From The Dauer Collection Circa 1934 Screen Print on Paper 22"x18" framed, 15"x11" unframed Edition 27/100 Entitled Dock, this circa 1934 screen print on paper boat scene is signed and titled by the WPA artist Harry Shoulberg at the bottom. Excellent vintage condition. Framed in a contemporary wood frame with matte textured gray finish using archival matting behind conservation clear glass. About the Artist Harry Shoulberg (1903-1995) was born in 1903 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and died in 1995 in New York City. He was known to be among the early group of WPA artists working in the screen print (serigraph) medium, as well as oil. His father, Max Shoulberg, was the fourth of twenty children and the first to be born in America. His mother was Tessie Derfler, a New Yorker of German descent. Harry Shoulberg grew up in New York, married Sylvia Hendler in 1931, and had one child, Ted. Harry Shoulberg died April 15, 1995, in New York City. Shoulberg attended City College of New York where he studied biochemical engineering for three years before switching to fine arts in his last year. He continued his art education at the John Reed School, 1934–1935; the American Artists School ,1935–1937; and then privately at the studios of artists Sol Wilson, 1894-1974, and Carl Holty, 1900-1973. Silk Screen (serigraph). Shoulberg in 1944 became a member of the National Serigraph Society. His serigraphs have been exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery, the Library of Congress and the Audubon Society. His serigraphs have won prizes from the National Serigraph Society and the American Color Print Society and are in the Baltimore Museum of Art, The Carnegie Institute, the San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts, the Milwaukee Art Institute and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. About the Collector John A. Dauer (1933-2017) was a collector of many things, the vast majority of which convey stories of hard work, craftsmanship, industry, unsung histories, and associations with those he loved and respected. Born and raised on Staten Island, New York in 1933, John grew up among a close-knit family of entrepreneurial bakers, wood carvers, and leather merchants. He graduated in 1954 from Columbia College with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology. He went on to work with his father John Sr., at the New York City-based John A. Dauer Leather Company. During and after his undergraduate studies, John enrolled in painting, print making, and sculpture classes at Columbia, the New School for Social Research, and Greenwich House. Many of his teachers (including Margot Kempe and Peppino Mangravite) were recent European emigres and WPA artists, sympathetic to the themes of social realism and late modernism. Although he made his living and supported his family as a leather salesman, John consistently maintained an interest in, and passion for, the creative work of artists and craft people throughout his life. The subjects and scale of his collecting varied over the years (from large 18th century cupboards to hand carved fishing lures), but let’s just say his houses and barns often resembled mini-Mercer Museums. During his last 2 decades, John focused his collecting efforts on the work of print makers and painters who reminded him or were directly associated with those who influenced him during his New York youth. Images and the stories of sailors, stevedores, factory workers, craftsmen, pushcart vendors, musicians, stoop sitters, and artists abound.
