William Samuel Schwartz (1896 - 1977)

Fruit and Driftwood, c. 1940s, oil on canvas, signed lower right, titled and numbered #473 together with artist's name and Chicago verso, 30 x 36 inches, presented in a newer frame

$7750

The Illinois State Museum writes of William Schwartz' still life painting: "Objects are rendered in believable three dimensions, yet they don't quite sit flat. Schwartz’s palette is instantly recognizable and tends toward 'acid' tinged and jarring combinations of color next to one another. His turbulent personal life was often played out in his paintings and in this work we see not only a still life of domestic objects but a thinly-veiled erotic fantasy." Schwartz' style of painting was radical for the time, particularly in the Midwest. His bold, deeply saturated palette was sometimes considered harsh and discordant, criticisms previously faced by the Fauvists. His draftsmanship, composition and coloration, reflected a strong awareness of European modernism.

William S. Schwartz was born in Smorgon, Russia, February 23, 1896. He studied at the Vilna Art School in Russia with a four-year scholarship before immigrating to the United States as a teenager. He lived with his sister in New York for eight months before joining his brother in Omaha where he became a housepainter and continued his study of fine art at the Kellom School. Under the instruction of J. Laurie Wallace, Schwartz studied life drawing, portraiture and painting. He later moved to Chicago where he continued training at the Art Institute and assumed the role of principle tenor in various vaudeville, radio, concert and operatic performances. To support himself, he also spent long days waiting tables and ushering in theaters. After graduating from the Art Institute, Schwartz continued to exhibit there annually in group shows through the 1940s. Schwartz was a participant in the public works of art programs during the Great Depression, including creating a mural for the Fairfield, Illinois Post Office under the auspices of the Treasury Department.

Outside of Chicago, he exhibited nationally at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Metropolitan Museum or Art, Museum of Modern Art, and Whitney Museum of American Art, among many others. Schwartz won over a dozen significant prizes from Chicago to Oklahoma and Detroit to Texas. He is represented in the following permanent collections: the Art Institute of Chicago, the San Francisco Museum, the Joslyn Art Museum, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Santa Barbara Museum or Art, Denver Art Museum, Art Alliance of Philadelphia, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Library of Congress and Department of Labor, Henry Gallery, Des Moines Art Center, Montclair Art Museum, and Detroit Institute of Arts. In total, fifty-three museums and university galleries own Schwartz' works. He is listed in Who Was Who in American Art and all other standard references.