Hyman J. Warsager Explained

Hyman J. Warsager
Birth Date: 1909
Birth Place:New York, New York
Death Place:Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom
Nationality:American
Field:painter, printmaker

Hyman J. Warsager (1909–1974) was an American artist known for his printmaking.

Biography

Warsager was born in 1909 in New York City. He attended the Pratt Institute, the Grand Central School of Art, and the American Artists School.[1] He worked for the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) creating prints.[2] [3] His work was included in the 1940 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art entitled American Color Prints Under $10,[4] which was aimed at bringing public attention to these “inexpensive but dynamic artworks”; the effort was reportedly successful.[5] His work was also included in the 1944 Dallas Museum of Art exhibition of the National Serigraph Society.[6] He died in 1974 in Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom.[7]

Warsager was among the ‘radical illustrators’[8] who contributed anti-lynching and antifascism images to leftist political magazines in the 1930s with the aim of increasing awareness of racial terrorism being committed across the country as well as the rise of fascism in Europe. His drawing The Law, which appeared in New Masses in 1934, "exemplified the joining of antiracist and antifascist references to critique. . social failures."[9]

He illustrated the label of folk singer-songwriter Earl Hawley Robinson’s 1940 recording Earl Robinson: Songs for Americans, a 78 RPM 4-pocket album released in the U.S.[10] [11]   Robinson was one of the "new folk" artists of the Public Works Administration (P.W.A.), a New Deal government agency (1933–39), and he wrote the songs Joe Hill, Black and White, and the cantata Ballad for Americans. His various songs were recorded by Paul Robeson, Lead Belly, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Odetta, Burl Ives, Three Dog Night, Sammy Davis Jr., Pete Seeger, and Joan Baez.

Federal Art Project – WPA

In the late 1930's Warsager was a member of the WPA team in New York City that experimented with silkscreen techniques. The team was led and inspired by Anthony Velonis.[12] Warsager later recalled that "the establishment of the Graphic division of the WPA/FAP in that memorable fall of 1935 injected new hope in the artists and a new life into the print".[13] [14]

Art historian Helen Manga wrote in Radical Art: Printmaking and the Left in 1930's New York: “The credibility that printmaking gained through the establishment of the Federal Art Projects’s Graphic Arts Division. . . increased interest in viewing and collecting modern fine art prints in the second half of the decade (1930’s). The Graphic Arts Division was part of the Federal Art Project. . .initiated in 1935 to promoted work relief for visual artists. . .  enabling them to maintain and improve their professional skills. . . .It represented a visionary attempt to combine economic relief for creative artists with the cultural enrichment of the nation”.[15]

About the original Federal Art Project team focused on silk screen printing, Manga wrote: "The team of six artists at the Graphic Arts Division who pioneered new screen-print technologies included Harry Gottlieb, Louis Lozowick, Eugene Morley, Elizabeth Olds, and Hyman Warsager. Harry Sternberg was also working independently on silkscreen printing with help from several other artists",[16] including Ruth Chaney.

The early experimentation by Velonis in combination with the instructional booklet he wrote for the WPA[17] and the WPA Federal Art Project team's collective efforts "would ultimately transform silkscreen printing from a commercial process to a fine-art medium".[18]

Warsager and Velonis were longtime friends, collaborators, and later business partners. In an essay written in 1941, Carl Zigrosser, then curator of prints, drawings, and rare books at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, wrote: "Warsager has long been associated with Velonis; indeed he has shared a studio with him for the last few years and has also engaged in business with him under the name of Creative Printmakers Group".[19]

Creative Printmakers Group

In 1939, Velonis, Warsager and other artists co-founded the Creative Printmakers Group in New York City.[20] [21] About this group, Sylvie Covey wrote in Modern Printmaking: A Guide to Traditional and Digital Techniques: "The group's shared screen-printing studio introduced the silkscreen process to many serious artists who went there to have editions printed. Vincent Longo worked as a colorist at Creative Printmakers Group, as did Jackson Pollock, and the print shop eventually became the most important silkscreen shop of the era. It was at about this time that the word serigraphy, which combines the Latin word seri ("silk") and the Greek word grapho ("to write"), first appeared. It was coined by Carl Zigrosser . . . . to distinguish fine-art from commercial silkscreen"".[18]

