Jolán Gross-Bettelheim

Jolán Gross-Bettelheim (January 28, 1900–July 29, 1972) was a Hungarian artist who lived and worked in the United States from 1925 to 1956, before returning to Hungary.

Jolan Gross-Bettelheim
Self portrait c. 1929
Born	(1900-01-28)January 28, 1900 Nitra, Hungary (now in Slovakia)
Died	July 29, 1972(1972-07-29) (aged 72) Budapest, Hungary
Known for	Printmaker

Early life and education

Gross-Bettelheim was born on January 28, 1900, in Nitra, Slovakia then Hungary,^[1] but lived in the United States from 1925-1956.^[2] 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.^[2] Gross-Bettelheim then studied in Paris at the Académie de Grande Chaumière between 1922-24.^[2] She married a Hungarian-born radiologist,^[3] Frigyes Bettelheim, and settled in Cleveland by 1925.^[2] Her studies in Ohio commenced at the Cleveland School of Art with modernist painter Henry Keller.^[4] She and her husband relocated to New York City in 1938.^[2] As a communist, Gross-Bettelheim was a member of the John Reed Club, as well as the American Artists’ Congress.^[2][5] She contributed to leftist publications such as New Masses and the Daily Worker.^[2]

Cleveland and the WPA

Gross-Bettelheim worked in Cleveland at a time when printmaking was flourishing.^[6] It was a time when lithography was seen as a viable art form, rather than being limited to commercial use.^[6] Interest in printmaking was bolstered by art organizations that were founded in the 1920s.^[6] And the Cleveland Print Makers (CPM) was formed in 1930 by artist and teacher Kálmán Kubinyi.^[7] It engaged in numerous activities to expand exposure for Cleveland printmakers, with the goal of increasing the sales of their works.^[7] Its most ambitious activity was the Print Mart or Market during which artists opened a gallery to sell works to the general public.^[7] The Print Market featured America Today in November 1936, an exhibition that was held in thirty U.S. cities simultaneously.^[8] The show included 100 prints created by artists from the American Artists' Congress, including Gross-Bettelheim.^[8] 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.^[9]

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.^[10] Gross-Bettelheim produced prints for the WPA graphics workshop, as well.^[11] The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) sponsored a traveling exhibition, Fifty Prints of the Year, which included work by Gross-Bettelheim.^[12]

Later life

She returned to Hungary after 1956, and died in Budapest on July 29, 1972.^[2][1]

Themes

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.^[12][13] Sabine Kretzschmar describes Gross-Bettelheim as “the purest modernist” amongst Cleveland printmakers, reflecting the influence of German expressionism, constructivism, and cubism.^[14]

Her work explored social and political issues.^[15] 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).^[16]

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.

Gallery

• 
  Gates and Bridges, 1936
• 
  In the Employment Office, 1936
• 
  Industrial Scene c. 1937

Collections

• Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.^[17]
• Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH.^[18]
• Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL.^[19]
• Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.
• University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI.^[20]
• Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH.^[21]

Exhibitions

• May Shows at the Cleveland Museum of Art 1927-1937 (annual exhibition) [except for 1933]^[2][22]
• Kokoon Club, 1932, first solo exhibition^[2]
• American Today, 1936
• American Artists’ Conference Exhibition, 1938^[23]
• Artists for Victory, 1942, at Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York^[24]
• Artists for Victory, 1943 [show held in 36 museums simultaneously]^[25]
• America in the War, 1943
• Library of Congress annual print shows, Washington, DC 1943-1950^[23]
• Annual Exhibition of Northwest Printmakers, Seattle Art Museum, 1944-1953^[23]
• Durand-Ruel Galleries in Manhattan, 1945
• Art Institute of Chicago, 2 watercolor shows^[4]
• 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

See also

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