Charles Turzak, Abe Lincoln Student Days, Woodcut Print

$325.00

In stock

Taking a Break for Blackstone

Description

Charles Turzak’s woodcut, Abe Lincoln – Student Days, features Abraham Lincoln reading a book, perhaps The Student’s Blackstone. 13 1/2″ x 10,” titled, numbered and signed in the bottom margin; printed on handmade paper.

NOTE: We have four unmatted prints and will send the lowest number available. We also have one print in a basic white mat (20″ x 14″)  for the same price. If you would like the matted one please put “matted” in the Notes field when you complete the sale. Extra shipping charges will apply to the matted version. We will be in touch about that before we ship. 

About Charles Turzak

Charles Turzak (Am. 1899 – 1986) was an American painter, printmaker and teacher born in Streator, Illinois.

His immigrant parents hoped he would fall into a professional career, but Turzak had discovered a love for the arts. He was known for make animal carvings out of peach seeds and drawing cartoons to sell. After winning a cartoon contest, sponsored by The Purina Company, Turzak enrolled at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Having been an apprentice to a violin maker as a boy, he was drawn to the art of woodblock printmaking, which proved to be his favored medium.

After traveling through Europe in 1929, Turzak returned to a country grappling with The Great Depression. He made ends meet with a mixture of fine art and commercial work. One of the books he illustrated was John and Ruth Ashenhurst’s All About Chicago (1933). It was also during this time he started working on his own book, Abraham Lincoln: A Biography in Woodcuts (1933). Turzak carved many of the blocks and printed and produced the book at the 1933 Century of Progress Exhibition. The book’s success paved the way for the production of a similar publication, including The Life of Benjamin Franklin (1935).

Turzak’s work made a dramatic shift from modernism to abstraction in the 1950s. He continued to make woodcuts until the late 1970s, when age became a restriction, but did not inhibit his ability to create. He continued to produce paintings up until his death in January on 1986, and had his last one-man show just eight months prior.

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