Warsager was acquainted with the French-American artist Louise Bourgeois when they were both in their late twenties in New York City. In June of 1939, Bourgeois visited him at the studio of Creative Printmakers Group in Manhattan.[22] Later that summer, during her trip to Paris, Bourgeois sent him a hand-written letter[23] about organizing an exhibition with André Lurçat, the French architect, urban planner and painter, at Maison de la Culture in Paris, where Lurçat was also the manager. She wrote: “I have shown him [Lurçat] your three prints and some work by Ruth Chaney and some by Will Barnet. He likes them very much”.[23]

National Serigraph Society

Warsager, Velonis, Joseph LeBoit, Max Arthur Cohn and several other artists founded the National Serigraph Society in 1940, which held exhibits, operated a gallery,[24] and published a newsletter. The Society was called a "major force in the development of serigraphy as a fine art. . .(that) set standards of excellence and has sent hundreds of exhibitions of its members' work to countries all over the world" in Silk-Screen Printing for Artists & Craftsmen (1970) [25] by Mathilda V. and James A. Schwalbach. The authors added that the exhibitions were responsible for a good deal of museum interest in the purchase of original prints as part of museum collections. The organization was described as "a source of inspiration, a clearing house, and temple of artist and print makers everywhere" in Silk Screen Techniques[26] by J.I. Biegeleisen and Max Arthur Cohn, who noted that it was largely responsible for the effective promotion of serigraphy, raising it to the level of a museum art form. The Society's "active program of traveling exhibits, lectures, and portfolios of prints helped to sustain and broaden interest in the serigraph".[27]

The Dallas Museum of Art held several exhibits of the work of the National serigraph Society members in 1944, 1947, and 1951[28] [29] [30]

Service in U.S. Army Air Forces Silk Screen Unit

Warsager served in the U.S. Army Air Forces' Western Technical Training Command (AAFWTTC) in Denver, CO from 1942 to 1945,[31] where he taught aerial photography in the U.S. Army Air Forces School.  Based on his art training and experience, Warsager was assigned to head a new Silk Screen Unit for the design and production of color posters on various subjects that the Command wished to publicize. The commanding general of the AAFWTTC, Major General John F. Curry, wrote in a November 1943 commendation: “I wish to commend the Silk Screen Unit of the Reproduction Division at Lowry Field for the intelligence, imagination and originality displayed in designing and executing the posters requested by this headquarters for distribution to the various stations of this command. . . . The (Silk Screen) unit. . .has successfully been engaged in producing posters which have been accorded high praise from many sources. I particularly desire to commend . . .. Staff Sergeant Hyman J. Warsager for setting up the unit and for executing and directing the production of the posters. . .”.[32]

Warsager and fellow artists in the unit designed and created a mural in the map room of the Operations Building at Lowry Field, at the suggestion of Brig. Gen. Albert L. Sneed, to "make Lowry one of the most talked of stations among pilots on the Chicago to San Francisco airway."[33]

Anthony Velonis also served in this military Silk Screen Unit after Warsager requested that the Army Air Forces assign Velonis to the unit, based on Velonis' strong technical screen printing skills and expertise.

Decorative Glassware Company

In 1940 Warsager and Velonis started a commercial company by building on their screen printing skills and experience. They called the company Ceraglass, with ‘cera’ referring to ceramic. The business had its beginnings in a chance encounter, as noted in various sources.[34] [35] [36] [37]  Ceraglass evolved from their previous endeavor, Creative Printmakers Group, which they had started with several other artists. Along with the work of numerous artists, Creative Printmakers printed holiday cards for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A cosmetics manufacturer spotted Warsager’s and Velonis' work and then visited them at the studio they shared, where he inquired whether the silk-screen process with which they were expert could be used on glass to produce an attractive bottle for a men’s shaving lotion. He persuaded them to decorate cosmetic containers.

Encouraged by the success of that side venture, Warsager and Velonis formed their own firm and later decorated containers for cosmetic manufacturers such as Elizabeth Arden, Dorothy Gray and Shulton. Eventually, Ceraglass turned to creating decoration for glassware. By 1962 they led a team of seven artists and designers and their team of skilled craftsmen. The company employed a hundred and fifty skilled and semiskilled employees, most of whom had been trained on-the-job.  By the mid-1960’s the company had outgrown its multiple loft sites in New York City and moved to progressively larger spaces. By 1965 Ceraglass and its affiliated company Ceragraphic occupied 56,000 square feet of factory and design space in Hackensack, NJ.

