Harry Herman Wickey

Harry Wickey achieved national recognition as an etcher and lithographer, switching to sculpture in 1938, after etching acids had taken a toll on his eyesight. He also produced paintings and mentored many younger artists and printmakers. Associated with the Ashcan School in the 1920s and 30s, he is known for his New York City scenes, Upstate New York landscapes and genre scenes. Born in Ohio, Wickey studied at the Detroit School of Fine Arts and served in France during World War I before moving to New York City. There he published his first etchings in 1919. Wickey received many honors including full membership in the National Academy of Design, Guggenheim Foundation Fellowships (1939 and 1940), and an award from the American Institute of Arts and Letters (1949). His autobiography, Thus Far: The Growth of an American Artist was published by the American Artists Group in 1941.

Wickey was an influential educator, teaching at his own school until 1928, and thereafter at the Art Students League in New York City, where his colleagues included John Sloan, a fellow Ashcan School painter. Wickey mentored many younger artists including Harry Sternberg, Cecil Bell, Don Freeman and William Shaldach, and was an early teacher of Barnett Newman. During his lifetime his works were acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, New York Public Library and Library of Congress, among others. He also exhibited at the Whitney Museum and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Today his papers are housed in the Syracuse University Library.

References:

Falk, Peter Hastings, ed. Who Was Who in American Art. Madison, Connecticut: Sound View Press, 1985. p. 678.

"Harry Herman Wickey: Biography." AskArt.com. 2000-2005. http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/biography.aspx?artist=19836 (10 November 2005).

"Harry Wickey Papers." Syracuse University Library. 22 September 2003. http://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/h/HarryWickeyPapers-Des.htm (10 November 2005).

Hoag, Betty. "Interview with Don Freeman." Smithsonian Archives of American Art Oral History Interviews. 17 August 2005. http://www.aaa.si.edu/oralhist/freema65.htm (10 November 2005).

Yard, Sally. "Interview with Harry Sternberg." Smithsonian Archives of American Art Oral History Interviews. 4 November 2004. http://www.aaa.si.edu/oralhist/sternb99.htm (10 November 2005).;A great American etcher, lithographer, painter and sculptor, Harry Wickey studied at the Detroit School of Fine arts and the New York School of Industrial Art. Living in New York, Wickey first concentrated upon the art of etching, publishing his first prints in 1919. His scenes of New York and its inhabitants came under the scrutiny of the influential scholar and art dealer, Carl Zigrosser, who promoted Wickey's etchings to the Metropolitan Museum and other major institutions. Harry Wickey was a full member of the Society of American Graphic Artists and of the National Academy of Design. During his illustrious career he received awards from the Society of American Etchers (1934), the Guggenheim Fellowship (1939) and the American Institute of Arts and Letters (1949). His paintings and prints are today included in the following collections; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Library of Congress, Washington DC., and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Both choice and necessity created changes in Harry Wickey's printmaking techniques. When his popularity for his New York scenes was at its highest (1929), Wickey abruptly turned his attention to etching landscape scenes in upper New York State. These proved to be among the most vigorous landscapes produced by any American etcher. Then, in 1935, the fumes of nitric acid used in biting the plates for etching seriously affected Wickey's sight. At the height of his powers as an etcher, Wickey abandoned the technique and took up lithography and sculpture.

For the remainder of 1935 and most of 1936, Harry Wickey returned to his family farm near Stryker, Ohio. He became fascinated with the activities of the farm animals he found there and created many drawings, watercolours and lithographs from this experience. One animal, namely the pig, drew much of his attention and he created at least six original lithographs on this subject during 1936.

Writing upon the merits of a related Wickey lithograph -- Hogs Near a Corncrib - Thomas Craven stated,

"The artist has caught the very essence of swinishness: each of these porkers is Very Hog of Very Hog. 'What I learned about hogs is to be found in this picture,' Mr. Wickey says. 'I tried to realize the form, color, weight and texture of the objects in my space, and present without exaggeration the mood of this particular incident.'" *These words clearly apply as well to Piglets and Sow, where the artist has captured not only the wonderful elements of the massive mother and her tiny brood but of the blustery night storm and the haven within the barn doors. * (Thomas Craven, A Treasury of American Prints, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1939, plate #91.)