Malvin Marr Albright timeline
Albright, (Zsissly)[1] Malvin Marr[2]
BORN: February 20, 1897 N. Harvey, IL[3]
DIED: September 14, 1983 Ft. Lauderdale, FL
MARRIED:December 1954, Cornelia Fairbanks Poole Ericourt of Indianapolis, in Old Saybrook, Connecticut
TRAINING
Adam Emory Albright, his father
1911-1915 Graduated, New Trier High School, Winnetka, IL[4]
c.1917 University of Illinois[5]
1919 Ecole des Beaux Arts, Nantes[6]
1919, 1920-1922, 1922-1923 Graduated, sculpture department, Art Institute of Chicago, Albin Polášek
1923 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Charles Grafly[7]
1920s New York, Elie Nadelman[8]
1924 Beaux Arts Institute of Design, New York
New York, Edward McCartan
ART RELATED EMPLOYMENT
1920s Several civic commissions for towns, cities in the United States[9]
1936 Works Progress Administration[10]
1943 Commissioned with brother Ivan to paint Portrait of Dorian Gray for M. G. M. Studios, Hollywood[11]
1948 Mural La Farfalla, Riccardo’s Restaurant, Chicago (removed late 1960s)[12]
TEACHING
RESIDENCES
1898-1910 Edison Park (Chicago)
1910-1924 Hubbard Woods (Winnetka), Illinois
1924-1954 Warrenville, Illinois[13]
1954-1983 Maintained residences in Warrenville; Chicago; Corea, Maine; Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
TRAVEL
1902-1906 Annisquam, Massachusetts (summers)
1909 Noank, Connecticut (summer)
1910 Brown County, Indiana (summer)
1911 Springfield, Missouri (summer)
1914 Birmingham, Pennsylvania (summer)
1915 Woodward, Centre County, Pennsylvania (summer)
1916 Tionesta, Pennsylvania (summer)
1917-1918 Caracas, Venezuela (winter)
1923-1924 Philadelphia[14]
1924 New York City[15]
1924 Laguna Beach and La Jolla, California[16]
1925 Camelback, Arizona; Old Laguna, Santa Fe and Taos New Mexico[17]
1925 Kentucky; Tennessee; Alabama[18]
1926 Oceanside, California
1926 New York City[19]
1927 San Diego
1929 Laguna Beach
1940s-1950s Maine
c.1948 Oregon
Florida; Kansas; Michigan; New York; Texas; Wisconsin
MEMBERSHIPS/OFFICES
Chicago Society of Artists (director 1934-1935)
International Institute of Arts and Letters[20]
Laguna Beach Art Association[21]
National Sculpture Society
Royal Society of Arts
HONORS
1922 Chicago Daily News Fountain Competition Prize
1929 Robert Rice Jenkins Prize, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago & Vicinity[22]
1930 (Dec) Purchase Prize, Chicago Galleries Association
1931 Honorable Mention, Chicago Society of Artists annual
1934 W. A. Clarke Award, Chicago Society of Artists annual
1934 Gold Medal, Chicago Society of Artists annual[23]
1935 William R. French Memorial Gold Medal, Art Institute of Chicago, American Annual[24]
1942 Altman Prize, National Academy of Design[25]
1943 Mr. & Mrs. Jule F. Brower Prize, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago & Vicinity [26]
1945 Silver Medal, Corcoran Gallery of Art biennial[27]
1945 Second Clark Prize, Corcoran Gallery of Art biennial
1946 Renaissance Club Prize, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago & Vicinity
1948 Associate National Academician
1948 Edwin Palmer Memorial Prize, National Academy of Design
1952 National Academician[28]
1962 Edwin Palmer Memorial Prize, National Academy of Design
1962 Realism in Painting Prize, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago & Vicinity [29]
1965 Dana Medal, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts watercolor annual[30]
JURIES SERVED
Art Institute of Chicago, American Annual 1930
Illinois Academy of Fine Arts annual 1929
John Reed Club of Chicago, Second Annual Proletarian Art Exhibit, 1931[31]
Wisconsin Salon of Art 1943
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
All-Illinois Society of Fine Art annual 1927
American Federation of Arts, Traveling Exhibition of Chicago Artists1931-1932
American Watercolor Society annual 1943
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings By Contemporary Chicago Artists1936
Art Institute of Chicago, Society For Contemporary American Art1941
Arts Center Gallery, Chicago, inaugural exhibit 1932[32]
Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum annual watercolors 1931
California Palace of the Legion of Honor 1929
Carnegie Institute annual 1930, 1939, 1940, 1943-1950
Chicago Galleries Association semi-annual 1930,[33] 1930 (Dec.),[34] 1931
Chicago Galleries Association, March small group show 1932[35]
Chicago No-Jury Society of Artists annual 1934
Chicago Society of Artists annual 1930 (spring and fall), 1931, 1934
