September 16 – December 31, 2006
Albany residents will be delighted to discover—or perhaps
rediscover—another native artist who was internationally
renowned in his time and remains beloved to this day.
The exhibition LOUIS SLOBODKIN: Albany Artist Rediscovered
reveals the artist as a master sculptor as well as a prolific,
inimitable, and endearing illustration stylist and storyteller.
Louis Slobodkin (1903-1975) attended Albany High School before
moving to New York City in 1918 to study at New York’s
Beaux Arts Institute of Design where he was awarded
a Louis Tiffany Foundation Fellowship along with twenty-two
medals for life study, composition, and drawing. In the
1930s, he directed the New York City Art Project’s sculpture
division, as well as contributing statues, reliefs, and panels
for government buildings in Washington, New York, and
elsewhere, including a featured statue of Abraham Lincoln
at the 1939 World’s Fair that became a focus of controversy
(ending regrettably in the destruction of the work by
sledgehammer). In 1941, at the urging of author and friend
Eleanor Estes, he illustrated her children’s book, The Moffats,
and three years later received the prestigious Caldecott
Medal—awarded to the artist of the most distinguished
American picture book for children—for his collaboration
with James Thurber on Many Moons, launching the next
stage of his career as a celebrated children’s book author and
illustrator.
On view in the Open Storage Viewing Room from September 16
through December 31, LOUIS SLOBODKIN: Albany Artist Rediscovered
features sculpture and drawings lent to the AIHA collection by Lawrence Slobodkin,
the artist’s son, as well as drawings, sketches, bronze and books from the collection
of Carol Reid, a Slobodkin historian and a co-curator of the exhibit with Daniel Lardner.
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