ANNA WALINSKA American, 1906-1977 Odalisque, 1956 Mixed media (Casein) on paper; signed and dated at base. Verso label provides title and dates. Framed. 20 x 14 inches; frame: 26.5 x 20 inches $1,500-2,500
ARTIST PROFILE: Anna Walinska (1906 –1997) was a prolific American Modernist painter whose career spanned over nine decades of the New York art scene. Born in London and raised in Brooklyn, she was a true "adventuress" who enrolled in the Art Students League at age 12 and later moved to Paris in 1926 to study under the Cubist master André Lhote. Walinska was a significant figure in the WPA era; in 1935, she founded the Guild Art Gallery in Manhattan, where she famously gave Arshile Gorky his first New York solo exhibition. Her style evolved from Paris-inspired figuration and "calligraphy of line" to complex abstractions and collages using handmade Burmese Shan paper, a medium she discovered during a solo six-month journey around the world in 1954. Notably, she created a massive body of work—over 120 pieces—dedicated to the theme of the Holocaust, long before it was a common subject in fine art. Her works are now held in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Jewish Museum, and Yad Vashem.
