Description:

Alfred George Pelikan
American, b. Germany, (1893 - 1987)
#3 Design in Primary Colors, geometric abstract
acrylic on masonite
Signed lower right.

Biography from Museum of Wisconsin Art: Alfred George Pelikan, born 1893 in Breslau, Germany and died 1987 in Fox Point, Wisconsin.

Alfred Pelikan, an accomplished painter and mosaic* artist, is remembered more for his contributions to the arts as an educator, lecturer, and author. He came from a family of circus acrobats in Germany. His sister Lillian Leitzel, a famous trapeze artist, killed while performing in Copenhagen in 1931, made sure Pelikan received a good education, schooled in Maysfield, Sussex, England and also at King's College, Oxford.

In 1911, Pelikan immigrated to the United States and enrolled in pre-med studies at Pennsylvania College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He entered the Carnegie Institute of Technology* and switched his field to art and art education receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1919, followed by a Master of Arts degree in 1926, from Columbia University Teachers College in New York. Pelikan's most notable art instructors were Henry Salem Hubbell, Charles Hawthorne, and Eugene Savage.

In 1921, Pelikan became a naturalized citizen of the U.S. From 1920 to 1925, he was Director of the Grand Rapids School of Art and Industry. In 1925, Pelikan settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was a member of Wisconsin Painters & Sculptors, the Wisconsin Society of Arts & Crafts, the American Artists Professional League* and the National Committee of Art Education as well as the Academie Latine of Paris, and was a fellow of the Royal Society of Art, London.

As Director of the Milwaukee Art Institute from 1926 to 1941, Pelikan laid much of the cultural foundation of the Milwaukee Art Museum and was instrumental in bringing the New York Museum of Modern Art's touring exhibitions to the Midwest.

He was also the Director of Art Education for the Milwaukee Public School system from 1926 to 1962, and organized the annual Milwaukee Journal Student Art Calendar Competition.

Pelikan was author of: The Art of the Child, 1931, The Graphic Aids, (series), and co-author of Simple Metalwork, 1940.

Selected Group Exhibitions:

1932
Milwaukee Art Institute, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Painters & Sculptors 19th Annual Exhibition, (Milwaukee Journal's Purchase Prize)

1945
Milwaukee Art Institute, Wisconsin, 32nd Annual Exhibition of Wisconsin Art

1996
Bergstrom-Mahler Museum, Neenah, Wisconsin, Collecting the Art of Wisconsin: The Early Years

  • Dimensions: 13 1/4'H x 18"W(sight), 14 3/4"H x 19 1/2"W(frame)
  • Medium: acrylic on masonite

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October 5, 2024 11:00 AM EDT
Indianapolis, IN, US

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