Prints

Top : Prints

Relief Station
Oscar van Young (1906 - 1991)
lithograph on paper, 1938
11 1/2 x 15 1/2 inches
Gift of Helen Jacobson

Oscar van Young was born in Vienna, Austria. His art studies included a scholarship in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Odessa, Russia, where he studied for three years before immigrating to Chicago in 1923. There he briefly studied with Todros Geller and met Emil Armin, from whom he learned art history. He took up lithography, but became more interested in painting. From Sam Ostrowsky he learned colorist techniques. Van Young joined several artists groups in Chicago. He worked for the Illinois WPA graphics program until 1940, when he moved to Los Angeles, California.

He taught art at the Otis Institute and Los Angeles State University and exhibited widely through the 1980s. Important themes in his work were the human form and cityscapes.

The subject matter of this image is probably a typical one during the Depression, when families needed assistance to survive. The dark shadows and textures of the lithographic process help create the bleak mood.

Collection of the Illinois State Museum
photograph by Gary Andrashko
ISM Accession #: 1980.89

Top : Prints

First | Previous | Next | Last