Musical Appeal

Two blocks of tenement buildings dominate this urban scene, in hues of rusty brick, gray, and white. A slightly convex picture plane tilts down dark gray sidewalks and a street in the foreground to give them even greater prominence. Only a band of light blue sky and white clouds offers respite from an evidently impoverished neighborhood. Thick brushstrokes emphasize a patterned geometry of widows, shutters, cornices, and entryways—but for all that the effect is not picturesque. Three musicians stand at the street intersection (singing, playing a banjo and an accordion) who are matched by three spectators. A woman watches them with mild curiosity from a window above; a passerby on the sidewalk seems to be approaching them. The third figure is a man loading duffel bags onto a horse-drawn cart, with a business ironically named “Prosperity Laundry Co,” perhaps too busy in his toils to heed their appeal. The politically active Trubach seems to be offering a kind of allegory here, especially by way of an alleyway whose exaggerated orthoganals point to a shining white skyscraper in the distance. This path is obstructed by a closed iron gate; in front of it the musicians directly face viewers and make their appeal to us.

About the Artist:

Born in Ukraine, Trubach immigrated to the US before WWI, later recalling that his artistic career began at the age of eight, drawing upon the sidewalks of New York City (Clinton). At age 14 he received a scholarship at the National Academy of Design,awarded an exhibition prize, and at 19 a two-year Mooney Traveling Fellowship to Europe. That experience with avant-garde culture shaped both his artistic vision—he aligned himself with the so-called Secessionst Group and later characterized himself as a “non-objective” painter—and his politics. During the 1930s, Trubach was a member of the radical Artists Union and the American Artists Congress. His memories of this period differ sharply from better-known histories of the Federal Art Project, recalling that administrators “tried to keep the paintings from being too wild because they had to allocate them to hospitals and they had to be serene and quiet”; sometimes he would act as “the sort of lawyer for these artists” whose subject matter was rejected (McChesney).  Trubach’s work for the WPA included assistance on murals at the Central Park Police Station; Theodore Roosevelt High School in the Bronx; and the Rincon Annex post office, San Francisco. His Federal Art Project paintings were exhibited by the Art Institute of Chicago, Carnegie Institute, Corcoran Gallery,  Society of Independent Artists, and an innovative show staged in the autonomous Jewish region of Ukraine at the State Museum of Biro-Bidjan. After WWII, Trubach—now reclaiming his name Serge—taught at the New England School of Art in Boston, then in 1952 relocated to Sausalito, CA along with his wife, the painter Leonora Cetone. He continued to show his art locally, advocate for community arts, and ran (unsuccessfully) for city council eleven times. 2 works at online Calabi Gallery. 13 more images at FAP. Oral history interviews by Mary Fuller McChesney (1964) and Clayton Mote (1978).

Sources Consulted: Larry Clifton, “Serge Trubach, Artist and Activist,” Sausalito Historical Society 12 Aug. 2020 Link; Mary Fuller McChesney, “Oral History Interview with Serge Trubach” 5 Dec. 1964, Archives of American Art New Deal and the Arts Project. Link

Trubach, Ernest (Serge), 1909?-1979

Cooper, Ken (biography)

Helquist, Morgan (photography)

New Deal Museum

Object #FA 773

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Oil painting

29.5 x 23.5 in. (canvas)
37.5 x 31.5 (frame)