Me posing for an art class. Photo by my father, Milton Kessler
Look what I found! A photo of me, way back when. I was just a kid, posing for my mother's painting class at the Hudson Guild Art School in Chelsea. It brought back memories of my first art teacher, Hungarian artist Theodore Fried (1902-1980), who taught art classes there for both children and adults. He had been in the Paris art scene of the 1920s, and later, when the Nazis came, his art was banned as "degenerate". Being Jewish he fled for his life to Toulouse where he forged passports for the French Resistance. Escaping once again, he made it safely to New York where he established his own art school. An amazing story to be sure, but I knew absolutely nothing of this when I was a child. To me Mr. Fried was a jolly man with a nearly impenetrable Hungarian accent and a twinkle in his eye. He loved kids and often entertained us by wiggling his ears.
Portrait of Theodore Fried by his friend André Kertész
When I first showed up in his class at the age of ten, Mr. Fried handed me a brush and a muffin tin filled with poster paints. He encouraged me to paint anything my little heart desired. Months later he gave me a pencil and started me down the road to drawing from life. This was much more challenging, especially when he forbade me to use the eraser – an exercise designed to make me think carefully before drawing. When I became proficient enough at this he allowed me to join the older kids in the oil painting class. I was thrilled.
My mother, Jean Kessler as a young artist, photo by Milton Kessler
I have no recollection of Mr. Fried asking me to pose for the adult figure painting class. But posing was not new to me, because my mother drew me many, many times as I was growing up. I knew what I was in for. And just like me, my mother had been drawing and painting ever since she was a little girl. Crayons, brushes, paints and the smell of turpentine were central to our lives. One of my very earliest memories is of accompanying my mother to a painting class with Hugo Gellert, another Hungarian artist who conducted classes in a converted water tower on top of the Chelsea Hotel.
Finding that photo of me initiated a rummage through my mother's art work for the portrait she had painted in that class. Fortunately it wasn't hard to find. And I'm so glad I did, because I absolutely love it, it's beautiful! And besides, it's a cherished document of a wonderful experience that happened so long ago. It's time to put it in a frame and hang it on the wall.
Finding that photo of me initiated a rummage through my mother's art work for the portrait she had painted in that class. Fortunately it wasn't hard to find. And I'm so glad I did, because I absolutely love it, it's beautiful! And besides, it's a cherished document of a wonderful experience that happened so long ago. It's time to put it in a frame and hang it on the wall.
Portrait of me by my mother, Jean Kessler, Oil on Canvas Board
Notes:
• Theodore Fried's works are in the collection of Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
• Hugo Gellert's work is currently included in the "Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925–1945" at the Whitney Museum in NYC, until Jan 31, 2021.
• Theodore Fried's works are in the collection of Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
• Hugo Gellert's work is currently included in the "Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925–1945" at the Whitney Museum in NYC, until Jan 31, 2021.
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