Frederic Taubes Poland / New York (1900-1981) Figures and Birds, surrealist oil on canvas Signed lower right. Exhibited: Associated American Artists, NY, The Marbella Gallery, NY Biography from the Archives of askART: Perhaps known more by younger generations of artists for putting his name on a line of artists' canvas and supplies, Frederic Taubes pursued a multi-dimensional career as artist, writer on art and printmaker. Born in 1900 in Lwow, Poland, where he studied art privately, Taubes fled with his family to Austria when World War I began, studying at the Imperial Museum and Academy of Art in Vienna. After the War, he studied one year at the Academy in Munich before involving himself in a one hundred eighty degree directional change in artistic philosophy by attending the avant-garde Bauhaus in Weimar in 1920. Not surprisingly, the young artist fell under the Bauhaus spell, particularly the color theories of Johannes Itten, with whom he studied. While Itten would be a life-long influence, Taubes was also involved in Dada, Cubism, Surrealism and Expressionism. But after moving to New York City in 1930, it was surprising, given the modernist aspects of his artistic education and background that he would evolve into a society portraitist of reputation, painting the likes of Mrs. William Randolph Hearst, wife of the newspaper publisher, and Claire Booth Luce, writer, ambassador and wife of Time Magazine publisher Henry Luce. While his late work was looser, Taubes mature figurative painting style involved spontaneous, painterly touches applied over glazes and more controlled under painting. He wrote over a dozen art instruction books, and in his book, The Mastery of Oil Painting, he discussed the techniques of the great painters of the Flemish Renaissance. From 1943-1962, Taubes also wrote many articles for American Artist Magazine. Frederick Taubes died in 1981. He was a member of the Royal Society of Arts. His work is in the Indiana University Art Museum; M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Santa Barbara Museum of Art and San Diego Museum of Art in California. 15 3/8"H x 25 3/8"W (sight), 23"H x 32 3/4"W (frame)