Samuel Ostrowsky
BORN: May 5, 1885 Malin (near Kiev), Russia
DIED: December 26, 1946 Chicago
MARRIED: 1912 Anna Israelson, daughter of Rabbi Solomon Israelson of Chicago (divorced)
TRAINING
1900-1903 Kiev Academy of Fine Arts with A. Manievich
1906-1913 Evenings and days, Art Institute of Chicago, Harry M. Walcott, Frederick W. Freer, Antonin Sterba
1913-1914 Académie Julian with Jean Paul Laurens and Othon Friesz
ART RELATED EMPLOYMENT
1916 Lectures, Oakwood School of Music and Fine Arts, Benton Harbor/St. Joseph, MI[1]
1916-1918 designed stage sets for Chicago Yiddish Theater (Glickman’s) and Pabst Theater, Milwaukee
1921-1928 Designed stage sets, Yiddish Art Theater in New York and Equity Players, 48th St.Theater
1922 Illustrated Grineh Zveigen (Little Green Branches), collection of Yiddish poems by Israel Blum, Chicago
1926 Frontice portrait, Selig Heller’s poems in Yiddish, Alte Vegen [2]
1933 Wrote “Prodigal Son of Paris”, article about his friend Jules Pascin, Esquire Magazine, Autumn
TEACHING
1914-1920 Milwaukee Institute of Art
1932-1935 Jewish Peoples Institute, Chicago[3]
1944-1946 Privately, Tree Studio, Chicago
RESIDENCES
1885-1900 Malin, Russia
1900-1903 Kiev, Russia
1903-1913 Chicago
1913-1914 Paris
1914-1925 Chicago[4] and Milwaukee (to 1920)
1925-1926 Paris
1926-1928 New York City
1928-1932 Paris
1932-1935 Chicago
1935-1939 Paris
1939-1946 Chicago
TRAVEL
1914 Etaples (summer)
1916 Hudson River Valleyand Catskill Mountains, NY
1921-on Oliverea, NY near Woodstock (summers)
1921-1924 extended periods in New York City
1925 Provincetown, MA (summer)
1926-1927; 1928-1931;[5]1935-1936; 1937-1939 France
1932 Russia, to visit parents
MEMBERSHIPS/OFFICES
American Artists Professional League; Chicago No Jury Society of Artists; Independent Society of Artists, Chicago; Salon d’Automne; Salon des Independents; Salon des Tuileries; Society for Contemporary Art, Chicago; Society of Independent Artists, New York
HONORS
1908, 1910-1912 Honorable Mentions, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
1913 Faculty Honorable Mention, Art Institute of Chicago
1931 Second Prize, Chicago Jewish Artists, College of Jewish Studies[6]
1939 Blue Ribbon, Salon des Tuileries, Paris
1940 Florsheim Prize, Art Institute of Chicago, American Annual
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
All-Illinois Society of Fine Art annual 1929
Around the Palette, first annual exhibition 1926
Art Institute, Chicago & Vicinity 1917, 1925-1926,[7]1928-1932, 1941-1942
Art Institute of Chicago, American Annual 1927-1928, 1930-1931, 1940-1941
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress 1933, 1934
Benjamin Galleries, Moderns 1941
Benjamin Galleries, Outstanding Contemporary Artists, c.1944
Boston Museum of Fine Art
Brooklyn Museum
Carnegie Institute, Paintings by ChicagoArtists 1936
Carnegie Institute, Directions in American Painting 1941
ChicagoNo-Jury Society of Artists 1922, 1924, 1928
College of Jewish Studies 1931
Gallerie le Triangel, Paris 1930
Gallerie de la Renaissance, Paris, Artistes Americains de Paris 1932
Hebrew Literature Society, Philadelphia, Jewish Artists of Philadelphiaand New York1924
