Abramovitz:  Allinson Gallery, Inc.]