ABRAM TROMKA (1896-1954)

AN ANALYSIS OF THE ARTIST'S WORK

Tromka spent his earliest years sketching the people and places surrounding him. As a Polish immigrant who arrived in New York City at a young age, Tromka grew up within a vibrant and dynamic community. His depictions of daily life in the city served as the perfect imagery for Lilian D. Wald’s book House on Henry Street (1915) which described childhood in early 20th-century New York City. Tromka’s candid approach to life in urban America never waned as he matured and began working in a wide array of media including oil, gouache, and watercolor.

Tromka’s artistic style developed fully under the instruction of Robert Henri and George Bellows during his years as a student at the Ferrer School. Henri and Bellows recognized his artistic talent and remained close with Tromka throughout his early years as an artist. Tromka’s broad, sweeping brushstrokes depicting urban subject matter reminisce the realist style of the Ashcan movement of which both Henri and Bellows were involved.

Many artists involved with the Ashcan movement as well as those such as Tromka who inherited the Ashcan style spent their summers painting coastal scenes in Monhegan, Maine. Following the lead of Henri, they traveled to this area, rich in American history and natural beauty, to depict the ephemeral power and dynamism unique to the American landscape. Tromka’s oil painting Monhegan, named after the town, shows not only the power of the American landscape itself but also suggests its ever-evolving relationship to mankind. A sailboat, navigating the rough waters, is seemingly trapped between a row of houses precariously placed along the cliffs and the surrounding mountains. Typical of Tromka’s style, the painting is formed upon diagonal lines to form a tilted composition. His bold, colorful brushstrokes represent the dynamic and unique beauty of the coastal town and also suggest the tumultuous variation of the American experience.

Tromka maintained artistic autonomy throughout his lifetime rather than simply adopting the style of his teachers. His images evoke a sense of fascination not only with the scenes and people he painted but also with the artistic process itself. His bending, tilted compositions shape a world of abstract beauty, while bold colors and strong lines reveal rather than hide the work involved in producing a work of art.

Tromka’s unique, bold style gained him his first solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum during the summer of 1932. Its success led to many subsequent showings of his work during the 1930’s and 1940’s including a 1938 exhibition of his silkscreen prints in the U.S.S.R. In 1935 he was invited to participate in the WPA Federal Art Project at its inception. Rather than joining the program out of financial necessity, Tromka was invited to lend his artistic prestige. According to Tromka’s wife Ann, the eight years he spent as a WPA artist were the happiest creative years of his life.

What makes Abram Tromka significant to American art history is his lifelong dedication to the human experience –especially that of the working class. His scenes of urban and rural life, almost surreal for the figural distortions they contain, remind the viewer of the social experience that shaped American life during the 1930’s and 1940’s. In a 1956 article of the New York Times, a reviewer describes Tromka as a painter who was “profoundly affected by his visual impressions,” recording “everything his eye remarked…with honesty and passion” (NYT). In his oil painting Old Kentucky (1938), Tromka depicts a farmer tending to her livestock, a seemingly mundane task, with the same vigor and dynamism used to create the lively seascape in Monhegan. Her quaint farmhouse sits within a landscape of bold colors and movement that infuses the painting with a sense of excitement. Typical of Tromka’s work, Old Kentucky represents a fascination with the everyday life of the working class –what truly shapes the foundation of the American experience.

AWARDS & AFFILIATIONS

1946, 1952 Brooklyn Museum
1948 Butler Art Institute
1948 Long Island Arts Festival

American Artists Congress (New York branch)
Artists Equity Association
Brooklyn Society of Artists
Federal Arts Project
New York Journal-American – Staff artist
Salons of America
Society of Independent Artists

COLLECTIONS

Biro Bidjan Museum, USSR
Boston Public Library, MA
Brandeis University, MA
Brooklyn Museum, NY
Butler Art Institute, Youngstown, OH
Carnegie Institute
City Art Museum of St. Louis, MO
Corcoran Museum, Washington D.C.
Federal Arts Project, WPA
Iowa State College, IA
Library of Congress
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Montclair Art Museum, NJ
Newark Public Library, NJ
Norfolk Museum, VA
Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C.
Syracuse University Museum, NY
Tel Aviv and Ein Harod Museums, Israel
University of Mass., Amherst, MA
U.S. State Department, Washington D.C.
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, VA

CHRONOLOGY

1896 Born on May 1 in Poland
1907 Emigrates to the U.S with this family and adopts the American name “Phillips”
1911 Leaves his family and moves into the Henry Street Settlement
1912 Learns to do etching from Nora Hamilton, art teacher at the Henry Street Settlement
1915 Illustrates Lillian D. Wald’s book The House on Henry Street
1915-22 Studies at the Ferrer School under Robert Henri and George Bellows
1923 Moves into a studio at 92 Fourth Avenue N.Y.C.
1927 Meets Herbert Tschudy, curator of painting at the Brooklyn Museum
1930 Changes his surname from Phillips back to Tromka
1932 First solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum
1935-43 Participates in the WPA Federal Art Project
1938, 1939 Exhibits with the American Artists Congress
1943 Exhibits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
1946, 1952 Award, Brooklyn Museum
1948 Award, Butler Art Institute
1948 Award, Long Island Arts Festival
1954 Died at the age of 58 in New York City

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. American Art in the Newark Museum: Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture. Newark, New Jersey: Newark Museum, 1981.
2. American Narrative: Art of the 1930’s and 1940’s. New York: D. Wigmore Fine Art, Inc.
3. Askart.com.
4. Brooklyn Museum: American Watercolors, Pastels, Collages: A Complete Illustrated Listing of Works in the Museum’s Collection. New York: Brooklyn Museum, 1984.
5. Wald, Lillian D. The House on Henry Street. New York: H. Holt and Company, 1915.