Cleveland Museum of Art
Corcoran Gallery of Art biennial 1932, 1935, 1937, 1939, 1941, 1943, 1945, 1947, 1949, 1951, 1953
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Texas, Famous Families in American Art, 1960[36]
de Young Memorial Museum, Meet the Artist: An Exhibition of Self-Portraits By Living American Artists 1943
Denver Art Museum
Detroit Institute of Arts
Increase Robinson Studio Gallery, Chicago 1930
Increase Robinson Studio Gallery, Chicago, Water Colors, Drawings And Prints By Chicago Artists 1931
Increase Robinson Studio Gallery, Chicago, Invitational 1931[37]
Increase Robinson Studio Gallery, Chicago, Chicago Artists Represented in Art of Today - Chicago, 1933, 1933
Library of Congress, National Exhibition of Prints Made During The Current Year 1948
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Biennial Exhibition of Drawings by American Artists 1945
Magnificent Mile Art Show, Chicago 1955
Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Painting 1950
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Artists for Victory 1942
Milwaukee Art Museum
Museum of Modern Art, Realists and Magic Realists 1943[38]
National Academy of Design annual 1927-1929,[39] 1932, 1934-1936, 1940, 1942, 1944, 1945, 1947-1950
National Sculpture Society 1929[40]
Pemaquid Group of Artists, Pemaquid Art Gallery Maine 1939[41]
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts annual 1927-1930,[42] 1931, 1933, 1935, 1936, 1938, 1940, 1942-1945, 1948, 1949
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Annual Watercolors 1943
Philadelphia Art Alliance, Sculpture in the Open Air, at Rittenhouse square 1928
Philadelphia Museum of Art
San Diego Museum of Art
San Francisco Fine Arts Museum
St. Louis Art Museum
University of Illinois, Contemporary American Painting 1950
Walley Findlay Galleries, Chicago, Eleanor Jewett Critic’s Choice1950
Whitney Museum of American Art annual 1936, 1938, 1940, 1945, 1948
ONE, TWO OR THREE MAN EXHIBITIONS
1932 (Mar.) Chicago Galleries Association
1938 Winnetka Community House, with his father and brother[43]
1942 Sheldon Swope Gallery, Terre Haute
1942 Findlay Galleries, Chicago with brother Ivan[44]
1945 Associated American Artists, New York with Ivan[45]
1946 Associated American Artists, Chicago with Ivan
1950 Riccardo’s Studio Restaurant, with his father and brother[46]
1987 Sonnenschein Gallery, Durand Art Institute, Father & Sons: The Albrights[47]
PERMANENT COLLECTIONS
The Art Institute of Chicago (long-term loan)
Corcoran Gallery of Art
National Academy of Design, New York
San Diego Museum of Art (deacessioned)[48]
Warrenville Public Library
INTERESTING NOTES
In 1932 he said, “I am a sculptor... When I get tired of sculpture and need a rest I paint”[49]This despite his continual exhibitions of paintings. He struggled between the two mediums to find a form which was most individual to him and less affiliated with his twin brother Ivan. In 1951 he was represented by Associated American Artists gallery and Riccardo’s Studio Restaurant gallery.[50]
Malvin and his twin brother Ivan were taught to draw by their father, Adam Emory, before embarking on their academic training and professional careers. The three maintained a close relationship and were occaisionally profiled together by the press. Though less successful as a painter and sculptor and certainly less radical in his approach than Ivan, Malvin worked alongside his brother on similar projects through 1947. The twins often studied with the same teachers and accompanied one another on several working trips, culminating in a Hollywood commission in 1943. Later, Malvin and Ivan are reported working from models who are related to one another, both in Warrenville and in California. Malvin, however, lived in the public shadow of his brother. With the exception of a few notes before 1926 or so, Malvin generally appears as a curious accoutrement to discussions of Ivan's peculiar work. On several occaisions, newspaper reporters got Malvin's name wrong, calling him Marvin,[51] mistaking him for Ivan, or creating other name variations until he changed his name to Zsissly. Nonetheless, Malvin enjoyed a moderately successful career in Chicagoand seems to have been respected in conservative National circles. After 1945 he frequently painted landscape outdoors in Maineand Oregon. He seems to have stopped exhibiting altogether around 1965. Due to health problems, he painted very little during the last decade of his life.
