Jolán Gross-Bettelheim

Gross-Bettelheim was born on January 28, 1900, in Nitra, Slovakia then Hungary,{{cite web |title=Gross-Bettelheim Jolán |url=https://opac-nevter.pim.hu/en/record/-/record/PIM103022 |website=Petőfi Irodalmi Múzeum |access-date=8 October 2022}} but lived in the United States from 1925-1956.{{Cite book|title = Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America|last = Cleveland Museum of Art|publisher = Distributed by Ohio University Press|year = 1996|location = Cleveland, OH|pages = 230}} She studied painting at the Budapest School of Fine Art in 1919, followed by studies at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna and the Akademie der Bildenden Künst in Berlin. Gross-Bettelheim then studied in Paris at the Académie de Grande Chaumière between 1922-24. She married a Hungarian-born radiologist,{{Cite journal|title = Jolan Gross-Bettelheim: A Hidden Life|last = Williams|first = Dave|date = September 1990|journal = Print Quarterly|page = Williams & Williams refer to him as a psychiatrist in their article, 307|last2 = Williams|first2 = Reba|volume = 7}} Frigyes Bettelheim, and settled in Cleveland by 1925. Her studies in Ohio commenced at the Cleveland School of Art with modernist painter Henry Keller.{{Cite book|title = Jolán Gross-Bettelheim: the American Prints|last = Stamey|first = Emily|publisher = Faulconer Gallery|year = 2001|location = Grinnell, IA|pages = 3}} She and her husband relocated to New York City in 1938. As a communist, Gross-Bettelheim was a member of the John Reed Club, as well as the American Artists’ Congress.{{Cite book|title = Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America|last = Kretzschmar|first = Sabine|publisher = Distributed by Ohio University Press|year = 1996|location = Cleveland, OH|pages = 188, 189|chapter = Art for Everyone: Cleveland Print Makers and the WPA}} She contributed to leftist publications such as New Masses and the Daily Worker.

Gross-Bettelheim worked in Cleveland at a time when printmaking was flourishing.{{Cite book|title = Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America|last = Kretzschmar|first = Sabine|publisher = Distributed by Ohio University Press|year = 1996|location = Cleveland, OH|pages = 177|chapter = Art for Everyone: Cleveland Print Makers and the WPA}} It was a time when lithography was seen as a viable art form, rather than being limited to commercial use. Interest in printmaking was bolstered by art organizations that were founded in the 1920s. And the Cleveland Print Makers (CPM) was formed in 1930 by artist and teacher Kálmán Kubinyi.{{Cite book|title = Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America|last = Kretzschmar|first = Sabine|publisher = Distributed by Ohio University Press|year = 1996|location = Cleveland, OH|pages = 178|chapter = Art for Everyone: Cleveland Print Makers and the WPA}} It engaged in numerous activities to expand exposure for Cleveland printmakers, with the goal of increasing the sales of their works. Its most ambitious activity was the Print Mart or Market during which artists opened a gallery to sell works to the general public. The Print Market featured America Today in November 1936, an exhibition that was held in thirty U.S. cities simultaneously.{{Cite book|title = Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America|last = Kretzschmar|first = Sabine|publisher = Distributed by Ohio University Press|year = 1996|location = Cleveland, OH|pages = 180|chapter = Art for Everyone: Cleveland Print Makers and the WPA}} The show included 100 prints created by artists from the American Artists' Congress, including Gross-Bettelheim. Gross-Bettelheim also was commissioned to create a print for the CPM’s Print-a-Month series, a subscription for one print per month by Cleveland and some nonresident artists.{{Cite book|title = Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America|last = Kretzschmar|first = Sabine|publisher = Distributed by Ohio University Press|year = 1996|location = Cleveland, OH|pages = 180–181|chapter = Art for Everyone: Cleveland Print Makers and the WPA}}

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Art Project (FAP) had a graphic arts division of which printmaking was a part. A graphic arts workshop was set up in Cleveland as a part of the WPA, operating officially as Graphic Arts Project No. 8048 from December 1935 to 1943, being most productive in 1936-37.{{Cite book|title = Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America|last = Kretzschmar|first = Sabine|publisher = Distributed by Ohio University Press|year = 1996|location = Cleveland, OH|pages = 183|chapter = Art for Everyone: Cleveland Print Makers and the WPA}} Gross-Bettelheim produced prints for the WPA graphics workshop, as well.{{Cite book|title = Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America|last = Kretzschmar|first = Sabine|publisher = Distributed by Ohio University Press|year = 1996|location = Cleveland, OH|pages = 185|chapter = Art for Everyone: Cleveland Print Makers and the WPA}} The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) sponsored a traveling exhibition, Fifty Prints of the Year, which included work by Gross-Bettelheim.{{Cite book|title = The New Deal Art Projects|last = Kainen|first = Jacob|publisher = Smithsonian Institution Press|year = 1972|location = Washington, DC|pages = 156|editor-last = O’Connor|editor-first = Francis|editor-link=Francis V. O'Connor|chapter = The Graphic Arts Division of the WPA Federal Art Project}}

She returned to Hungary after 1956, and died in Budapest on July 29, 1972.

