Lawrence Lebduska

Lawrence H. Lebduska (September 1, 1894 – 1966) was an American artist who became known as a housepainter.{{Cite book |last=Deloria |first=Philip J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zJeTDwAAQBAJ&dq=%2522Lawrence+Lebduska%2522+moma&pg=PA181 |title=Becoming Mary Sully: Toward an American Indian Abstract |date=2019-04-16 |publisher=University of Washington Press |isbn=978-0-295-74524-4 |pages=181 |language=en}}

Early life

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 1, 1894, his parents moved to Leipzig, Germany, when he was age five. While in Germany, he studied stained glass under Josef Svoboda.{{Cite web |title=Lawrence Lebduska |url=https://www.nga.gov/features/exhibitions/outliers-and-american-vanguard-artist-biographies/lawrence-lebduska.html |access-date=2022-02-04 |website=www.nga.gov}}{{Cite web |title=Lawrence Lebduska, Smithsonian American Art Museum |url=https://americanart.si.edu/artist/lawrence-lebduska-6039 |access-date=2022-02-04 |website=americanart.si.edu |language=en-US}}

Lebduska returned to the United States in 1912, first settling in Baltimore and later moving to New York City.{{Cite web |title=Galerie St. Etienne – Lawrence Lebduska at Galerie St. Etienne – Biography |url=http://www.gseart.com/artist/Lawrence-Lebduska/bio |access-date=2022-02-04 |website=www.gseart.com}}

Career

Lebduska was commissioned by interior designer Elsie de Wolfe to paint murals. He contributed to many group shows and had his first one-man show in 1936, which is said to have inspired Abby Aldrich Rockefeller to begin her folk-art collection.{{Cite news |date=2018-11-14 |title=Mennello Museum of American Art|language=en-US |url=https://www.mennellomuseum.org/lawrence-lebduska-pr/ |access-date=2022-02-04}}

Lebduska did a number of projects for the Work Projects Administration (WPA),{{Cite book |last=Harders |first=Melinda V. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6aQ-OAAACAAJ |title=Lawrence Lebduska: The Life, Work, and Dreams of a Self-taught Artist |date=2006 |language=en}} but his work was relatively underappreciated until a gallery show six years before his death. Despite that, his works were frequently exhibited at a number of galleries, the Museum of Modern Art,{{Cite book |last=Grieve |first=Victoria |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lGSe75TifG8C&dq=%2522Lawrence+Lebduska%2522+moma&pg=PA57 |title=The Federal Art Project and the Creation of Middlebrow Culture |date=2009 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-03421-3 |language=en}}{{clarify|date=November 2024|reason=some prose is missing}}

He has pieces in the permanent collection of a number of museums, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Museum of Modern Art,{{Cite web |title=Lawrence Lebduska, MoMA |url=https://www.moma.org/artists/3440 |access-date=2022-02-04 |publisher= Museum of Modern Art |language=en}} the Zander Collection,{{Cite web |title=Lawrence Lebduska |url=https://sammlung-zander.de/en/lawrence-lebduska-2/ |access-date=2024-10-19 |website=Zander Collection}} and the Wadsworth Athenaeum.{{Cite web |title=Lebduska, Lawrence Henry (1894-1966) |url=https://gvartscouncil.org/ndc/lebduska |access-date=2022-02-04 |website=GVCA |date=12 January 2021 |language=en-US}}