Velonis and Warsager operated Ceraglass and Ceragraphic until they sold the firms to VCA Corporation in 1969. Warsager stayed for several more years as Chief Executive Officer. He held several U.S. patents on glassware designs.[38] Velonis held patents on innovative processes involved in their manufacturing process;[39] in addition to being an artist, Velonis was technically skilled and developed many of the paints and techniques used in their production processes.

The Museum of American Glass in West Virginia holds numerous glassware items in its collection that were designed and produced by Ceragraphic and Ceraglass.[40]  

Selected Group Exhibitions

Museums

Warsager's work is in the Art Institute of Chicago,[60] the Baltimore Museum of Art,[61] the Brooklyn Museum,[62] the Detroit Institute of Arts,[63] the Metropolitan Museum of Art,[64] the National Gallery of Art,[65] Philadelphia Museum of Art,[66] the Smithsonian American Art Museum,[67] the Victoria and Albert Museum,[68] the University of Arizona Museum of Art,[69] the University of Michigan Museum of Art,[70] Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin,[71] the Illinois State Museum,[72] Krannert Art Museum,[73] Weisman Art Museum,[74] The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University,[75] Museum of Fine Arts Boston,[76] the Harn Museum of Art[77] at University of Florida, Davison Art Center at Wesleyan University,[78] Yale University Art Gallery,[79] Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art[80] at the University of Oregon, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.[81]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Hyman Warsager . AskArt . 16 June 2022.
  2. Web site: Hyman Joseph Warsager Biography . Annex Galleries Fine Prints . 16 June 2022.
  3. Web site: On the Avenue . Prints: New Deal Art (WPA/PWAP) Krannert Art Museum . 16 June 2022.
  4. Web site: American Color Prints Under $10 . The Museum of Modern Art . 20 September 2022 . en.
  5. Book: Langa, Helen . Radical Art: Printmaking and the Left in 1930's New York . University of California Press . 2004 . 0-520-23155-4 . Berkeley and Los Angeles, California . 36.
  6. Web site: National Serigraph Society Exhibition Dallas Museum of Art . Dallas Museum of Art . 16 June 2022.
  7. Web site: 24 June 2022 . Familysearch.org . registration . familysearch.org.
  8. Book: Morgan, Stacy I. . Rethinking Social Realism: African American Art and Literature, 1930-1953 . The University of Georgia Press . 2004 . 0-8203-2579-1 . Athens, Georgia . 130.
  9. Book: Langa, Helen . Radical Art: Printmaking and the Left in 1930's New York . University of California Press . 2004 . 0-520-23155-4 . Berkeley and Los Angeles, California . 157.
  10. Web site: Earl Robinson Songs for Americans, Picture art by Hyman Warsager, Timely Record 78 . September 23, 2023 . Popsike.com.
  11. Web site: Performing Arts Databases - Earl Robinson: Songs for Americans . September 23, 2023 . The Library of Congress.
  12. Book: Colescott . Warrington . Progressive Printmakers: Wisconsin Artists and the Print Renaissance . Hove . Arthur . University of Wisconsin Press . 1999 . 9780299161101 . 5.
  13. Book: Warsager, Hyman . Art for the Millions: Essays from the 1930's by Artists and Administrators of the WPA Federal Art Project . New York Graphic Society, Ltd. . 1973 . 0-8212-0659-1 . O'Connor . Francis V. . 2nd . Boston, Massachusetts . 139 . Graphic Techniques in Progress.
  14. Book: Watrous, James . A Century of American Printmaking - 1880-1980 . The University of Wisconsin Press . 1984 . 0-299-09680-7 . Madison, Wisconsin . 97.
  15. Book: Langa, Helen . Radical Art: Printmaking and the Left in 1930's New York . University of California Press . 2004 . 0-52023155-4 . Berkeley, Los Angeles, London . 21–22.
  16. Book: Langa, Helen . Radical Art: Printmaking and the Left in 1930's New York . University of California Press . 2004 . 0-52023155-4 . Berkeley, Los Angeles, London . 250.
  17. Book: Velonis, Anthony . Technical Problems of the Artist: Technique of the Silkscreen Process . Federal Art Project, New York . 1938 . 4172574.
