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Marvelous diversity - the art of Samuel Bookatz
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BY: SUSAN H. KAHN, Assistant Editor
Exhibit and lecture marks opening of Dick Kleinman Fine Art Gallery
Artist Samuel Bookatz, 96, still paints every day.
In his crowded Washington, D.C. studio, he typically has several canvases in progress and the painter moves among them, effortlessly switching styles. Over the years, he has worked in virtually every medium - oil, tempera, watercolor, ink, crayon, plaster, and concrete. The versatile artist is also at home in many idioms, from the realistic to impressionistic to abstract.
“I have never been an artist for one style,” says Bookatz. “I can do six things in a day and they all look different.”
During his long career, Bookatz has created over 5,000 works of art. His paintings and drawings are in the collections of The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), the Corcoran Gallery, The Phillips Collection of Fine Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Scupture Garden, The White House and the Library of Congress.
In 2003, Bookatz donated the Jerusalem series, a 20-piece collection of paintings and drawings, to The Temple-Tifereth Israel's Museum of Religious Art.
For the next three weeks, Clevelanders will have the opportunity to see selected works from Bookatz's private collection at Dick Kleinman Fine Art Gallery. The exhibit, which opens tonight (Fri.) marks the opening of the gallery in its new location at Eton Chagrin Boulevard.
“Though he's a prolific artist, with commissions, works in private collections and in important museums, Samuel Bookatz is still under-collected,” says gallery owner Dick Kleinman.
The exhibit, “Looking Back,” is not organized as a retrospective, but the 60 pieces on display offer a glimpse of Bookatz's marvelous diversity. Works range from $5,000 - $25,000.
The earliest painting in the show is a 1936 self-portrait, which Bookatz entered in the CMA May Show, winning first prize. Using wide, flat brushstrokes, this painting is a colorful, impressionistic rendering of a serious young man in a red hat.
This early work stands in stark contrast to his fresco “Blue Madonna,” painted in 2000. In this portrait, the female face is painted in the flat, simplified style of an icon, rendered in many shades of blue.
In “The Mystics,” a 1960's-era oil painting on burlap, Bookatz's style moves toward abstraction. Three delicate female faces float together amid swaths of yellow and green, their bodies merely suggested by pencil lines that show through the thinly applied color.
Also from the '60s is the bolder abstract painting, “Forest Nymphs,” a highly textured acrylic and mixed media work painted on tarpaper. Two barely discernable faces hide in this piece, dominated by strong vertical lines in bright colors.
Bookatz is also adept at cityscapes. A moody painting of London from the 1930's captures the city's characteristic fog. His rendering of Toledo, Spain done in 1960 shows a distant city under a roiling sky.
Born in Philadelphia, Bookatz was raised in Cleveland, graduating from Glenville High School. His family did not encourage him to pursue art.
“I knew I wanted to be an artist from the time I was five years old,” says the white-haired Bookatz. “But my folks were afraid I'd starve.”
Undeterred, he followed his dream. After high school he worked to earn enough money to enroll in the Cleveland Institute of Art. He used the prize money from the 1936 May Show to go to Boston to study with illustrator Alexander Jacovleff.
Bookatz then garnered a three-year scholarship to study independently in Europe. Despite the threat of war, he traveled in Hungary, Yugoslavia, France and Italy, sketchbook in hand. He studied fresco painting at the American Academy in Rome.
In 1940, after being detained by the Gestapo for drawing the beating of Jews and the destruction of Jewish shops, Bookatz fled Europe. Upon his return to the US, the penniless young man was able to secure work with the WPA project for unemployed artists.
When America went to war in 1942, Bookatz thought he would soon be drafted. But then he got what he terms “a lucky break.”
David Deitz, whose portrait Bookatz had painted, was serving on the National Reserve Council and was able to get the painter a commission in the Navy. Without a day of training, he became a lieutenant attached to the Naval Medical Corps, charged with creating murals depicting men in their line of duty. Remarkably, he was given a studio in the White House, in the Lincoln bedroom.
“Eleanor Roosevelt used to type her daily newspaper column, ‘My Day' in the room next door, and the noise really disturbed my concentration,” he says with a chuckle.
He recalls that the best light in the “studio” was obtained by sitting on the edge of Lincoln's bed with his easel propped up in front of him. It was there that he painted portraits of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the First Lady.
Bookatz also accompanied the US Navy to Korea during the war there. Because of his excellent knowledge of anatomy, he made drawings and molds for naval doctors doing reconstructive surgery on injured sailors.
Reflecting on his long life and career, the artist agrees it has been fascinating. Steven Speilberg thinks so, too. His production company has completed a script for a movie about Bookatz's life.
“Looking Back” opens with a reception Fri., Oct. 27, from 6-10 p.m. featuring a lecture by the artist. On Sat., Oct. 28, Bookatz will demonstrate conte crayon drawing. His finished work will be offered in a silent auction, the proceeds to benefit the Cleveland Institute of Art.
skahn@cjn.org
Artist Samuel Bookatz, 96, still paints every day.
