Moses Soyer | |
|---|---|
| Born | Moses Schoar (1899-12-25)December 25, 1899 Borisoglebsk,Tambov, Russia |
| Died | September 2, 1974(1974-09-02) (aged 74) New York City, US |
| Education | Cooper Union,National Academy of Design,Educational Alliance,Ferrer Center and Colony |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Social Realism |
| Spouse | Ida Chassner Soyer |
| Children | 1 |
| Family |
|
Moses Soyer (December 25, 1899 – September 2, 1974)[1] was an Americansocial realist painter.
He was born asMoses Schoar and both he and his identical twin brother,Raphael, were born inBorisoglebsk,Tambov, a southern province of Russia on December 25, 1899.[2][3] Their father, Abraham Shauer, aHebrew scholar, writer and teacher,[4] raised his six children in an intellectual environment in which much emphasis was placed on academic and artistic pursuits. Their mother, Bella, was an embroiderer.[5] Their cousin was painter and meteorologist Joshua Zalman Holland.[6] The difficulties faced by the Jewish population in the late Russian Empire forced the Soyer family to emigrate in 1912 to the United States, where they ultimately settled inthe Bronx.[2] The family name changed from Schoar to Soyer during immigration.[3]
Soyer married in 1922 to Ida Chassner, a dancer.[7] Together they had one son, David Soyer. Dancers were a recurring subject in Soyer's paintings.[7]
Soyer studied art in New York with his twin Raphael, first atCooper Union, and continued his studied atNational Academy of Design.[8] He diverged from his twin and attendedEducational Alliance.[8] He later studied at theFerrer Art School under theAshcan paintersRobert Henri andGeorge Bellows.[9]
He had his first solo exhibition in 1926 and began teaching art the following year at the Contemporary Art School andThe New School.[10][11]
During theGreat Depression of the 1930s, Moses and his brother Raphael engaged in Social Realism, demonstrating empathy with the struggles of the working class.[12] In 1939, the twins worked together with theWorks Project Administration,Federal Art Project (WPA-FAP) mural at theKingsessing Station post office inPhiladelphia.[8][13]
Soyer wrote a weekly column for a Yiddish newspaper called "In the World of Art".[4]
Soyer died in theChelsea Hotel in New York on September 2, 1974, while painting dancer and choreographerPhoebe Neville.[14][1] He was buried in Acacia Cemetery inQueens County, New York.
TheBrooklyn Museum,[15] theDetroit Institute of Arts,[16] theHirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, DC),[17] theHonolulu Museum of Art,[citation needed] theMetropolitan Museum of Art,[18] theMuseum of Modern Art (New York City),[19] thePhiladelphia Museum of Art,[20]The Phillips Collection (Washington, DC),[21] theWalker Art Center (Minneapolis, Minnesota),[22] theWhitney Museum of American Art (New York City),[23] theAmon Carter Museum of American Art (Fort Worth),[24] theSmithsonian American Art Museum,[25] andYale University Art Gallery[26] are among the institutions holding works by Moses Soyer. The untitled painting in the collection of theHonolulu Museum of Art is an example of his intimate and psychologically penetrating portraits of ordinary people, for which he is best known.[citation needed]
Moses Soyer, the Russian-born artist who became an outstanding American painter, died here yesterday while working at his studio in the Chelsea Hotel.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