[1]Malvin initially adopted the pseudonym Zissly in 1932 to distance himself from his brother Ivan in his painting career. As such, Ivan, who nearly always appeared first in alphabetized exhibition catalogues would open and Zissly would close listings. When it became clear that Zissly wouldn’t always be last, the “s” was added almost immediately: Malvin became Zsissly. He continued to exhibit sculpture under his birth name.
[2]Malvin was named after Adam's Munich teacher, Carl von Marr. For more information on the artist see: Kenan Heise, “Malvin M. Albright, Chicago Artist,” Chicago Tribune, 9/16/1983, Sec. 2, p.10.
[3]Malvin and his identical twin, Ivan were born on the same day and died only two months apart.
[4]“Commencement Days: New Trier High School,” Chicago Tribune, 6/19/1915, p.14.
[5]A coin toss determined whether the twins would take up chemistry or architecture. Architecture came up as the winner. Jack Weinberg, interview with Ivan Albright, 1969, Ivan Albright [archival] Collection, Art Institute of Chicago.
[6]The extent to which Malvin and his brother Ivan actually “studied” at this institution is unclear. It emerged from Ivan as a story at least as early as 1931: Sterling North “The Man Who Drew Wounds: Portrait of A Painter,” Chicago Daily News, 8/5/1931, p.12. Ivan deflated the idea that there was much “studying” going on between Malvin, himself and the Ecole in his 1972 interview with Paul Cummings for the Archives of American Art.
[7]Adam Emory Albright encouraged Malvin to study with Grafly, who had been a fellow student of Adam’s during their own Pennsylvania Academy days. According to Malvin, Grafly and Adam Albright remained close friends. A bust of Adam Emory Albright done by Grafly in 1905 remained in the family for several decades. See Dorothy Grafly Drummond, The Sculptor’s Clay: Charles Grafly (1862-1929), (Wichita: Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, 1996), p.115.
[8]R. A. Lennon, “Brothers Establish Studio in a Church,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 5/26/1925, p.4.
[9]Malvin Albright completed several fountains and other sculptural projects for supposed commissions during the 1920s, but documentation on placement and fate is sketchy. A series of glass negatives in the Ivan Albright Collection of the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, The Art Institute of Chicago, visually documents these commissions.
[10]After ten weeks he gave up the position to his brother Ivan.
[11]Malvin was assigned to paint the unblemished portrait of Dorian Gray. Malvin’s painting, completed by February of 1944, was ultimately replaced and not used (or credited) in the film. Due to this commission, Malvin received a great deal of attention from the national press between 1943 and 1946; also contributing to this high visibility was his participation in an exhibition circulated by the Museum of Modern Art and joint exhibitions with his brother Ivan in New York and Chicago. In all the interviews Ivan obliged about his Hollywood experience, he never commented on this incident – nor was he asked – but one can certainly imagine the impact it had on Malvin. The closest anyone has come to an explanation appears in the article by Harriet and Sidney Janis, "The Painting of Ivan Albright," Art in America 34, 1 (January 1946), pp. 43-49. This is also one of the few articles that comments intelligently on the Albrights as twin artists.
[12]“7 Ex-WPA Artists Sign $100,000 Contract,” Chicago Daily News, 1/15/1947.
[13]Both Malvin and his brother Ivan lived at home until Ivan moved away at age forty-nine upon his marriage.
[14]“Ivan L. Albright,” in “News of the Art World,” supplement, Chicago Evening Post, 1/29/1924.
[15]Op. cit., Chicago Evening Post, 1/29/1924.
[16]“Of Timely Interest,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 11/18/1924, p.8. He and Ivan went to visit their parents at Laguna stopping on the way in Santa Fe, Taos and the Grand Canyon.
[17]Op. cit., R. A. Lennon, The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 5/26/1925, p.4. The Albright family has a painting signed 1925 and inscribed “Phoenix, Arizona.”
[18]“To Motor Thru South,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 10/13/1925, p.16. He traveled with his parents and brother.
[19]His The First Mate, a sculpture modeled in New York, was illustrated in The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 9/14/1926, p.11.
[20]Glenn B. Opitz, editor, Dictionary of American Sculptors: 18th Century to the Present, (Poughkeepsie, NY: Apollo, 1984).
[21]William Young, editor, A Dictionary of American Artists, Sculptors and Engravers, (Cambridge, MA: William Young and Co., 1968).