  18. Book: Covey, Sylvie . Modern Printmaking: A Guide to Traditional and Digital Techniques . Watson-Guptill . 2016 . 978-1-60774-759-8 . Berkeley . 227.
  19. Zigrosser . Carl . December 1941 . Bender . John . The Serigraph, A New Medium . The Print Collector's Quarterly . 28 . 4 . 457–458.
  20. Web site: Oral History Interview with Anthony Velonis, 1965, October 13 . September 3, 2022 . Archives of American Art, Smithsonian.
  21. Web site: Oral History Interview with Hyman J. Warsager, 1965, October 14 . September 3, 2022 . Archives of American Art, Smithsonian.
  22. Louise Bourgeois, diary entry, 16 June 1939; © The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY
  23. Louise Bourgeois, letter to Hyman Warsager, Summer 1939. 81/4 x 51/4 in. (21x13.3 cm.). LB-2200; © The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY
  24. Web site: Devree . Howard . April 20, 1955 . Serigraph Society's Annual Show Called International Event of Strong Color . November 5, 2022 . The New York Times.
  25. Book: Schwalbach . Mathilda V. . Silk-Screen Printing for Artists & Craftsmen . Schwalbach . James A. . Dover Publications . 1970 . 9780486157498 . Revised . New York . 16 . 80-66838.
  26. Book: Biegeleisen . J.I. . Silk Screen Techniques . Cohn . Max Arthur . Dover Publications . 1958 . 9780486204338 . 2nd . New York . 14.
  27. Book: Ross . John . The Complete Printmaker: Techniques, Traditions, Innovations . Romano . Clare . Ross . Tim . Free Press (A Division of Simon & Schuster) . 1990 . 9780029273715 . Revised . New York, N.Y. . 145.
  28. Web site: National Serigraph Exhibition, January 15-February 15, 1947 [Checklist] ]. November 5, 2022 . The Portal to Texas History.
  29. Web site: National Serigarph Society Exhibition, April 1-May 2, 1951 [Checklist] ]. November 5, 2022 . The Portal to Texas History.
  30. Web site: National Serigraph Society Exhibition . November 5, 2022 . Dallas Museum of Art.
  31. Army of the United States - Separation Qualification Record - Discharge: Armed Forces of the United States. Hyman J. Warsager, 32 358 736 Staff Sergeant, 3705th Army Air Forces Base Unit, Honorable Discharge, September 27, 1945, Lowry Field, Colorado (Given at Washington, D.C. on May 15, 1952). W. E. Bergin, Major General, USA, The Adjutant General
  32. Memorandum - Commendation from Major General John F. Curry, Commanding General, Technical School, AAFWTTC, Lowry Field, Colorado,  November 1, 1943, #059378; HQ AAFWTTC, Nov. 1, 1943, 201.22, Authorized by Brigadier General A. L. Sneed.
  33. News: August 14, 1944 . Map Room of Operations Now Sparkles with Mural Done by Silk Screen Staff . 14 . 4 . 1, 3 . The Rev-Meter. Published in the Interests of the Personnel of Lowry Field, Denver, CO..
  34. The Gift and Art Buyer, July 1961, Meet Mister H.J. Warsager - Artist and Businessman
  35. News: December 24, 1962 . Eye Appeal, Buy Appeal Go Together, Trio Knows: Hackensack Manufacturers of Bottles Succeed in Turning Out Attractive Products . The Record . Hackensack, NJ.
  36. The American Perfumer and Aromatics (industry publication), December 1959
  37. Art, Home, and Design, a brochure of the Ceraglass Company, 1965
  38. Web site: Google Patents . November 28, 2022 . Drinking Glass.
  39. Web site: Google Patents . November 28, 2022 . Method of forming a raised metallic design on a vitreous surface.
  40. Web site: Museum of American Glass in West Virginia . November 28, 2022.
  41. Web site: Prints for the People: A National Exhibition of Prints . April 6, 2023 . Prints Online - Mary Evans Picture Library - Historic Prints & Wall Art.
  42. Web site: Prints for the People: A National Exhibition of Prints . April 6, 2023 . Alamy.com.
  43. Web site: Color Prints by Four W.P.A. Artists . February 9, 2023 . Brooklyn Museum.
  44. Web site: Harris . Ruth . August 13, 1939 . Far From the City Heat: Berkshire Museum Puts on an Instructive Show Called 'The World of Today' . July 12, 2023 . The New York Times (timesmachine.nytimes.com).
