Topchevsky, Morris (1899-1947) - Chicago River (University of Michigan Museum of Art, USA)

            Etching and aquatint.

Morris Topchevsky was born in Bialystock, Poland. His father immigrated to the United States in 1910, and the rest of the family followed later. Four of the Topchevsky children perished in the Bialystock pogroms of 1905. Topchevsky studied art at the Hull House and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His teachers were Enella Benedict and Albert Krenbiel. In 1925, he traveled to Mexico with Jane Addams to visit poor neighborhoods and to meet with local leaders. During his studies, Topchevsky worked as a billboard designer and painter. When he became ill from toxic paint, his doctor advised him to move to a better climate to improve his health. In 1926, he traveled back to Mexico.

His experiences in Mexico had a dramatic influence on his career. He was inspired by the Aztec and Maya sculptures and by the Mexican muralists Diego Rivera (1886-1957) and José Clemente Orozco (1883-1949). When Topchevsky returned to Chicago during the Depression, he applied the social messages and monumental effect of the Mexican muralists to his work. His works expressed the agony of the unemployed and scenes of Chicago’s industrial areas. In 1936, he painted the mural North American Children Working in Holmes School in Oak Park, Ill.

Topchevsky was the most politically radical artist of those who contributed to A Gift to Biro-Bidjan. In the book Art of Today: Chicago, 1933 (written by J.Z. Jacobson and published by L.M. Stein), he boldly revealed his revolutionary ideas: At the present time of class struggle, danger of war and mass starvation, the artist cannot isolate himself from the problems of the world, and the most valuable contribution to society will come from the artists who are social revolutionists.

In all my work I have felt that movement of masses of people is the most important element. At first it was because I was fascinated by the problem it afforded. At the present, and I hope in my future work, it will be a means of helping the revolutionary movement of this country and the liberation of the working masses of the entire world. In 1933, the year he was quoted, Topchevsky created the painting Century of Progress. He grotesquely displayed unemployed workers in shantytown observing the extravagant pavilions of Chicago’s World’s Fair, A Century of Progress, which celebrated the city’s 100 years of “advancement.”

Taken on: October 4, 2011

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morris topchevsky

topchevsky

20th century

polish

american

jewish

chicago river

public collection

cityscape

architecture

expressionism

etching

aquatint

boat

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Sets appears in: • Poland/Romania/Armenia Since 1900 • American Art Since 1900 more » • Cityscapes and Street Scenes • Expressionism and Neo-Expressionism « less

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