Anton Refregier (1905-1979)
Mural Study, Untitled
7 ¾ x 22 inches (sight)
Gouache, pencil, and charcoal on board, c. 1940s
Unsigned
Provenance: Estate of Seymour Fogel, noted verso Thomas McCormick Gallery label verso

BIO
Anton Refregier was born March 20, 1905 in Moscow, Russia. He immigrated to the United States in 1920. He received his artistic training from the Rhode Island School of Design*, Providence, Rhode Island, 1921-1925; studied abroad with the sculptor Nicolai Vassilief in Paris in 1920; and with Hans Hofmann in Munich, 1927.

From 1934 to 1940, Refregier, living in New York City, worked on various WPA Federal Art Projects* as a teacher, supervising artist, and mural supervisor. His most famous work is arguably the mural project at San Francisco’s Rincon Center, the costliest and one of the most controversial of all the WPA commissions. It is a multi-scene panorama* that sparked national debate because of its inclusion of controversial events in California history.

Refregier found inspiration in tragic events, which is reflected in his Depression Era-WPA work. He was quoted as saying that “the richer we [were] in possessions, the poorer we became in their enjoyment.” [2] He said the amazing part of that period was the “human quality, the humanist attitude that [everyone] had” and the discovery that “the artist was not apart from the people.”

Aside from his mural work, Anton Refregier was an easel painter, decorator, set designer, author, and teacher (professor of painting, Bard College, Annandale-on-the-Hudson, NY, 1962-64). He also was a faculty member of the American Artists School*, a progressive and socialist oriented school in New York City. Refregier died in Moscow in October 1979.

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