Gross-Bettelheim’s prints explore the darkness of the Great Depression, employing a cubist style that heightens the drama of cityscapes and the industrial landscape.{{Cite book|title = Covering History: Revisiting Federal Art in Cleveland 1933-1943|last = Cleveland Artists Foundation|publisher = Cleveland Artists Foundation|year = 2006|location = Cleveland, OH|pages = 31}} Sabine Kretzschmar describes Gross-Bettelheim as “the purest modernist” amongst Cleveland printmakers, reflecting the influence of German expressionism, constructivism, and cubism.{{Cite book|title = Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America|last = Kretzschmar|first = Sabine|publisher = Distributed by Ohio University Press|year = 1996|location = Cleveland, OH|pages = 187|chapter = Art for Everyone: Cleveland Print Makers and the WPA}}

Her work explored social and political issues.{{Cite book|title = Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America|last = Kretzschmar|first = Sabine|publisher = Distributed by Ohio University Press|year = 1996|location = Cleveland, OH|pages = 188|chapter = Art for Everyone: Cleveland Print Makers and the WPA}} The plight of unemployment is addressed in her print In the Employment Office (ca. 1936, lithograph) and racism in Workers Meeting (Scottsboro Boys) (ca. 1935, drypoint).{{Cite book|title = Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America|last = Kretzschmar|first = Sabine|publisher = Distributed by Ohio University Press|year = 1996|location = Cleveland, OH|pages = 190|chapter = Art for Everyone: Cleveland Print Makers and the WPA}}

The stark black and white images convey a sense of humanity being oppressed by the scale of industry. For example, Gross-Bettelheim’s ca. 1940 lithograph Assembly Line portrays a claustrophobic space filled with workers and a haunting image of lines of gas masks on a factory assembly line. Her 1936 lithograph Civilization at the Crossroads (Fascism II) depicts the rising threat of Fascism in Europe.

Jolán Gross-Bettelheim - Gates and Bridges, 1936.jpg|Gates and Bridges, 1936

Jolán Gross-Bettelheim - In the Employment Office, 1936.jpg|In the Employment Office, 1936

Jolán Gross-Bettelheim - Industrial Scene. c. 1937.jpg|Industrial Scene c. 1937

• Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.{{cite web |title=Assembly Line {{!}} Smithsonian American Art Museum |url=http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=1999 |website=americanart.si.edu}}
• Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH.{{cite web |title=Beggar |url=https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1964.317 |website=clevelandart.org}}
• Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL.{{cite web |title=Bridge #1 |url=http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/117666?search_no=3&index=0 |website=The Art Institute of Chicago |language=en}}
• Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.
• University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI.{{cite web |title=Gates and Bridges |url=http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1943.12/1943.12.JPG?from=index;lasttype=boolean;lastview=thumbnail;resnum=2;sel9=ic_exact;size=20;sort=relevance;start=1;subview=detail;view=entry;rgn1=ic_all;q1=bettelheim |website=University of Michigan Museum of Art |language=en}}
• Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH.{{cite web |title=Akron Art Museum - Collections |url=https://akronartmuseum.org/collection/?artist=73 |website=Akron Art Museum}}

• May Shows at the Cleveland Museum of Art 1927-1937 (annual exhibition) [except for 1933]{{Cite journal|title = Jolan Gross-Bettelheim: A Hidden Life|last = Williams|first = Dave|date = September 1990|journal = Print Quarterly|page = 303|volume = 7|last2 = Williams|first2 = Reba}}
• Kokoon Club, 1932, first solo exhibition
• American Today, 1936
• American Artists’ Conference Exhibition, 1938{{Cite book|title = Jolán Gross-Bettelheim: the American Prints|last = Stamey|first = Emily|publisher = Faulconer Gallery|year = 2001|location = Grinnell, IA|pages = 6}}
• Artists for Victory, 1942, at Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York{{Cite book|title = Artists for Victory: an Exhibition of Contemporary American Art: Paintings, Sculpture, Prints/sponsored by Artists for Victory, Inc.|last = Taylor|first = Francis Henrty|publisher = The Metropolitan Museum of Art|year = 1942|location = New York, NY|pages = 34|url = http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15324coll10/id/152387}}
• Artists for Victory, 1943 [show held in 36 museums simultaneously]{{Cite journal|title = Jolan Gross-Bettelheim: A Hidden Life|last = Williams|first = Dave|date = September 1990|journal = Print Quarterly|pages = 304|last2 = Williams|first2 = Reba|volume = 7}}
• America in the War, 1943
• Library of Congress annual print shows, Washington, DC 1943-1950
• Annual Exhibition of Northwest Printmakers, Seattle Art Museum, 1944-1953
• Durand-Ruel Galleries in Manhattan, 1945
• Art Institute of Chicago, 2 watercolor shows
• Modernist Abstraction in American Prints, Laguna Art Museum, 1992
• Jolán Gross-Bettelheim: The American Prints, Print and Drawing Study Room of the Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa April 27-May 21, 2001
• Jolán Gross-Bettelheim: An American Printmaker in an Age of Progress” Eisenberg Gallery in the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum in New Brunswick., NJ Mar 19, 2011 - Jul 31, 2011

