Jules Halfant

Jules Halfant
Born (1909-06-23)June 23, 1909
New York City, New York, U.S.
Died May 5, 2001(2001-05-05) (aged 91)
Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, U.S.
Nationality American
Education National Academy of Design, New York
Known for Painter, printmaker, art director and designer

Jules Halfant (June 23, 1909 in New York City, New York – May 5, 2001 in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey) is an American painter and printmaker.[1][2][3] He is notable as a Federal Art Project (FAP) artist during the Great Depression of the 1930s in both mural and easel categories of the New York Works Progress Administration (WPA).[4][5][6] While in the WPA, he worked alongside such well-known artists as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Milton Avery and Stuart Davis. From 1953 to 1988 Jules Halfant was Art Director of Vanguard Records where he designed albums featuring Joan Baez, Tom Paxton, Country Joe and the Fish, Buffy Sainte-Marie and many other musicians.[1]

While attending high school in Brooklyn, New York with Jacob Kainen,[7] Jules submitted his drawings to the National Academy of Design in New York at age of fourteen. He was accepted as a student and studied there in 1924-1927. During the 1930s and 1940s, Jules Halfant created hundreds of paintings depicting street scenes of New York City.[8] He provided the illustrations for Jazz, A People's Music, a 1948 study by Marxist art critic Sidney Finkelstein. Halfant painted his neighbors, parents, friends, shopkeepers, pushcart vendors. Beginning in the 1950s, the artist started to focus on painting Jewish religious and cultural life. He got inspiration from works of great Jewish authors (Dybbuk by S. Ansky, Tevye by Sholem Aleichem, Three Wishes by I. L. Peretz), Biblical stories as well from visiting synagogues where he depicted different aspects of the services and holidays observances. In 1963, Jules Halfant designed the Bob Dylan New York City Town Hall Concert poster.[9][10]

Collections

Discography (Visual)

References

  1. 1 2 ’’The Art of Jules Halfant. 60 Years of American Art”, by Deborah Matlack, Art Museum of Los Gatos, Los Gatos, CA, 1999
  2. ↑ http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=2027
  3. ↑ http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=9843
  4. ↑ ’’Who Was Who in American Art, 1564-1975’’, Falk, Peter Hastings (Editor), 3 volumes, South View Press, Madison, Connecticut, 1999
  5. ↑ ’’Davenport’s Art Reference’’. The Gold Edition, Davenport, Ray (Editor), Davenport Publishing, 2005
  6. ↑ ‘’The Society of Independent Artists Exhibition Record 1917-1944,’’ by Clark S. Marlor, Noyes Data Corporation/Noyes Publications, 1984
  7. ↑ Oral history interview with Jacob Kainen, 1982 Aug. 10-Sept. 22, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
  8. ↑ Federal Art Project, Photographic Division collection, circa 1920-1965, bulk 1935-1942. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Box 10, folder 2.
  9. ↑ http://www.newsjunkyjournal.com/concert-poster-collector-offers-5000-for-original-1960’s-bob-dylan-posters/2511478/
  10. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/28/nyregion/neighborhood-report-downtown-brooklyn-free-tales-mr-kafka-s-crypt-thousands.html
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