Illinois State Museum, North Mississippi Valley Artists 1941
Independent Society of Artists, Chicago 1917, 1918
Jewish Artists Exhibit, Chicago 1926
Jewish Woman's Art Club of Chicago, Jewish Artists of Chicago1933
Museum of ModernArt, Sixteen Cities
Museum of Moscow c. 1930s
Salon Société des Artistes Français 1914
Pennsylvania Academyof the Fine Arts 1942
ProvincetownArtists Exhibition 1925
Renaissance Society of the University of Chicago, Chicago Artists 1929
Salon d’Automne, Paris1936, 1938
Salon des Tuileries, Paris1939
Salon des Independents, Paris
Society of Independent Artists, New York 1918, 1921, 1922, 1928
Society for Contemporary Art, Art Institute of Chicago 1942
Whitney Museum of American Art, Paintings and Prints by Chicago Artists 1933
Whitney Museum of American Art, Biennial 1932
ONE, TWO OR THREE MAN EXHIBITIONS
1916 Moulton and Ricketts Gallery, Chicago
1927 Chicago Woman’s Aid[8]
1928 Polly Mfg. Co., Milwaukee
1928 Chicago City Social Club[9]
1931 Increase Robinson Studio, Chicago[10]
1934 Jewish Peoples Institute, Chicago[11]
1936 Beaumont Art Galleries, Chicago[12]
1937 Beaumont Art Galleries, Chicago
1938 Standard Club of Chicago
c.1946 Katherine Kuh Gallery, Chicago
1950 Art Institute of Chicago retrospective[13]
1986 B’nai B’rith Klutznick Museum, Washington, D. C.
1986 Smithsonian Institution, SITES International Traveling Exhibition
1987 Merkin Concert Hall, New YorkCity
1987 Spertus Museum, stage paintings
1988 Skirball Museum, Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles
1988 Tamid, Adath Jeshurun Synagogue, Minneapolis
1988 National Museum of American Jewish History, Philadelphia
1992 Lake Forest College
PERMANENT COLLECTIONS
Bezalel Museum, Jerusalem; Ein Harod Museum, Tel Aviv; City of Tel Aviv; Grenoble Museum, France; Brandeis University; Roosevelt University, Chicago; Biro-Bidjan Museum, Russia
INTERESTING NOTES
When he was fourteen, living in a ghetto shack with his parents in a small Russian village, the painter Orlovski was visiting the local doctor and Ostrowski approached him while he was painting in the woods. The artist saw the boy's drawings and a few days later convinced his frightened parents to enroll him in art school in Kiev.
He was somewhat resented by the Chicago Jewish artists community because he was popular on in international scope and a member of the School of Pariswith Chagall, Pascin and Soutine and the school of Paris. He was fully accepted in Europe but never in Chicago.
World War II was a terrible time for him. He was caught in Francein 1939 and was only able to escape with the help of his close friend, the Premier Leon Blum. His parents were killed in the Ukraine, his brothers were in the Russian army and his son was in the U. S. Army. He never fully recovered from this later depressed state.
One critic noted “His work cannot be labeled impressionist, modernist or any other classification. He may have painted 200 years ago or 50 years ago. One gets no hint of his politics from his painting.”[14]
He said of his own work, “Bonnard, Utrillo, close disciples of Renoir and Cezanne, are my favorites among contemporaries. I feel that I belong with them and am proud of it.”[15]
[1]“Oakwood May Add New Department Of Art This Year,” Benton Harbor Pall.., 10/7/1916 in Art Institute of Chicago Scrapbooks, vol. 34.
[2]The work was illustrated in The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 1/19/1926, p.8.
[3]“Jewish People’s Institute,” Chicago Daily News, 6/9/1934, Art and Artists section, p.26.
[4]At one time he had his studio in the Fifty-Seventh Street art colony. Fred Biesel typescript, Biesel Papers, Archives of American Art, Microfilm 1991 25, No. 4207-4209, available at the Ryerson Library, Art Institute of Chicago.
[5]“35 Chicago Artists Hold Rally in Paris,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 9/23/1930, p.5.
[6]The prize was awarded his Still Life, Tom Vickerman, “Odd Jury Picks Art for Jewish Annual,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 2/24/1931, pp.1, 11.
[7]His High Tide Provincetown, was illustrated in The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 3/23/1926, p.3.
[8]His Portrait of a Friend, was illustrated in The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 3/1/1927, p.6. A review was by Marguerite B. Williams, “The Parisian Views Chicago,” Chicago Daily News, 3/2/1927, in the Art Institute of Chicago scrapbooks, vol. 53, p.36.
[9]“Exhibit by Ostrowsky,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 6/5/1928, p.2 and R. A. Lennon, “Ostrowsky Paintings at City Social Club,” in the 6/12/1928 issue, p.2.
[10]Tom vickerman, “Rich Paintings in Ostrowsky Exhibit,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 4/14/1931, p.4. His Figure Sitting, was illustrated the week before in the 4/7 issue on p.3.
[11]“Paintings by Ostrowsky,” C. J. Bulliet, “Around the Picture Galleries: Paintings by Ostrowsky,” Chicago Daily News, 1/20/1934, Art Section, p.9.
[12]Advertisement, Chicago Daily News, 11/21/1936, Art, Antiques and The Artists section, p.4R.
[13]Held as part of the Artists of Chicago and Vicinity Fifty-fourth annual exhibition. The catalogue stated: Samuel Ostrowsky was born in 1885 in the village of ) Malin; near Kiev; Russia. At fourteen he met by chance an artist named Orlovski who encouraged him to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kiev. In 1906 he came to live with an uncle in Chicago and remained here for the rest of his life, but his painting career took him to many other places. He worked in Provincetown, along the Hudson and in the Catskills. In 1913 he was married and went to Paris, where he studied at the Académie Julian. A portrait of his wife was accepted for the Salon of 1914. The first World War made it necessary for the Ostrowskys to return home, but they made four or five extended trips to France during the twenties and thirties. His early work was somber and introspective, but contact in France with Impressionist paintings and with numerous progressive artists resulted in his work becoming higher keyed in color and more optimistic in spirit. Despite his frequent trips abroad, he was closely allied with the Chicago scene and was one of the most sensitive artists working here. This memorial exhibition is accorded him in recognition of his distinguished contribution to the development of painting in Chicago.
[14]Grabow, Point, Vol. 1, No. 10, 1/29/1947.
[15]J. Z. Jacobson, Art of Today. Chicago 1933, (Chicago: L. M. Stein, 1933), p.101.