June 15, 1952
The Independent Student Show of the Brooklyn Museum Art School opens to the public this weekend (June 7) and will remain installed through June 15. Over 400 works by students at the school are on exhibition.
The show includes painting, sculpture, drawings and ceramics by both full and part-time students. Reflecting the diversity of instruction and interests, the works range from the most avant-garde long hair abstraction through any number of styles to realistic impressions of the Brooklyn Scene.
Mailmen Post Artwork
And there is as much diversity in terms of background, occupation and training among the students whose works are being exhibited. Some are already professional artists while most are housewives, business and professional people, a Supreme Court Justice, clerks, factory workers, policemen, mailmen and so forth, who have taken up some form of art as a pastime.
Among the exhibitors of particular interest are the following:
Mrs. S. P. Englehart of 5000 15th Avenue, Brooklyn, who has studied at the school for three years with Charles Seide. Mrs. Englehart has sent some 50 of her paintings to Army service clubs all over the country, sandwiching her art production in between her responsibility as a mother and housewife. She is represented by a misty seascape of Plum Beach, a scenic spot well-known in the Sheepshead Bay area.
Philip Shopsis, a textile buyer of 175 East 52nd Street, Brooklyn, is represented by a portrait of his two children, Susan, 8, and Charles 5. He has been studying life drawing at the school. Previously he took courses at the extension Division of Columbia University, and after dropping painting for a while, picked it up again after attending a free introductory course at the school last Fall.
Molds Dental Material
Dr. Leo Kresky of 5403 15th Avenue, Brooklyn, shows how one can carry over a professional skill into artistic expression. Using the same wire from which he makes dental braces, Dr. Kresky has fashioned a humorous relief sculpture of a group of fish.
Another exhibitor, Davis Kraus, has had a varied career both in and out of art. Presently a city engineer with the Bureau of Franchises of the Board of Estimate, Mr. Kraus is also a graduate of the New York Law School and a member of the New York State Bar. As an engineer he was also Supervising Inspector for the construction of the Independent Subway System, and was employed by the Borough President of Manhattan on the construction of the East River Drive.
As an artist he has exhibited widely and received two awards in Art News (magazine) Amateur Painters’ exhibitions. He has studied at the school since 1947 with Reuben Tam. His painting in this show is a large canvas entitled "Fires of Spring" executed in broad areas of intense reds and browns.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1947 - 1952. 04-06/1952, 064-5. View Original