[22]“Fragment That Afforded an Entire Dispute,” Art Digest, Vol. 3, 5/1/1929, p.15. The prize was awarded his sculpture Fragment, illustrated in the article. Eleanor Jewett, “Chicago Artists’ Show Has Charm, Variety; Prizes Are Awarded,” Chicago Tribune, 2/7/1929, p.29.
[23]Art Digest, Vol. 9, 12/15/1934, p.7. The award was given his painting White Shutters. The show was reviewed in C. J. Bulliet, “Around the Galleries: Let It Pass for an Annual,” Chicago Daily News, 12/8/1934, Art and Artists, p.6.
[24]The prize was awarded his Victoria. Eleanor Jewett, ““New Art Show Reveals Rich Talent in U. S.,” Chicago Tribune, 10/27/1935, p.F6.
[25]The prize was awarded his Corea Maine.
[26]The prize was awarded his Lobsterman’s Wharf, illustrated in: “Chicago’s 47th Annual: A Region in Cross-Section,” Art News, Vol. 42, 3/15/1943, p.27.
[27]The prize was awarded his Deer Island, Maine.
[28]Art Digest, Vol. 26, 3/15/1952, p.10.
[29]The prize was awarded his Unfinished. He is shown working on the painting, before an elaborate still-life set up in the picture-essay, “Art Twins,” Buffalo Courier-Express, Pictorial section, 6/10/1945.
[30]Artist index cards, PAFA archives.
[31]“John Reed Exhibition,” Chicago Evening Post, 10/27/1931, Art Section, p.8.
[32]Edward Millman, “Art Notes: Highlights and Smudges,” The Chicagoan, Vol. 13, No. 5, December 1932, p.66.
[33]His sculpture Torso, was illustrated in The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 5/13/1930, p.4.
[34]His sculpture Fragment, was illustrated in The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 12/16/1930, p.4.
[35]Tom Vickerman, “If Ghosts of Pictures Could Join a Revue,” Chicago Evening Post, 3/8/1932, Art Section, p.6. His Derricks on the Chicago River, was illustrated in the 3/22 issue, p.6. Eleanor Jewett, “Current Exhibits Intrigue Interest: At the Chicago Galleries,” Chicago Tribune, 3/13/1932, part 8, p.5.
[36]Also represented in this exhibition were his father, brother, and young nephew, Adam Medill Albright, son of Ivan.
[37]The show was put on at the same time and in competition with the annual exhibit of American art at the Art Institute of Chicago. For a review see: Tom Vickerman, “Capone Got His, But Josimovich Still Baits Fate,” Chicago Evening Post, 11/3/1931, Art Section, p.8.
[38]“To Present Albright Twins,” Art Digest, Vol. 19, 9/15/1945. An entire gallery was devoted to his and his brother Ivan’s work.
[39]His Fragment, was illustrated in The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 12/3/1929, p.8.
[40]His Age of Darkness, was illustrated in The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 3/26/1929, p.13.
[41]C. J. Bulliet, “Art Notes,” Chicago Daily News, 9/2/1939, Art and Music Section, p.11.
[42]His sculpture Guinea Pig, was illustrated in The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 3/4/1930, p.4.
[43]C. J. Bulliet, “Around the Galleries: Three Albrights,” Chicago Daily News, 4/9/1938, Art and Music Section, p.15.
[44]This exhibition is referred to by, H. H. Herscher in “What’s in a Name?,” East Liverpool Ohio Review, 4/14/ 1942. Eleanor Jewett, “Photo Exhibit at Historical Salon Planned,” Chicago Tribune, 3/22/1942, p.H3.
[45]A critique of the show appeared in New York Sun, 10/27/1945, New York Public Library Artist File, A85/E5.
[46]C. J. Bulliet, “Art in Chicago: Season for Veterans,” Art Digest, Vol. 24, 4/15/1950, p.26.
[47]A small but interesting pamplhlet was produced in conjunction with this modest exhibition. Despite several factual errors in the text, it is to date, the only essay whose aim is to tie together the art of Adam, Ivan and Malvin.
[48]His bust of St. Francis, was illustrated in The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 9/11/1928, p.9.
[49]J. Z. Jacobson, Art of Today, Chicago 1933, (Chicago: L. M. Stein, 1933), p.36.
[50]“Who’s Where,” Art Digest, Vol. 26, 11/1/1951, p.69.
[51]For instance, in an article seemingly as pivotal and intimate as Marguerite B. Williams, “In An Art Colony,” Chicago Daily News 8/27/1930, which, though about Ivan comments to a fair degree on the Albright family’s artists. Williams had actually made the same mistake in an earlier article, see: “Here and there in the art world,” Chicago Daily News, 8/29/1928.