Helen Shafter Feyler-Switz (1925-2006) - Modernist Village - Oil on Canvas c 1950 P3031
A very jazzy and playful work, measures 30" x 16" and the frame is 31" x 17 1/2".
This painting is reproduced on p. 333 of Maurine St. Gaudens' magisterial survey of women artists working in California, 1860 - 1960, EMERGING FROM THE SHADOWS. We are indebted to her also for her biographical research of which this is but a short summary:
Helen Shafter was born in Philadelphia in 1925 . Her father having abandoned the family, she grew up in straitened circumstances which nonetheless did not prevent her from showing a strong artistic bent from an early age, or from earning two BAs at Temple University in art and French and a Master's Degree (Phi Beta Kappa) from Cal State Long Beach in sculpture.
In 1949 she married Alfred Feyler, 25 years her senior, moving to Garden Grove CA from Philadelphia, where she began to teach art, Her studies continued at various institutions with artists such as François Stahly and J. J. Beljon, who was especially influential in her development as a sculptor.
Her husband having passed away in 1968, Helen married Louis J Swift in 1971 and the couple embarked on travels that took them to New Guinea, Ukraine and, crucially, China. In a long life Feyler-Switz left a legacy of sculptures, paintings, silk screens, photographs and other works incorporating the principles of strength and simplicity that she so cherished.