In his crowded Washington, D.C. studio, he typically has several canvases in progress and the painter moves among them, effortlessly switching styles. Over the years, he has worked in virtually every medium - oil, tempera, watercolor, ink, crayon, plaster, and concrete. The versatile artist is also at home in many idioms, from the realistic to impressionistic to abstract.
“I have never been an artist for one style,” says Bookatz. “I can do six things in a day and they all look different.”
During his long career, Bookatz has created over 5,000 works of art. His paintings and drawings are in the collections of The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), the Corcoran Gallery, The Phillips Collection of Fine Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Scupture Garden, The White House and the Library of Congress.
In 2003, Bookatz donated the Jerusalem series, a 20-piece collection of paintings and drawings, to The Temple-Tifereth Israel's Museum of Religious Art.
For the next three weeks, Clevelanders will have the opportunity to see selected works from Bookatz's private collection at Dick Kleinman Fine Art Gallery. The exhibit, which opens tonight (Fri.) marks the opening of the gallery in its new location at Eton Chagrin Boulevard.
“Though he's a prolific artist, with commissions, works in private collections and in important museums, Samuel Bookatz is still under-collected,” says gallery owner Dick Kleinman.
The exhibit, “Looking Back,” is not organized as a retrospective, but the 60 pieces on display offer a glimpse of Bookatz's marvelous diversity. Works range from $5,000 - $25,000.
The earliest painting in the show is a 1936 self-portrait, which Bookatz entered in the CMA May Show, winning first prize. Using wide, flat brushstrokes, this painting is a colorful, impressionistic rendering of a serious young man in a red hat.
This early work stands in stark contrast to his fresco “Blue Madonna,” painted in 2000. In this portrait, the female face is painted in the flat, simplified style of an icon, rendered in many shades of blue.
In “The Mystics,” a 1960's-era oil painting on burlap, Bookatz's style moves toward abstraction. Three delicate female faces float together amid swaths of yellow and green, their bodies merely suggested by pencil lines that show through the thinly applied color.
Also from the '60s is the bolder abstract painting, “Forest Nymphs,” a highly textured acrylic and mixed media work painted on tarpaper. Two barely discernable faces hide in this piece, dominated by strong vertical lines in bright colors.
Bookatz is also adept at cityscapes. A moody painting of London from the 1930's captures the city's characteristic fog. His rendering of Toledo, Spain done in 1960 shows a distant city under a roiling sky.
Born in Philadelphia, Bookatz was raised in Cleveland, graduating from Glenville High School. His family did not encourage him to pursue art.
“I knew I wanted to be an artist from the time I was five years old,” says the white-haired Bookatz. “But my folks were afraid I'd starve.”
Undeterred, he followed his dream. After high school he worked to earn enough money to enroll in the Cleveland Institute of Art. He used the prize money from the 1936 May Show to go to Boston to study with illustrator Alexander Jacovleff.
Bookatz then garnered a three-year scholarship to study independently in Europe. Despite the threat of war, he traveled in Hungary, Yugoslavia, France and Italy, sketchbook in hand. He studied fresco painting at the American Academy in Rome.
In 1940, after being detained by the Gestapo for drawing the beating of Jews and the destruction of Jewish shops, Bookatz fled Europe. Upon his return to the US, the penniless young man was able to secure work with the WPA project for unemployed artists.
When America went to war in 1942, Bookatz thought he would soon be drafted. But then he got what he terms “a lucky break.”
David Deitz, whose portrait Bookatz had painted, was serving on the National Reserve Council and was able to get the painter a commission in the Navy. Without a day of training, he became a lieutenant attached to the Naval Medical Corps, charged with creating murals depicting men in their line of duty. Remarkably, he was given a studio in the White House, in the Lincoln bedroom.
“Eleanor Roosevelt used to type her daily newspaper column, ‘My Day' in the room next door, and the noise really disturbed my concentration,” he says with a chuckle.
He recalls that the best light in the “studio” was obtained by sitting on the edge of Lincoln's bed with his easel propped up in front of him. It was there that he painted portraits of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the First Lady.
Bookatz also accompanied the US Navy to Korea during the war there. Because of his excellent knowledge of anatomy, he made drawings and molds for naval doctors doing reconstructive surgery on injured sailors.
Reflecting on his long life and career, the artist agrees it has been fascinating. Steven Speilberg thinks so, too. His production company has completed a script for a movie about Bookatz's life.
“Looking Back” opens with a reception Fri., Oct. 27, from 6-10 p.m. featuring a lecture by the artist. On Sat., Oct. 28, Bookatz will demonstrate conte crayon drawing. His finished work will be offered in a silent auction, the proceeds to benefit the Cleveland Institute of Art.
skahn@cjn.org
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