'Age 9' by Nura Ulreich, Art Deco, Woman Artist, Art Institute of Chicago, Art Students League, Paris, Salon D'Automne, Corcoran

Description

Painted by Nura Woodson Ulreich (American, 1899-1950) as a full-page illustration for the book 'The Buttermilk Tree', circa 1935. A … more Painted by Nura Woodson Ulreich (American, 1899-1950) as a full-page illustration for the book 'The Buttermilk Tree', circa 1935. A rare example of a fully-developed pen, ink and gouache by this notable Art Deco artist and childhood imaginist.

This early twentieth-century painter, lithographer, muralist, author, poet and illustrator first studied at the Kansas City Art Institute before attending the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. In Chicago, she met and married fellow student, the American artist Buk Ulreich. The couple then moved to New York where Nura studied at the Art Students League with John French Sloan and Frederic Gruger. In 1926, they moved to Paris where Nura held her first exhibition at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (1926). She subsequently exhibited widely and with success including with two entries accepted at the 1926 Salon d'Automne. The works from this early Paris period already show her preference for subjects that are firmly aligned with the dream-states of childhood and painted in what would become her characteristic, quasi-surreal, Art Deco style. It was during this first visit to France that she began to paint and exhibit under the brush name, 'Nura'.

After returning to the United States, Nura continued to exhibit widely, including at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Corcoran Galleries Biennials (1928-39), the Salons of America, the Society of Independent Artists (1928, 1941) and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (1929-1931), among other national art institutions. Nura's work is held in numerous private and public collections including in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Art Museum, the Walker Art Center, the San Diego Museum of Art, and the David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University, among others.

Reference:
Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Peter Hastings Falk, Sound View Press 1999, Vol. 3, p. 3366; Finding Nura; Rediscovering an American Modernist, Catalog of the Exhibition of Works from the Kendra and Allen Daniel Collection, Carle Museum, Amherst, Massachusetts; et al. less