Fred Becker Wpa Art Project Original Signed Etching

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This is an extraordinary WPA Art Project Etching by listed artist, Fred Becker (1920-2013). This etching, titled "Cafeteria Still Life", … Read more This is an extraordinary WPA Art Project Etching by listed artist, Fred Becker (1920-2013). This etching, titled "Cafeteria Still Life", is represented in many important museum collections, among them the Smithsonian, the Museum of Modern Art and the Chicago Art Institute.

This piece has fantastic surrealist elements with people, plants, and animals trapped in the glass containers. It is hand-signed in pencil in the lower right, and titled in the lower middle. It is in the original framing under glass.

It comes from the collection of fellow artist, Patricia Tool, and the provenance on the back reads "Fred Becker, WPA Art Project, Friend of Vincent's" suggesting this was a gift to Vincent McHugh, Tool's husband at the time. An absolute ready-to-hang treasure!

Certification: Certificate of Authenticity with Provenance included for items that sell for more than $500.

Condition: Very good condition. Has not been examined out of frame. Vintage frame has minor signs of wear as expected.

Measurements: Stike is approx 10"x8" and it is approx 16.5"x13.5" framed.

About the Artist: Fred Becker was born in Oakland, California in 1913 and raised in Hollywood where his father, Fred Becker, Sr., was an actor in silent films. Becker's studied at the Otis Art Institute in 1931 where he was introduced to printmaking. In the fall of 1933, Becker relocated to New York, and registered at New York University in architectural studies and at the Beaux Arts Institute of Design on 44th Street. Becker was part of the Graphic Arts Division of the WPA. He worked on the WPA between 1935 to the day he was "laid off" the project in the summer of 1939. An exhibition in 1937 at the Federal Art Project Gallery in New York included two of his prints, and the following year his work was exhibited at the Willard Gallery in New York. Mr. Becker's work is represented in many important museum collections, among them the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. His most recent shows were at the Susan Teller Gallery in New York in 2002 and 2003; he had a retrospective at the Herter Gallery of the University of Massachusetts in 1999. See less