Sylvia Fein

Sylvia Doris (Scheuber) Fein is an American surrealist painter and author, born in November 1919 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.[1][2] Fein met her husband William “Bill” Scheuber at 19 and they married four years later on May 30, 1942. She studied painting at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she became part of a group of magical realist painters, including Gertrude Abercrombie, Marshall Glasier, John Wilde, Dudley Huppler, and Karl Priebe.[3][4] During this time, newspapers described Fein as “Wisconsin’s Foremost Woman Painter.” Inspired by the quattrocento, Fein paints in egg tempera, which she mixes herself by puncturing the yolk and mixing the drainage with an equal amount of water.[5][6][7] While her paintings were always informed by Surrealism, Fein turned her back on narrative fantasies to focus on studies of the natural and mystical world. 

Mexico

In 1943, Fein moved to Mexico after her husband was away on military service so she could recuperate from pneumonia. She planned to visit her mother in Mexico City, but was convinced by a classmate to travel to Ajijic on the shores of Lake Chapala where she lived and painted for three years. Even 60 years later, Fein says that since her time in Mexico in 1943, she has “loved Mexico and could cry on the return because I have the dust of Mexico on my heart.” During her time in Mexico, Fein was part of group exhibitions at the Villa Montecarlo as well as completing paintings for her first solo exhibition at the Perls Galleries in New York City.  Along with painting, Fein helped rebuild the adobe house in which she had her studio, taught English to young people, and started an embroidered blouse industry for women. She also provided paper, pencils, and crayons to children in exchange for exotic insects.

When her husband has returned from war, the couple lived in Mexico City for a little bit and then drove back to the U.S. with Fein’s paintings in the back seat. Fein’s first solo exhibition was a great success and had a featured article praising her work in The New Yorker. In the 1946-47 Whitney Annual exhibition, Fein’s work was shown alongside those of Max Ernst, Roberto Matta, and Jackson Pollock. After World War II had ended, Fein and her husband moved to the San Francisco Bay area where she completed her MFA at the University of California, Berkeley in 1951. [8]

Writing Career

Fein took a break from painting and wrote two books--Heidi's Horse,[9] an analysis of the development of her daughter's drawing throughout childhood, and First drawings: genesis of visual thinking,[10] which is about the basic patterns that appear throughout human art, both historically and during childhood development. Fein began painting again in the early 2000s, and exhibited a selection of both her recent and earlier work in 2014.[11][12] She currently resides in Martinez, California.

Solo exhibitions

Group exhibitions

Books

Notes

  1. ↑ Art Practical. "Sylvia Fein: Surreal Nature". Retrieved 4 March 2016.
  2. ↑ Archives of American Art. "Sylvia Fein papers, 1936-2011". Retrieved 4 March 2016.
  3. ↑ Cozzolino, Robert (2005). With friends: Six magic realists, 1940–1965. ISBN 0932900003.
  4. ↑ "About Sylvia Fein". Retrieved 4 March 2016.
  5. ↑ Documentary:A Delicious Battle. https://vimeo.com/78403311. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. ↑ Art Practical. "Sylvia Fein: Surreal Nature". Retrieved 4 March 2016.
  7. ↑ Archives of American Art. "Sylvia Fein papers, 1936-2011". Retrieved 4 March 2016.
  8. ↑ "Sylvia Fein, one of America’s foremost surrealists, lived and painted in Ajijic 1943-46 | Sombrero Books". sombrerobooks.com. Retrieved 2017-04-27.
  9. ↑ Fein, Sylvia (1976). Heidi's Horse. Pleasant Hill, CA: Exelrod Press. p. 159.
  10. ↑ Fein, Sylvia (1993). First drawings : genesis of visual thinking. Pleasant Hill, CA: Exelrod Press. p. 139. ISBN 0917388046.
  11. ↑ Art Practical. "Sylvia Fein: Surreal Nature". Retrieved 4 March 2016.
  12. ↑ Duncan, Michael. "Sylvia Fein". Art in America. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
  13. ↑ "Solo Exhibits - Sylvia Fein". www.sylviafeinpainter.net. Retrieved 2017-04-27.
  14. ↑ "Group Exhibits - Sylvia Fein". www.sylviafeinpainter.net. Retrieved 2017-04-27.
  15. ↑ Fein, Sylvia (1976). Heidi's Horse. Pleasant Hill, CA: Exelrod Press. p. 159.
  16. ↑ Fein, Sylvia (1993). First drawings : genesis of visual thinking. Pleasant Hill, CA: Exelrod Press. p. 139. ISBN 0917388046.


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