Snow and Sun

Description

Oscar Weissbuch was a New York artist who trained at the Yale University School of Fine Arts, the Art Students League of New York, and the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in New York. Weissbuch worked for various government arts projects from the 1930s to the early 1940s, becoming head of the Federal Art Project graphic arts division sometime after 1938. Produced during that period. this lithograph of snow-covered commercial rooftops against the New York skyline reveals the artist’s fascination with conveying the effects of dazzling sunlight on white surfaces through his deft use of the lithographic crayon on paper.
This print is one of 150 acquired in 1943 for the University of Michigan by Jean Paul Slusser, who later became the Museum of Art’s first director. Perceiving the significance of work produced under the Federal Art Project, he negotiated the donation of a large group of works from the government.
(A. Dixon, 20th Century Gallery installation, June 1999)