  45. Web site: 1939 . Box 26, Folder 62: The Berkshire Museum, "The World of Tomorrow" Exhibition, 1939 . July 14, 2023 . Smithsonian Institution Collections, Elizabeth McCausland Papers.
  46. Book: Langa, Helen . Radical Art: Printmaking and the Left in 1930's New York . University of California Press . 2004 . 0-52023155-4 . Berkeley, Los Angeles, London . 221.
  47. April 1966 . Elizabeth McCausland, Critic and Idealist . Archives of American Art Journal . 6 . 2 . 18 . 1556916 . JSTOR.
  48. Silk Screen Prints . November 11, 2022 . Brooklyn Museum Bulletin. 26458042 . 1940 . 2 . 1 .
  49. Web site: Elizabeth McCausland Papers . July 15, 2023 . Smithsonian Archives of American Art.
  50. Web site: Box 26, Folder 66: New York State Museum, Silk Screen Exhibition, 1940 . July 15, 2023 . Smithsonian Archives of American Art.
  51. Web site: Whitney Museum of American Art . November 11, 2022 . Hyman Warsager Exhibitions.
  52. Web site: The Met: Watson Library Digital Collections . November 11, 2022 . Artists for Victory: An Exhibition of Contemporary American Art.
  53. Web site: Exhibition Title . June 9, 2023 . Santa Barbara Museum of Art (sbma.net).
  54. Web site: Tech.MIT.edu . November 11, 2022 . American Screenprints celebrates the art form.
  55. Web site: The Met: Watson Library Digital Collections . November 11, 2022 . W.P.A. Color Prints: Images from the Federal Art Project, 1996_006-001.
  56. Web site: Antiques and the Arts Weekly . November 11, 2022 . Bruce Museum Examines the WPA's Prints of American Life.
  57. Web site: kimzdanowick.weebly . November 11, 2022 . Ashville Art Museum Profile, Volume 63, Number 1, January–April 2011.
  58. Web site: Philadelphia Museum of Art . November 11, 2022 . Breaking Ground: Printmaking in the US, 1940-1960.
  59. Web site: New Deal Exhibit: Federal Art Project - An Online Catalog for the Exhibit at Brooklyn College . July 20, 2023 . A New Deal for Artists: Connecting Brooklyn College to its Past, Present, and Future.
  60. Web site: Art Institute of Chicago . July 5, 2022 . Art Institute of Chicago.
  61. Web site: Hyman J. Warsager . Baltimore Museum of Art . 16 June 2022 . en.
  62. Web site: Along Harlem River . Brooklyn Museum . 16 June 2022.
  63. Web site: Squash Hollow . Detroit Institute of Arts . 27 June 2022 . en.
  64. Web site: Nocturne . Metropolitan Museum of Art . 16 June 2022.
  65. Web site: Hyman J. Warsager . National Gallery of Art . 16 June 2022.
  66. Web site: Prospect Park . Philadelphia Museum of Art . 16 June 2022 . en.
  67. Web site: Hyman J. Warsager . Smithsonian American Art Museum . 16 June 2022.
  68. Web site: V&A - Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collections . Victoria and Albert Museum.
  69. Web site: Hyman Warsager - Doctor's Office . September 21, 2022 . The University of Arizona Museum of Art.
  70. Web site: Sea Wall - Hyman Warsager . September 21, 2022 . University of Michigan Library, Library Digital Collections, University of Michigan Museum of Art.
  71. Web site: Winter Scene - Hyman Warsager . September 21, 2022 . Blanton Museum of Art.
  72. Web site: Shape Up - Hyman Warsager . September 21, 2022 . Illinois State Museum Collections Online - The Works Progress Administration (WPA) Collection.
  73. Web site: On the Avenue . September 21, 2022 . KAM - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
  74. Web site: Squash Hollow . September 23, 2022 . Weisman Art Museum Collection.
  75. Web site: Hyman Warsager . September 26, 2022 . The Block Museum of Art.
  76. Web site: Gathering Logs . September 29, 2022 . MFA Boston.
  77. Web site: Gathering Logs, Nocturne . October 18, 2022 . Harn Museum of Art.
  78. Web site: Along the Harlem River - Hyman J. Warsager . October 20, 2022 . Wesleyan University Davison Art Center.
  79. Web site: Gathering Logs . October 20, 2022 . Yale University Art Gallery.
  80. Web site: Explore Art . June 21, 2023 . University of Oregon - Collections - Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art.
  81. Web site: Whitney Museum of Art . November 11, 2022 . Hyman Warsager Exhibitions.

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