• American Artists’ Congress
• List of Federal Art Project artists
• Society of American Graphic Artists

{{Reflist}}

• Cleveland Artists Foundation. Covering History: Revisiting Federal Art in Cleveland 1933-1943. Cleveland: Cleveland Artists Foundation, 2006.
• Kainen, Jacob. “The Graphic Arts Division of the WPA Federal Art Project” in The New Deal Art Projects ed. Francis V. O’Connor. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1972: 155-176.
• Kretzschmar, Sabine. “Art for Everyone: Cleveland Print Makers and the WPA” in Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art: Distributed by Ohio University Press, 1996: 176-197.
• Stamey, Emily. Jolán Gross-Bettelheim: the American Prints. Grinnell, Iowa: Faulconer Gallery, 2001. Catalog of an exhibition held at the Print and Drawing Study Room of the Faulconer Gallery April 27-May 21, 2001.
• Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art: Distributed by Ohio University Press, 1996.
• Williams, Dave and Reba. “Jolan Gross-Bettelheim: A Hidden Life.” Print Quarterly, Vol. 7, No. 3 (September 1990): 303-7.

• [http://pantherpro-webdesign.com/american-congress/artists_related.html American Artists’ Congress] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150917080257/http://pantherpro-webdesign.com/american-congress/artists_related.html |date=2015-09-17 }}
• Artists and the War Against Fascism: Papers of the First American Artists’ Congress. Introduction by Matthew Baigell and Julia Williams. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1986.
• Adams, Clinton. “Gross-Bettelheim, Jolán (1900-1972)” in North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary, eds. Jules Heller, Nancy G. Heller. E-book: Routledge, 2013.
• [http://www.nj.com/entertainment/arts/index.ssf/2011/03/a_feminine_artists_slant_on_in.html Bischoff, Dan. “A feminine artist's slant on industry, war, government.” Star Ledger 3/20/2011.]
• [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-06-02-ca-419-story.html Curis, Cathy. “O.C. ART REVIEW Encounter With the Unknown: Yes, 'Modernist Abstraction in American Prints' in Laguna Beach has Calder, Pollock and Weber, but most of the 60 artists represented here are obscure.” Los Angeles TimesJune 2, 1992]
• Fusco, Tony. “The W.P.A. Prints of Jolan Gross-Bettelheim.” Washington Print Club Quarterly Vol. 32, no. 2, 1996.
• Hemingway, Andrew. Artists on the Left: American Artists and the Communist Movement, 1926-1956. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.
• Jolán Gross-Bettelheim 1900-1972. Passau, Germany: Museum Moderner Kunst, 1996.
• Jolán Gross-Bettelheim: Graphic Works Selected from Vörösváry’s Collection. Kecskemét, Hungary: Kecskeméti Galéria, 1987.
• Jolán Gross-Bettelheim: Retrospektív Kiállítása (Retrospective Exhibition). Introduction by Loránd Hegyi. Budapest, Kiállítóterem, 1988.
• Langa, Helen. “Egalitarian Vision, Gendered Experience: Women printmakers and the WPA/FAP graphic arts project.” In The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History, eds. Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard. New York: Icon Editions, 1992: 409-423.
• Schwendener, Martha. “Celebrating Progress While Recoiling from It.” New York Times, June 17, 2011
• [https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/19/nyregion/jolan-gross-bettelheim-prints-in-new-brunswick-review.html?_r=0 Jolan Gross-Bettelheim prints in New-Brunswickreview]
• [http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15324coll10/id/152387 Taylor, Francis Henry. Artists for Victory: an Exhibition of Contemporary American Art: Paintings, Sculpture, Prints/sponsored by Artists for Victory, Inc. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1942.]

• [https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/19/nyregion/jolan-gross-bettelheim-prints-in-new-brunswick-review.html Celebrating Progress While Recoiling From It] NYT review of the 2011 exhibition "Jolán Gross-Bettelheim: An American Printmaker in an Age of Progress" at the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum in New Brunswick, New Jersey

{{Commons category}}

• [https://cplorg.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/search/searchterm/jolan%20gross-bettelheim Works of Jolan Gross-Bettelheim at] the Cleveland Public Library Digital Gallery
• [https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/bridge-2001 Works of Jolan Gross-Bettelheim at] the Smithsonian American Art Museum

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Category:1900 births

Category:1972 deaths

Category:Hungarian artists

Category:Hungarian women artists

Category:Hungarian expatriates in the United States

Category:Women lithographers

Category:Federal Art Project artists